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Elizabeth Lerohl, Lowell Michelson, Lorin Darst

Our Pastoral Residents, 2006-2008

Where are they now? Our first trio of pastoral residents, 2006-2008 send warm hellos from their congregations.

Posted July 2009

Pastor Lorin Darst

Grace Lutheran Church | Conroe, Texas

When Pastor Lorin Darst relaxes these hot summer days, he borrows boat keys and heads for Lake Conroe, in the middle of the Piney Woods of southeast Texas. “It’s nice to get a breather, to get my nose above water,” he says.

At Grace Lutheran Church, where he has served as solo pastor for a year now, there’s a “lot of excitement around renewing ministries. People are passionate about what God is doing in the world. We definitely have a spirit of hospitality, a heart for the new person.”

Located along a major thoroughfare in one of the fastest growing counties in Texas, Grace is surrounded by construction, new shopping centers, and the spreading borders of Houston. Lake Conroe attracts retirees, but there are plenty of young people too. The church’s preschool/daycare serves 130 children. Worship attendance averages 150 to 180 in two Sunday services, one traditional and the other contemporary.

Faith formation and stewardship are two key areas of new life. “People are fired up to teach classes, and that’s a whole lot of fun for me.” A number of Grace members share their pastor’s passion for stewardship. They’re focusing on the wholeness of a Christ-centered life, encouraging people to pray daily, worship regularly, be part of learning, serve in a particular ministry, and give generously.

The newsletter now features testimonial stories called Grateful for Grace. The congregation’s connection with Peru continues, but Lorin is also hoping to deepen the local connection for serving. Grace is part of an interfaith network that provides overnight lodging for homeless families.

Tiffany Darst recently started a new job as branch liaison with Wakovia financial services. Now grounded in their first permanent home, Lorin and Tiffany are “finding out about caring for a house and a yard, figuring out how to deal with an old lawnmower.” They love the area’s Tex-Mex food, and Lorin assures us he hasn’t added large belt buckles to his wardrobe.

Pastor Lorin’s eyes often fall on a photo of three young pastors serving in a Davenport congregation. “I learned a lot from Elizabeth and Lowell,” he says. It was here that Lorin’s untapped theatrical skills flowered. In this summer’s program for kids at Grace Lutheran, he was quite a hit in floppy hat, suspendered cargo shorts, socks, and flip-flops. He had transformed from the tiger parrot at St. Paul’s 2008 VBE into a serengeti character he called Wayne the Wildwood Forest Expert Explorer Extraordinaire. Imagine it.

Pastor Elizabeth L. Hiller

Ashburn Lutheran Church | Metro Chicago, Illinois

In her third week as the pastor of Ashburn Lutheran Church, a 200-member multiracial congregation on the south side of Chicago, Pastor Elizabeth Hiller “asks for God’s blessing on this place every day.”

“We all kept really good files on our Core Seminar topics” at St. Paul, says Elizabeth. “I’ve already pulled out ‘What to Do in the First Month,’ ‘The Fourth of July,’ ‘Financial Checks and Balances,’ and ‘Church Council Agendas.’” The Pastoral Residency experience is standing by her well. “I have a lot of memories but the files are helpful for concrete examples.” She’s grateful for the biblical commentaries that she carted to Chicago. “I didn’t realize how much time preaching every weekend takes,” she says.

The Ashburn congregation’s heritage makes for tasty potlucks that blend sauerkraut with fried chicken. Originally a German community, the neighborhood is now largely African-American. The congregation has intentionally stayed in the city.
A vibrant ministry of the church is its K-8 school which serves 140 minority students. With its focus on the arts, the school provides grounding in Lutheran Christian education. Elizabeth is the pastor of both the church and the school, which has a separate administrator.

One-third of the school families belong to the church, swelling attendance and changing the ethnic mix during the school year. About 80 people, primarily white, worship each Sunday during the summer. Come September, attendance will be closer to 200, with half the worshiping congregation African-American. Observes Elizabeth, “There are some hospitality and racial issues, but the people are good-natured and honest about it. There’s no tension. They’re just happy to be moving forward.”

At St. Paul, Pastor Elizabeth “realized that a lot of ministry is love for the people of the congregation.” She’s taking great joy in meeting the people. In her residency experience, she also “learned that I’m well-organized. That’s a gift to this church at a time when they really need a good amount of accountability.” Elizabeth is not unnerved by financial matters or building use policies.

Last week, Elizabeth and Tim Hiller moved into the Ashburn parsonage, a 1940s brick rambler set in the tidy metro-Chicago neighborhood. A doctoral student at the University of Chicago, Tim commutes to Hyde Park. Pastor Elizabeth will be installed as Ashburn’s new pastor on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 9.

Pastor Lowell Michelson

Reformation Lutheran Church | Wichita, Kansas

The nation now knows of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. The murder of Dr. George Tiller has been a “crucible moment” for Pastor Lowell Michelson, Associate Pastor Kristin Neitzel, and the congregation.

“It has been intense pain for the congregation and also personally,” reflects Lowell. “But it has also brought people together.” Worship is getting back to normal — or a “new normal.” Attendance is strong. “We’ve made a lot of headway on the road to healing with counseling as a whole congregation and in smaller groups.”

The church is learning anew how to be “a place of hospitality and welcome” amidst “overriding suspicion and heightened alert.”
Cards and gifts still come almost daily. A Unitarian Universalist congregation in Knoxville, Tennessee — victims of a 2008 shooting that left four dead — made a quilt bearing their handprints. The pastor and her husband flew to Wichita to personally present it to the people of Reformation, to “stand with us and encourage us.”

But Reformation Lutheran Church is much more than this horrific news story. More than a history of emotional protest and “stick-together resistance” that stretched back a dozen years.
Last weekend, the church dedicated an array of stained glass windows that bring “a crazy amount of color” to the sanctuary. The artistic renderings are a vibrant witness to new life and God’s love, tracing Jesus from creation to eternal life.

Since Pastor Lowell arrived a year ago, he has sensed that Reformation is “primed and ready for the next chapter.” Originally an eastside mission church seeded from a downtown church, the congregation is a mix of original members and the momentum of new young families.

The two-pastor leadership team is a new experience for the church. There’s a tradition of strong worship (250 average attendance in two weekend services) with organ, choirs, and liturgical arts. A growing edge will be discovering a contemporary style to the Luth-eran witness in east Wichita. Unique to the worship mix are quarterly services in Swahili, connecting with about 10 East African families who are part of the congregation.

Great potential lies in “finding out what it means to be church and do ministry outside of Sunday mornings.” Pastors Lowell and Kristin hope to spark fresh midweek learning opportunities and parenting events. “St. Paul gave me a glimpse of how life-giving those things can be, of how we can connect scripture with faithful living.”

In the chaos of crisis, Lowell has not forgotten the importance of interpersonal communication. At St. Paul, “we were so intentional about making that five-minute phone call to someone just out of the hospital, writing a note of concern, sharing lunch. Ministry is connecting with people, in small groups or one-on-one. Especially here — with all this — that is what it came down to.” Sitting with the Tiller family. Calling a family that has been unable to return to worship since the shooting.

“The attentiveness to people is what it’s about,” reflects Lowell. “I think that’s why St. Paul is such a thriving place. People reach out because they see the leadership doing it. I hope to embody that. And I hope it catches on with others.”

Signing off from a Thursday-afternoon chat, Pastor Lowell added: “Tell everyone thank you for the endless thoughts and prayers.”

"There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." ~Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist