Community Church

Call Committee Update

Our most recent meetings have centered on shaping interview questions that reflect the essence of Holy Trinity’s ministry. Later this week we will put these questions into practice as we conduct a mock interview.

Each call process is shaped by its unique time, context, and participants, but we are aware of always moving along in the process. It is apparent to those of us in the stream of this process that careful contemplation and purposeful discerning surround each meeting – and that we find pleasure and honor in working together on this endeavor.

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee

Community Church

Call Committee Update

With further nominations from the Synod this week, we now have names of all candidates who will be considered in the first round of interviews. During this next week, we will finish reading the extensive mobility papers and identify which candidates will be chosen for initial interviews in that first round. As we get closer to the actuality of interviews, we continue to fine-tune style, content and nature of questions.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we offer our heartfelt thanks for your prayers that continue to encourage and sustain us as we persevere with the task of calling our next pastor.

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee

Community Church

Call Committee Update

In the first set of nominations, we have received 20 or so names of candidates. They represent a diverse pool of candidates in terms of age, gender, geographic location, and contextual experience. Reading through each viable candidate’s mobility papers is the task at hand as we anticipate and prepare for initial interviews – perhaps as early as December.

We are connected to a process using diverse sources for identifying candidates – including and beyond synod recommendations – and will allow for interviews with all fitting candidates as time progresses. We commit an open procedure that allows all nominated candidates full and equal consideration.

As always, your comments are invited and encouraged. Please speak with any Call Committee member directly or email us at: callcommittee@htlcmpls.org . Also, don’t forget to check out the Call Committee blog at: www.htlcmpls.org.blogspot.com/

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee

Community Church

Call Committee Update (November 5, 2007)

At our October 29^th meeting, Bishop Craig Johnson and the Call Committee assessed the initial slate of candidates by the Synod, self nomination, and congregational nomination. We received mobility papers for each candidate, indicating their desire to be considered for the pastoral position. These papers present information on the candidate’s personal life, experiences, and practices. Reading through the large packet of mobility papers is the next step, after which we will discern which candidates to consider for initial interviews.

The Call Committee remains committed and active in identifying candidates from diverse sources, including and beyond synod recommendations. All nominated candidates will be given full and equal consideration.

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee

Community Church

Call Committee Update (October 29, 2007)

In anticipation of receiving the first round of candidate names from the Synod at our meeting October 29^th, the Call Committee remains absorbed in fine-tuning the leadership objectives of the lead pastor. These objectives will serve to provide a springboard for the Committee’s interviewing, while at the same time presenting for candidates a consummate portrayal of ministry expectations.

We continue to be grateful to all persons who invite conversations with members of the Call Committee. These conversations reveal that a wide range of expectation exists within the congregation as to the length of time necessary for the process – some anxious to move faster, some eager to slow it down. This is natural in such a process. We offer our assurance that the Committee will be as efficient as practical in moving the process along, while at the same time honoring the importance of considering all essential avenues in the course.

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee

Community Church

Call Committee Update (October 22, 2007)

In considering the call process by which Holy Trinity is currently working with the Minneapolis Area Synod, it is good to realize that the Synod – in which Holy Trinity is one of 167 congregations – is the largest of the ELCA’s Synods and home to some of the largest Lutheran congregations in the world. The synod (meaning “meeting together”) will next meet with the Call Committee on October 29^th, at which time Bishop Johnson and Bishop’s Associate David Wangaard will present a list of apt candidates.

Independent of this cooperative effort with the Synod, the Call Committee continues to move forward with designing effective tools for the interview process.

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee

Community Church

Call Committee Update (October 15, 2007)

While the Call Committee anticipates the Synod’s presentation of its amassed list of available pastoral candidates toward the end of October, it met twice this past week engaging in analysis of the essential tools for the interview process.

Mindful and deeply grateful to the congregation for its continued and sustaining prayers, we ask that you also pray for all clergy desiring to enter the call process with Holy Trinity.

Lynda Nordholm, on behalf of the Call Committee