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Transition Team Updates
Members: Ann Bruce (chair), Patsy Blankenship, Olga Blanchard, Jim Erickson, Stevie Henderson, Karen Olson, Les Stubbs

4/14 Transition Team Update

Below is the final copy of our Transition Team's Report. This has also been sent to the Grand Canyon Synod office and is the last step required before our Call Committee starts their process of determining and discerning our new pastor. I encourage you to read all of this report if possible, but at least the 2 page summary. The team has put much time and effort into the report and it contains very interesting information about CELC. Thank you again to the team for their efforts!

 

Carol Moonan
Council President - CELC
Final Report

4/9/25 Update from the Council/Transition Team

Congratulations to the Call Committee members who were elected at a special meeting of the congregation on April 6, 2025.


Connie Sornsin is the chairperson, with committee members Jennifer Cole, Kathy Coyle, Jim Erickson, Tony Fabrello, Rae Valabek and Fred Wordell. We are grateful to these individuals who will prayerfully discern who our next Pastor will be. Please keep them all in your prayers.

3/27/25 Update from the Council/Transition Team

Call Committee nominees to be elected at April 6 Special Meeting


CELC's Call Committee will build on the work of the transition team. The transition team, with input from the congregation, established and updated our Mission, Vision and Values Statements. The work of the committee is done prayerfully and the people on the committee open themselves to the call and movement of the Holy Spirit to discern if a candidate presented to us is the best candidate for our congregation.


We will have a special congregational meeting on April 6 to elect the Call Committee members. The members of CELC who have been nominated (by church council) and have prayerfully accepted the responsibility of being part of the Call Committee are the following:


Jennifer Cole
Kathy Coyle
Jim Erickson
Tony Fabrillo
Connie Sornsin
Rae Valebek
Fred Wordell

3/19/25 Update from the Council/Transition Team

A Special Congregational Meeting is being called:


Date: Sunday, April 6, 2025
Time: Immediately after 9:00am Worship Service
Where: Bldg B Sanctuary
Agenda: Congregational Election of Call Committee
                     (nominated by Church Council)


As specified in our constitution, the only agenda items that can be considered at this special meeting are those contained in this notification, so it is expected that this will be a short but important meeting. This notification also meets the constitutional requirementfor announcement of any special meeting to be given to at least 2 worship services with written or electronic notification being sent at least 10 days prior to the meeting.


The church council is finalizing the list of members they are nominating to be on the Call Committee after giving prayerful consideration and thought. These people have been contacted and have agreed to serve on the committee. The church council expects to make those names available shortly.


Given the progress that has been made by the Transition team, the church council has determined that it is time to form the Call Committee which is the first step of phase 3 of the overall Transition/Call process.
 

Phase 1 – Informing the Synod and saying Goodbye - Completed
 

Phase 2 – Transition Process – Nearing completion

  • Pastor Kim assigned as intentional interim pastor

  • Transition team leads congregation in self study

  • Transition Team prepares final report

    • Goes to Council, Congregation, Synod

    • Team expects to have complete by Easter

Phase 3 – Call Process - Ready to begin

  • Call Committee elected (purpose of meeting)

  • Finalize Ministry Site Profile and send to Synod

  • Synod provides candidates to Call Committee

  • Call Committee recommends candidate to Church Council

  • Congregation votes on Candidate

  • Call extended to candidate

3/5/25 - Transition Team Update

Summary of Values Discussion on 3/2 


Thank you again to all who participated in our final congregational discussion on values and goals. Click the button below to see the presentation that was used to guide the discussion.

We had five small groups and there was lots of active involvement and commonality among the groups.
 

The words/phrases that were mentioned by the groups included:


1. Service to the greater community, outreach – all 5 groups
2. Welcoming, acceptance, tolerance, inclusive – all 5 groups
3. Christ (God)- centered teaching and learning – 4 groups
4. Community, relationships, fellowship, etc. – 4 groups
5. Diversity – ethnic, age, etc. – as something to strive for – 3 groups


The team thinks that we can refine this list to get values that describe what people experience in our congregation and that are fundamental to our beliefs.


