Making a Move

So, I haven't been posting much lately due to some big stuff going on. When you're running around covering all your bases, time to blog gets sacrificed (as well it should) for the higher purpose of tending to the ground that's been entrusted to me here. But today I can take a bit of a breath and stop the running for just a moment.

I can also share the big news: I announced to my congregation on Sunday that I've been offered a call to the University Lutheran Center on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, IA, and when the call officially comes I will accept it. It was a terribly bittersweet moment in a bittersweet week for Beloved and I. We have made many friends here, and we both have good ministry relationships in our congregations and communities. I hate to think of leaving behind the youth groups we both love, the community theater group we've supported in many ways, the school district we think is one of the best in Minnesota.

But this new call brings us three hours closer to my family in eastern Nebraska, and it's a campus ministry call. I've felt that campus ministry was a logical place for me for quite some time, and the pull toward that type of call only intensified after my own campus pastor, Larry Meyer, died in 2005. It seems that most of the people who know me agree: the reaction so far has been very positive and very much "well, of course you'll do well in that type of ministry." Guess I've not been real coy about that particular dream; at least, not as much as I'd thought I was.

So, we're off on a new adventure. My final Sunday in Barrett will be January 6th, and we'll move to Ames the following week, where I'll be in place by the start of the semester on January 14th. It's a big move, and it's complicated by our hope to purchase our first house, but it's exciting and scary and sad all at the same time, as most moves are. Hopefully this will be the last one for quite some time.

Last but not least, don't look for this on my car anytime soon:




I'll be a Cornhusker until the day I die, even in foreign Big XII towns like Ames. Born Red - 'Nuff Said. But if you see me pulling for the local boys when there's no conflict of interest, think well of me - it's hard not to root for the hometown teams.