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The following is a summary of the Call Committee’s report to members of Bethlehem at an Information meeting January 11, 2015.
The Call Committee began the Call process by requesting nominations from members of our Congregation in August, 2014. These nominations were submitted to the MNS District President’s office where they were reviewed and, if the candidate was not available for a Call, his name was removed. The MNS District President, Dr. Nadasdy then added names for a total of 25 candidates.
The information you have before you was compiled by the Call Committee. It was taken from the Pastor Information File (PIF) from the MNS District, Self Evaluation Tool (SET) and from the interviews conducted by the Call Committee.
The five candidates are:
1. Rev Gerald Gauthier, Trinity Lutheran Church, Lakefield, MN 2. Rev Matthew Johnson, St John Lutheran Church, Corcoran, MN 3. Rev Tom Park, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St Paul, MN 4. Rev Preston Paul, St Paul Lutheran Church, Chatfield, MN 5. Rev Lowell Sorenson, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Red Wing, MN
The Call Committee worked diligently with much discussion and sometimes numerous votes on issues to make our final decision. We had 10 meetings one – three hours long and 3 nights of interviews.
If anyone has a substantiated reason why any of these candidates cannot be called, please submit this in writing (by January 18th) to the Board of Elders with proof of your allegation. The Board of Elders will review the allegation for verification and advise the congregation preceding the Voter’s meeting on January 25th.
The information provided for you today is of a very sensitive natural and confidential. It is the same as seeing a person’s personnel file. We request that you not share this information with anyone outside the congregation. Also, we will collect these packets after the January 25 meeting. Therefore please bring these packets back on Jan 25th and return them to the Committee. There will be one handout per household.
We will try at this time to answer any general questions about the Call process. Please hold any specific questions regarding individual candidates for the Jan 25th Voter’s meeting.
Larry Burfiend Chairman, Bethlehem Call Committee |