North and East Michigan District Pastors' Conference 2010

Joshua and I attended a regional Pastors' conference at the beginning of May. The topic was: Youth Ministry: Our Failures and Our Future. It was a great conference! The keynote speakers were President of the Michigan District, Rev. Maier, and author Mark Oestreicher. Mark Oestreicher has written many books concerning Youth Ministry, but the one we focused on was Youth Ministry 3.0. If you are a youth worker we HIGHLY recommend this book.  We gained wisdom and encouragement from the speakers and breakout session leaders. We are looking forward to using what we learned. 


Not only was the conference a learning experience, but a great "networking" experience. We enjoyed connecting with fellow pastors and church workers in our district. Joshua was able to meet some of the wives Stefani met at the Katie Conference in April. 


We are really excited to see what God has in store for our Youth!


God's Blessings,


Joshua and Stefani

Our "First" Vacation

Joshua took his first Sunday off and we went on a road trip. 

We started in Dearborn, MI to visit The Henry Ford Museum. Stefani enjoyed the antique car displays. Her grandfather used to work on and restore antique Ford cars. Joshua enjoyed the plane exhibit as well as the cars. We didn't make it to Greenfield Village, but we hope to take a weekend trip to enjoy it. 

Hot Dog anyone?

The bus where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.

 

Stefani driving a train. 

Our next stop was Cincinnati, OH.  We visited the Creation Museum and the Cincinnati Zoo. The Creation Museum was amazing! If you visit allow a whole day to enjoy. Joshua explained it as a Christian natural history museum. The museum is the vision of Ken Ham, a founder of Answers in Genesis. The following day we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. What a great zoo! Stefani was thrilled they had manatees, her favorite animal. Joshua enjoyed the white lions. 

                                   

This is Martin Luther at the Creation Museum. We were thrilled he was featured.

These are the grounds of the Creation Museum. It was raining so we didn't get to enjoy them.

Manatee! The zoo had two very young manatees. One was two and the other was three years old. 

 

Two male white lions. They are very majestic.

Our last stop was to visit Joshua's family in the Akron, OH area. The girls had a shopping trip with lots of good deals. Joshua and Stefani were able to worship at Zion on Sunday. It is a VERY rare occasion that Joshua and Stefani attend church together. After church we a lovely lunch with the Ketelsen clan minus John. (We missed you!) We headed back "Up North" on Monday. 

We really enjoyed sight seeing and getting to spend time with family. 

God's Blessings, 

Joshua and Stefani

Call Day 2010 Article

Stefani's parents and former co-worker passed this article on from St. Louis Post Dispatch. It explains Call Day well with some appropriate humor. Enjoy!

Lutheran seminarians wonder: Will God call them to a warm climate?

Bill McClellan
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BILL McCLELLAN

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

05/02/2010

The Rev. Glen Thomas had a devilish task in front of him. He was giving the sermon Tuesday evening at the Assignment of Calls service at Concordia Seminary.

This is a most drama-laden night for seminarians and their wives. It is the night they are called — assigned — to their first church. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has churches in all 50 states and Canada. For reasons that perhaps only Lutherans understand, many of these churches are in very cold places.

The LCMS is split into 35 districts. There is a Minnesota North and a Minnesota South, a Wisconsin North and a Wisconsin South. Meanwhile, California shares a district with Nevada and Hawaii.

So as Thomas looked out at more than 100 anxious seminarians and their equally anxious wives, he understood that most of them, despite their appreciation of a good homily, just wanted to get on with the program. Where would they be going? How cold would it be?

 

Yet if Thomas were to glance to his left, he could see assembled the officials of the church, including the presidents of the 35 national districts. Stern-looking men, I thought. Men who have looked winter in the eye and not blinked. Some of them had traveled a long way for this, and they probably expected a full-fledged sermon.
Perhaps recalling his own anxiety when he wore a seminarian's robe in 1982 — he was called to Mascoutah — Thomas opted for brief. He spoke of the joy the seminarians would feel when they fed the flock the pure spiritual food of God's word, but he kept the sermon light by building it around the words of Yogi Berra: It isn't over until it's over.

Then the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, president of the LCMS, rose from the ranks of the church officials. He looked stern, but was not. He acknowledged that seminarians on the cusp of Call pay scant attention to sermons. I can't recall who was in the pulpit or what he said at my Call, Kieschnick said. I think he talked about sin, and I think he was against it, he said.

By the way, Kieschnick was called in 1970 to Biloxi, Miss. His wife, Terry, told me that her mother-in-law had leaned over and said to her, "That's where the hurricanes come in."

Then it was time for this year's Call.

The Rev. Robert Hoehner did the honors. He is Concordia's director of placement. In March and then again in April, he gets together with church officials and the placement director of the other LCMS seminary, in Indiana, to fit the men to the churches. Actually, not just the men. Hoehner and his colleagues try to take into account the wives, too. Some have careers or educational opportunities that must be factored into the placements. But in the end, a pastor goes where the church needs him.

Hoehner understands that. He was hoping for a missionary position in Europe when he was called in 1972. Instead, he was called to Linn, Kan., a town of about 400. The church lacked indoor plumbing. In fact, church officials were thinking of closing the church. They did not, and last year, Hoehner placed a man at his old church.

By the way, there are two tracks. A man can go to a small church and be the pastor, or he can go to a larger church and be part of a team ministry. Churches that are looking for associate pastors are allowed to interview candidates.

The first call Tuesday night was to a church in Ohio. Then Texas. Then California, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Louisiana and Minnesota.

Next up was Stephen Carretto. I had spoken with him earlier. He and his wife, Jessica, were hoping for Florida. After a seminarian's second year of academics, he does a vicarage — sort of a pastoral internship — at a church for a year. Carretto had done his at a church in Boca Raton. "It was great," he said. But he had been interviewed by other churches, as well, and had no guarantee he'd go back to Florida.

Now it was his turn. He was called to Boca Raton.

Another man I had spoken with earlier was Todd McMurry. He's from St. Louis and was a firefighter before going to the seminary. He said he was on track to be a solo pastor. His wife, Kristin, is an optometrist. They were hoping for an urban area so she could more easily find work. Also, no place too cold.

Now it was his turn. He was called to Brooklyn Park, Minn.

That's a nice-sized city, and it's close to Minneapolis. Not exactly warm, but McMurry was smiling broadly as he shook hands with the officials, and I recalled what he had said earlier. "God will use us for his purposes."

That could have been the theme of the evening. There was an undercurrent of good-natured laughter when one man was called to Juneau, Alaska, and another to Fairbanks. But there was an overwhelming feeling of excitement and anticipation as a new batch of pastors prepared to enter the far-flung world.

"We'll miss all of you," said the Rev. Dale Meyer, the seminary president, who was called to Venedy, Ill., in 1973.