The transition team will continue to meet and prepare a 2-3 page report that will be shared with the council and the congregation. We will then move on to electing a call committee during a special
congregational meeting that we hope can be held in April (look for communications from the church council on the specific timing).

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Thanks to all of you who have participated to help the transition team define who we are as a congregation. It is exciting to be
moving forward in this process of calling a new pastor.

2/26/25 - Transition Team Update

Summary of Vision Discussion on 2/23


Once again, thank you to all who joined us on Sunday for our vision discussion. Click the button below to see the presentation that was used to guide the discussion.

The discussion went very well and there seemed to be consensus about a number of things.


1) All groups wanted to see younger, more diverse families with children in our congregation. They also wanted a wider variety of activities for children, youth and seniors.


2) Three groups wanted increased adult education opportunities and expanded outreach programs. They also thought that we need more advertising in the community including through social media.


3) Other items mentioned were: participating more in our community, keeping our great music, mentoring new members, adding a second service and a children’s sermon, continuing our
tolerance and acceptance of all people and finding a pastor who is younger, experienced and bilingual.


4) All groups felt that their ideas for vision still fit with our current mission statement with the possibility of small changes. 

 

These are all great ideas and the transition team was pleased to see so much agreement among the four groups. If we put all of this into a one sentence vision statement it might be something like, “To
be a church that is known for our participation in and service to our community.”
 

We have one more week to meet and discuss our values/goals. We should end up with five or six words that fit with our vision and mission. Hope to see you there for a short discussion after service on March 2.

2/19/25 - Transition Team Update

Summary of Mission Statement Conversation on 2/16

 

Thank you to everyone who participated in Sunday’s activities to refine our mission statement. Click the button below to see the presentation that was used to guide the discussion.

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The team felt that because most people are familiar with the statement that this would be the easiest piece to do first. And based on the feedback from the small groups, this proved to be true. A majority of people are happy with our current mission statement and only a few changes were recommended: changing the word “might” to “may”; adding both “see” and “know” before “experience”; using “all” instead of “they”.

 

So we could potentially have a mission statement that says “We are a Christian fellowship, reaching out to all people, so that all may see, know and experience God’s love for them.”

 

This may need to be revisited after we determine our vision in our next conversation this upcoming Sunday, so we won’t make a decision about it yet. Please let a transition team member know what you think about the proposed changes. There are still some questions about this statement that were not answered on 2/16 but they may be answered as we discuss our vision on Sunday, 2/23.

 

Please plan to attend the next session on Sunday, 2/23 after service. The format will be the same and we would expect to end the meeting no later than 11:00am because Vida Nueva starts preparing for their service at 11:30am .

2/12/25 - Transition Team Update

Bible Study Summary

 

As our congregation continues the process of calling a new pastor, we need to determine what our vision, mission and core values are. Three Bible study groups have looked at the vision, mission and core values in the books of Nehemiah, Acts and First Corinthians. A brief summary of their observations follows:

 

In the book of Nehemiah, his vision was for a spiritual renewal among the Hebrews of Jerusalem so that more of them would return from exile. His mission was to use the reinstatement of Sabbath rituals, confession of sins and gratitude to God for keeping his promise to bring them back to Jerusalem to achieve this vision. The core values in his efforts were respect for God, responsibility to the community, and communication with God through prayer.

 

The overall vision of the book of Acts was to preserve the history of the Christian movement, the teachings of Jesus and the works and lives of the apostles, particularly Peter and Paul. The vision and mission are so closely tied together that it is difficult to separate them. The greater vision may be to reach all of mankind with this saving message of salvation. Acts shows that the Christian faith truly fulfills God’s promises in the Hebrew scripture. Christ brought salvation. Prayer advances God’s kingdom while the Holy Spirit energizes and equips God’s people to carry out their mission. The core values in Acts are community, mutual support, trust, and learning to accept, believe, and teach that Jesus is real. 

