Lay Pastoral Care

In November of 2023, as our congregation anticipated the retirement of the Rev. Myles Alexander, more than one congregant asked, “Who will the minister be if I get sick or die while our church doesn’t have a minister??”

At the workshop after the Sunday worship-service, a work-group was formed to address Lay Pastoral Care on an interim basis to answer that question.

Six members of our church answered that call: Sharon Schroeder, Pat Juday, Carla Chropkowski, Lisa Johnson, Jane Eberly and Nancy Wilson. Myles supervised our training with Luther Seminary and introduced us to the spiritual care of hospitalized congregants. The team met monthly since that time and had a member on-call each week since that time. As described to the congregation in the beginning, this was not a Visitation Team but one that was available to intentionally and confidentially address spiritual needs and requests for prayer. In June of 2025, with the arrival of The Revs. Susie and Tim Grade, our interim LPC team formally disbanded.

The team appreciated the financial support by the Spiritual Life and Outreach Boards as we got started. At the Annual Meeting in January ‘25, we were allotted a budget by the congregation. We also appreciated how interim ministers stepped in to assist our congregation. During this time, we made CareNotes available and observed their welcome reception by congregants in times of need; the LPC team, therefore, decided to use our remaining funds to make CareNotes available and our congregants are encouraged to take whichever pamphlets speak to you when you need them. The display rack of CareNotes is now found in the hallway between the sanctuary and the fellowship hall.

This concludes our very meaningful experience as an interim Lay Pastoral Care Team.
We thank God for His guidance of Lay Pastoral Care and for the answers to our prayers.

– submitted by Nancy Wilson