One thing about this road we travel: you never know where it will lead or who may join you for a while as a companion on the way, and you never know how winding roads may somewhere intersect, reconnecting you with people you haven’t seen for a time.
I was reminded of this recently, as my travels around the synod brought me to St. John’s in Richland Center.
Let me begin with a story and back road.
For 13 years, I served as the pastor of Luther Valley, near Beloit. Luther Valley is a congregation on its own road – Luther Valley Road – way out in the country. When we moved our then teenage children there, they thought we had brought them to the middle of nowhere. For John and me, it soon became the center of everywhere.
About 12 years ago a visitor showed up at church one Sunday morning; a young woman in her early 20s, on her own. It turned out she was just out of college and a new teacher in Beloit, the town 10 miles away. She had been looking for an ELCA congregation, because during her college years she had become involved in the ELCA campus ministry program and appreciated our theology.
She had looked for a congregation in the Yellow Pages and saw Luther Valley. She thought it was a pretty name, and she noticed there was a woman pastor. Having grown up WELS, this was something that appealed to her.
Now, I found out later, she’d actually tried to visit a week or so earlier, but the road out to Luther Valley went on so long she figured she’d missed it, and she turned around and went home. Luckily for us, she tried again. She took that same road just a little farther and she found us.
We were so glad she did. She soon joined our choir, picking up a couple of older women who lived in town and bring them as well each Wednesday evening. She served on council and became one of our home-bound Communion distributors. She served as a worship leader and helped our music director compose the Luther Valley Evening Prayer Service.
She was a perfect member, but it didn’t last.
Through all her involvement at church, she discerned a call to the ordained ministry, and her road led her away from us and to Wartburg Seminary, where, wonder of wonders, she met a young man on a similar path and they decided it would be a good idea to walk that path together for the rest of their lives.
6 years ago, I married Kalen Barkholtz and Tom Dowling at Luther Valley. And I have watched them both learn and grow and travel down a road that has led them through internships in southern Wisconsin, to congregational ministry in Tema, Iowa, and now back to our area, where Tom was just installed as Pastor at St. John’s in Richland Center. Along the way they were joined by a delightful traveling companion, their daughter Evie.
As I worshipped with them, I couldn’t help but wonder at the unexpected nature of this journey of faith, the surprises that wait just around the bend or over the hill. It is my privilege to walk again beside these two (now three) as their colleague and partner in ministry in a whole new context. Who could have imagined when Kalen headed down that road the Yellow Pages directed her to, that we’d all end up here?
Where will this road take us next?
What new companions will God give us for the journey?
On The Road With Your Synod Staff 