 

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the vision is to not get in the way of anyone else’s relationship with God through acceptance, tolerance, charity and respect. The mission emphasizes being Christ-centered and welcoming to all. The group felt that our current mission statement – “We are a Christian fellowship, reaching out to all people, so that they might experience God’s love for them” fit well with what they read in Acts and suggested the addition of the word “know” along with “experience”. The core values in Acts were respect, tolerance, lack of judgement in all things, community and love.

 

There are certainly common themes in these three books of the Bible and I think that they are reflected in our current congregation. Our task now is to develop a vision statement, a mission statement and a list of 5 or 6 core values so that we can put together an accurate profile of who we are as a congregation. We will need the participation of as many members as we can get to develop these things over the next three weeks. We will meet after the Sunday service on Feb. 16th and 23rd and March 2nd to do this. We can add a weekday meeting or two if we feel that it is necessary. Please join us.

2/6/25 - Transition Team Update

The transition team met on Sunday, Feb. 2nd to decide how to move ahead with our next step in the call process. It was decided that we will compile a brief report on the work that the three Bible study groups have done and submit that report to the
congregation. We will then proceed to hold congregational meetings on Sundays after the church service to discuss our Mission, Vision, and Values/Goals.

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  • ​2/16/25 - Mission - The first meeting focused on our Mission statement.

 

Our Current Mission Statement


We are a Christian fellowship reaching out to all people, so they might experience God’s love for them.

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  • 2/23/25 - Vision - The second meeting will focus on CELC Vision.

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  • 3/2/25 - Values/Goals - The third meeting will focus on CELC Values/Goals.


We will hold additional meetings on weekday afternoons if we feel that it is necessary to get greater congregational participation.


Please plan to participate in this process as our team and the call committee need your input as members of the congregation. We want to portray an accurate picture of our congregation when we send out our MIssion Site Profile to prospective pastors so that we end up with a good match.

11/21/24 - Transition Team Update

The transition team has been working on a couple of things lately. Three of our members are getting together to organize the history materials that we shared in September. We hope to eventually have a display area for some of the items and albums will be created for the rest of the things.  

 

Our next step as a congregation is to look at the vision, mission and values of our congregation. Our transition packet includes some activities to help us do that.  Specifically it says -

"Encourage the entire congregation to think about these three areas: mission, vision and values. To do so, establish a Bible Study(or multiple studies) on the book of Acts, or 1 Corinthians or Nehemiah, and as you read each chapter, ask these questions:

  1.    What is the vision of the passage?

  2.    What is the mission of the passage?

  3.    What are the core values of this passage?

  4.    How does this vision, mission, and core values relate to our congregation? What can we learn?

After a few weeks or months of Bible study, gather the congregation together for three weeks of brainstorming and conversation, led by the Transition Team, Call Committee, Council or a combination of these three."

 

The leaders of our 3 weekly Bible study groups have agreed to participate in this activity between now and the end of January. You are welcome to join any of them - women on Wednesday, men on Thursday morning and mixed group on Saturday afternoon - if you would like. Or you can participate on your own by choosing one of or all of these books of the BIble and completing your own study.

 

After the Annual Meeting in January we plan to have several sessions with congregation members to address vision, mission and values.

Welcome to our Interim Pastor

Reverend Kim Sterner
"Pastor Kim"
Introduced at our 11/2 Worship Service

As an interim pastor, Pastor Kim is responsible for:

  • Leading the ongoing ministry of the congregation

  • Providing pastoral care including visitation

  • Leading worship and administrating the sacraments

  • Guiding the congregation through the transition process

A note of Gratitude from Pastor Jeff Gallen

The great German Catholic mystic, Meister Eckhart, said, “If the only prayer you ever say is ‘Thank You’, that will be enough.” During the past twenty six years, for the privilege of being your pastor, ‘thank you’ barely seems adequate but here it is: THANK YOU! Thank you for your commitment to loving God by loving your neighbor! Standing on the firm foundation of word and sacrament, you have become a beacon of love in the West Valley. Thank you for the memorable last service with the beautiful quilt from the flock, the send off with the lovely cake reception and many cards of good wishes. Looking forward to see what God will do in the future at CELC.

