After four wonderful year in Oslo, Pastor Stewart and his family have relocated to Copenhagen and so we are currently looking for a new Pastor to join us. More information about this will follow in due time. In the meanwhile, below you can find the last Pastor’s Corner from Pastor Stewart where he reflects on his time with us and the way ahead. We kindly ask that you keep our congregation in your prayers during this time of transition. Happy reading and God bless you!
Dear Friends,
Grace to you and peace!
Thank you all for a lovely farewell last Sunday August 10th. Mary Ann, Isaac, Annika and I truly appreciate it. And thank you also for the thoughtful, beautiful gifts. They will remind us of the many good people and experiences that have largely made up our time in Oslo. You were even kind to laugh at my silly visual joke with the funny photo we presented to the church. Rest assured I have arranged for a more appropriately-sized copy of the real Stewart family photo which now hangs in Hanson Hall.
Serving here as your pastor has been a privilege. Many of you likely don’t know that four years ago in the last days of our conversations with the call committee, as Mary Ann and I were praying hard for discernment about the possibility of coming to serve in Oslo, we were struggling to know what God wanted from us in our lives. This move meant many significant changes for us and some challenges amidst all the wonderful opportunities. When I shared our struggles with the call committee, one member reassured me that they had prayed very hard over this decision, and where we may not be entirely clear, they were absolutely clear that they wanted us to come live and work with you. That was all we needed. Sometimes another person’s clarity is what you need to be opened to God’s leading. I will be forever grateful to the call committee for their faithfulness and their generosity in sharing their confidence with me. Through that gift we came to Oslo and had the rare pleasure of being your pastoral family these past four years.
In the Lutheran church we call the process of hiring a pastor ‘a call’. It is specific and intentional language that reminds us that this is more than a job, but something which ultimately lays in the hands of the Spirit. Our work as pastor, call committee and congregation is really the work of listening to uncover what it is the Holy Spirit is sometimes murmuring, sometimes shouting, but always guiding us with. It is why the faithful prayer and conviction of the call committee four years ago was the shout I needed to quiet the distracting other voices in my life at the time. It is why I am so certain that somewhere today, as you read this, the Holy Spirit is at work murmuring in the ear of some man or woman, preparing their heart to hear and discern the call to come be your next pastor.
This is why this time is one of hopefulness and excited expectation. Part of my leaving is to go to Copenhagen to build on the foundations my friend and colleague, Ron Rentner, has laid there. But part is also now to make way for the one whom the Holy Spirit will soon introduce to you. He or she will come to build on what we have done together, doing so with their unique set of gifts and skills.
However, this time is not just waiting, or at least not passive waiting. There is something I believe you should do. Pray. Pray for the call committee, the church council, the congregation. Pray for their work, their discernment, their strength and their well-being. Pray in your own way. On your knees or in the garden. Eyes closed or lips moving in a murmur. With the familiar words of worship or thoughts too deep for words. Pray in your own way as the Holy Spirit guides you and you’ll be fine. And pray for your next pastor. You may not know their name yet, but you can hold the idea of them in your mind and offer it up to God. Pray for their work, their discernment, their strength and their well-being. Finally, pray for your next pastor’s current congregation, who will one day soon learn that they must say good-bye and let go of one they love so that God might send another to serve them.
I will pray for you, and watch with hope and excited anticipation for what God will work here.
God bless and keep each of you. And again, thank you for everything!
In Christ,
Pastor Tim Stewart