Central Lutheran Church

Special Congregational Meeting Sunday, May 10, following worship.

The Church Council has called a congregational meeting for Sunday, May 10, 2026, following worship to elect the Call Committee. This is the only item on the meeting agenda. This is the slate of nominees that Church Council is submitting to the congregation, and all have consented to serve: Rosamaria Casablanca, Nancy Olsen, Jorge Hernandez, Barbara Lichneckert, Carol Krause, Peter Lee.

Additional nominations are permitted from the floor the day of the meeting. If you intend to nominate someone, please secure that person’s willingness to serve prior to the meeting. Only six persons will be elected, in keeping with the stipulations of our constitution.

Today’s column is going to be an update on where we are as a congregation in the Call Process, and what the summer ahead looks like for the community of Central Lutheran.

We have made amazing progress to be on the threshold of electing a Call Committee in early May. That newly elected committee will receive its orientation and an overview of its work from the Assistant to the Bishop, Pastor Andy Yee, on Tuesday evening, 12 May 2026. On that same day, our congregational Mission Site Profile will “go live,” meaning that now every rostered leader and every synod office across the ELCA have access to what we might be looking, hoping, and praying for in a new pastor.

From the time our profile goes live, it will take Pastor Yee about a month to gather names that are appropriate candidates for Central’s Call committee to consider. It takes that amount of time, because persons who may be nominated by Central members, or other potential candidates who respond to our Mission Site Profile, might not yet have their side of the paperwork completed and it takes some time for them to get those forms completed. Also, Pastor Yee will be in prayerful and careful deliberation about which and how many (usually about 4-6) candidates he initially will present to the Call Committee.

During the month of waiting for those names, the committee will not be idle. They will meet to discuss how they will function as a committee, elect a chair and a recorder, prepare interview questions, and do one or more mock interviews. Schedules being what they are, that month will go quickly.

The Call Committee’s work will be done in complete confidentiality. Members of the Council nor I will know who the committee is considering or interviewing. They’re not keeping secrets, but rather protecting the integrity of the process, and also holding any candidates’ future plans in confidence as their current congregation’s ministry and mission could be harmed by the knowledge that they are interviewing elsewhere. The ELCA is a small place. News travels fast. With social media and the Internet in the mix, it travels even faster than it once did. You’ll be doing the members of the Call Committee a big service by telling them that “we’re praying for you.” Or “we hope you’re doing well in the work you’re doing for us.” That’s much more helpful than, “You can tell me who you’re interviewing, I won’t breathe a word to anyone else...”

My plans to leave Central on 30 June still stand. The early, sudden death of our goddaughter’s young husband in Washington, DC and our desire to provide care for Julie and her two young children is a high priority. We presently have airline tickets to fly to DC on 1 July.

I’m in the process of lining up supply pastors for Sunday morning worship leadership at Central in July and August. That’s a task I’ll have completed before the end of this month. I’m also working with our amazing office manager, Kim, to prepare a uniform, simplified worship bulletin for the summer months.

At the council meeting in May, we’ll discuss a plan for pastoral care in July and August so that our homebound members can continue to receive monthly communion and visitation, there is someone available for pastoral care emergencies, a person on board to tend to whatever other pastoral care needs arise in those months – critical illness, mental health crises, funeral ministry and the like.

In the meantime, we still have ministry to do together! There are more people inquiring about baptism and folks waiting to join our congregation. The Word needs to be proclaimed and the sacrament administered every Sunday. The needs of people in our community continue and multiply. I’m here! And I’ll be here for and with you for the remainder of May and June. Joyfully so.

Thanks be to God for all this wonderful news, and for the progress we are making to move into the next chapter of the ministry of Central Lutheran Church.

Yours in Christ, Pastor Hoffman

Sharing the Peace during the Sunday morning liturgy has its roots in the Sermon on the Mount, found in the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. In Jesus’ teaching to the disciples, he reminds them that leaving a gift at the altar without first being reconciled to others against whom we may have sinned is a shallow gesture. In Matthew 5:23-24 we read:

So when you are leaving your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

The direction in which the arrow points here is significant. Christ doesn’t say, “if you have something against your brother or sister...” but rather, “if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.”

Certainly, Sharing the Peace is a cordial and joyful time to welcome and greet one another. But it is also a time that calls for self-reflection and serious amendment of our own inward ways. Within family groups or within the larger community of the church, we might be thinking to ourselves, “look, that argument I had with my kids/spouse/friend this week was petty and self-serving. Before I give my offering today (a ritual which is not as clear as it was pre-Covid), I’d like to clear the air about that. Here’s my chance.” You can easily see why Sharing the Peace is placed where it is in the service. It comes just before that traditional time of leaving our gift at the altar.

To be sure, Sharing the Peace, like so many of the other things we do in worship, is a liturgical and symbolic gesture. If we took the time to recall all the things that others might have against us – both inside the room and out – it is possible that the sharing of such a reconciling moment could take a long, long time. But it is worth entering into this sacred ritual with the wisdom of Christ in our hearts that it is a time to do something deeper and more significant than simply say, “good morning.”