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Your humble servant,

Pastor Jeff Gallen

Pastor Jeff's Last Worship Service 10/27

Farewell & Godspeed
Enjoy your retirement!!

10/16/24 - Transition Team Update

Update from the Church Council – 10/16/2024

The Grand Canyon Synod has identified to the council the intentional interim pastor that will be supporting CELC beginning November 1, 2024. Her name is Pastor Kim Sterner who previously was one of the pastors at Lord of Life in Sun City. She retired from Lord of Life at the end of 2023 and has been ordained for 38 years. Details are still being finalized. Appropriate Meet and Greet opportunities will be scheduled for November.

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Update from the Transition Team – 10/16/2024

The transition team is working on how best to consolidate the CELC history information including the input from the congregation that was received on 9/29. We thank the congregation for helping provide additional information. It is expected that the following will be generated:

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  1. A list of significant events/dates organized by decade that will be posted to the CELC web site and made available to the congregation through email.

  2. Scrapbook(s) organized by decade with a subset of the pictures that were sorted.

  3. A simplified graphical timeline showing major dates and a few pictures posted in an appropriate location in Building B.

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Once our intentional interim pastor, Pastor Kim Sterner, is on board, the team will work with her support to begin to plan for the small group activities that are needed to fully develop and document the Ministry Site Profile which is critical to the Call Process.

9/24/24 - Transition Team Update

The Transition Team did some preliminary work related to history and demographics over the summer and met on 9/8/24 to review progress and began discussing Fall plans.  Again, one of the primary responsibilities of the transition team is to develop the Ministry Site Profile (MSP). This document is a key input to the call process and assists the synod in identifying candidates and for candidates to assess their initial interest in CELC ‘s opening. The MSP is meant to communicate the following:

  • Our history (who we have been)

  • Who we are today

  • What are our goals and directions for the future

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Click on the button for a detailed status of what the team has been working on.

7/10/24 - Transition Team Update

The Transition team was formed earlier this year to begin to prepare for when Pastor Jeff retires at the end of October this year. One of the primary responsibilities of this team is to prepare the Ministry Site Profile which is key input to the Pastoral Call Process. The members of this team are:

  • Ann Bruce - Chairperson

  • Stevie Henderson

  • Karen Olson

  • Olga Blanchard

  • Jim Erickson

  • Judy Turpen

  • Patsy Blankenship

 

This is the first of ongoing updates that will be sent to the congregation. The team has met twice and has begun working. In the summer, the team will be doing preparation work on CELC history, congregation demographics, community demographics, and other preparation work for the fall. In the fall, the team will be leading small group exercises with members of the congregation to prepare the Ministry Site Profile which provides information to candidates on CELC history, who CELC is today, and what CELC's goals and priorities are moving forward.

 

Click on the button for a detailed status of what the team has been working on.

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Any questions can be directed to members of the Transition Team.

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4/26/24 Update - Transition Team Formed

The CELC Council met with Pastor Phil Gustafson in March. Pr. Gustafson is our transition coach appointed by the Grand Canyon Synod. He will guide CELC through the process of getting ready to call a new pastor upon Pr. Jeff's retirement in October. The Transition Team has been formed and was installed during the May 5 worship service.

 

Members of the team are:

Ann Bruce, Chair

Judy Turpen

Karen Olson

Patsy Blankenship

Jim Erickson

Olga Blanchard

Stevie Henderson

Pastor Jeff Announces Retirement in 10/24

The CELC Council acknowledged Pastor Jeff's intent to retire October 2024, at the 10/15/23 council meeting. President Su Erickson has been in contact with the Grand Canyon Synod about next steps in the transition process. Bishop Hutterer has assigned Pastor Phil Gustafson to guide us through the process of calling a new Pastor to CELC.  The Council will share more information with the congregation as it becomes available. 

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