Transition Team - Zion Lutheran Church

Zion’s group of leaders serving on the Transition Team are looking for your input as we prepare ourselves to be in the best place possible when we welcome a new settled Senior Pastor.

To prepare for interviewing, we need to be able to give candidates a clear snapshot of who Zion is and what we believe God is calling us to be in the future. That snapshot can only be created with prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit, and listening to each other.

Your prayers and your input are vital to this process. Now is not the time to sit back and wonder “what will things be like at Zion?” Now is the time to lean boldly into God’s future and help shape what you believe God is calling Zion to in this next chapter.

Zion is a great place to belong! We know that, but what do you think are the top three reasons we can say that? Zion stretches us to serve others in Jesus’ name. We know that too, but what do you think are the greatest needs of the local and global communities? Where do you think we can most effectively be the hands and feet of Jesus? Zion helps grow disciples of Jesus. We also know this, but how do you think God is leading Zion to grow in growing disciples?

We will be engaging the services of a faith-based consulting firm that congregations have seen great success with. The tools and resources of Holy Cow! Consulting [yep, that is their name!] help congregations make “better decisions in less time with more confidence.” They are especially helpful to congregations in pastoral transition.

We will be asking you to engage by taking the CAT [Congregational Assessment Tool]. The CAT is an inventory of 95 questions. The compiled results will help us use an evidence-based, bench-marked discernment process to ready ourselves to begin our pastoral search for the next Senior Pastor of Zion.

This assessment will provide a clear picture of who we are as a church and what directions we collectively feel are most important for our future. The CAT will help us to collect and understand the range of views that exist at Zion Lutheran Church and the possibilities, willingness, capacity and energy for moving our ministry into the future. We will be inviting you to take this assessment soon. It will be anonymous and can be taken via computer or pen/paper. Make your voice a part of the future of Zion!

Pictured: Transition Team members Joan Halderson, Ian MacCallum, Pastor Bahe, Emily Lewis, Andy Kohls, & Judy Sandeen (not pictured, Kris Harlan, Josie LaFave, Wes Mahlberg).

Look Up To The Stars

July 2022

Since NASA released the first images from the James Webb space telescope, revealing the largest and most intensive view of the universe, I can’t help but think of Psalm 8: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them?” The Webb telescope is capable of looking 13.6 billion light years away. For perspective, the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years across. As astronomers explained in a recent New York Times article, every dot in the image is a huge galaxy: “While there are a few interloper stars in the photo, nearly every dot in the image is a galaxy. For a sense of scale, if you could hold a grain of sand at arm’s length up to the sky, that speck is the size of the view.

Transition Team & Call Process

July 2022

The members of the Transition Team and Council have been digesting all you told us through the CAT Survey. We are grateful

Call Committee Update 2022.06

June 2022

The Council has appointed the 7-member Call Committee, along with alternates. A Call Committee is tasked with discerning the will of God

Transition Team Update

May 2022

June and July are going to be busy months for the members of your Transition Team. We continue to provide opportunities for

Transition Team Update May 2022

May 2022

Thank you Zion! We are pleased to announce that 398 of you took advantage of the opportunity to let your views be heard by taking the CAT [Congregational Assessment Tool]. Although we always hope for even more involvement, we are very pleased with this participation.

What is Next?

March 2022

An update from Zion’s Transition Team March 16th through April 17th will be a crucial time frame for Zion’s next steps in

What is Next?

February 2022

An update from Zion’s Transition Team March 16th through April 17th will be a crucial time frame for Zion’s next steps in