By Lori Carlson, Editor 

Members of Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church hope to have a new lead pastor by the end of the summer.

Almost two years after the church’s longtime pastor, Rev. Stephen Haschig, resigned, the church council has offered the lead pastor position to the Rev. E. Peter Strommen, bishop of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod.Strommen

The offer first must go through Craig E. Johnson, bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, of which Shepherd of the Lake is a member. Then, if Johnson approves the offer, Strommen has 30 days to accept or decline the position.

As bishop of his synod, Strommen leads more than 230 pastors and ministry leaders and oversees the synod’s 148 congregations. Ordained in 1975, Strommen has been a senior pastor and associate pastor at First Lutheran Church in Duluth, an associate pastor at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, S.D. and a pastor at Oldham Lutheran Church in Oldham, S.D.

He has a bachelor of arts degree in political science and history from Augsburg College and a master of divinity from Yale Divinity/Luther Seminary.

The search

Haschig, who had been a pastor at the church since 1985 and became senior pastor in 1997, resigned in September 2006 after disclosing what he called “an improper relationship” with a woman while serving at the church.

“After Pastor Steve left, the church council took an opportunity … to take the temperature of the congregation and find out what it is they want,” said Jeff Taxdahl, communications chairman of the church’s call committee.

During the interim, the church has had two pastors – the Rev. Kenneth Kotzer, who joined the church in November 2006 but left by March 2007 for another church, and the Rev. Dr. Mark Bents, who started in April 2007.

Nine volunteers served on the call committee and spent months working on a “congregational profile,” a sort of resume of the congregation, Taxdahl said. The profile is available at the church’s Web site, www.sollc.org.

“The profile includes everything from demographics to ministries to history. That took a long time to put together,” Taxdahl said.

The call committee and council created a “vision” and description for the lead pastor job. Then, they gathered names and resumes from the Minneapolis Area Synod and congregation members. Candidates also could nominate themselves.

From a pool of about 25 resumes (called “moving papers” in church circles), the committee interviewed about 10 candidates, Taxdahl said.

Strommen came out as the clear leader.

“One of the challenges we faced in this process is, our congregation is in the top 1 percent of ELCA congregations in terms of size. We’re a big congregation,” Taxdahl said. One of our qualifications was our lead pastor would have large congregation experience. That’s a challenge, because that pool of people isn’t very deep.

“There wasn’t any candidate that was anywhere near as good a fit,” he said.

Sue Liebnitz, congregational council president, said the committee and the council unanimously voted to offer the job to Strommen.

“He brings a lot of experience to the table. He comes across as very wise and is just a good fit for our church,” Liebnitz said.

During a special congregational meeting on June 1, 143 members of the church’s congregation voted as well. The vote for Strommen was unanimous, 143-0. “That’s highly unusual,” Taxdahl said.

This is the first time in 22 years the church, now at 4,500 members, has gone through a call process for a senior or lead pastor, Taxdahl said. Haschig’s longevity was unusual, he added.

“The average tenure for a senior pastor in an ELCA church is six to eight years,” he said.

 Lori Carlson can be reached at (952) 345-6378 or editor@plamerican.com.