The call committee met on Thursday, April 24, and we are excited to announce that the Ministry Site Profile (MSP) is complete!

Our next steps include the following:

• The MSP will be shared with the Zion church council.

• The council will give feedback to the call committee.

• Once approved by the council, the MSP will be submitted to the synod.

• The synod will make the MSP available to prospective pastoral candidates.

• Finally, the call committee will conduct interviews for a new pastor. This may still be several weeks or months down the road.

If you are interested in learning more about the call process, a brief overview can be found here: https://www.seiasynod.org/call-process

Additionally, a series of detailed videos describing the call process have been prepared by synod staff from across the region: https://vimeo.com/showcase/11140959?share=copy

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The call committee met on Thursday, April 10 and again on Sunday, April 13.

We discussed, completed, and approved several more sections of the Ministry Site Profile (MSP), and we are getting very close to being finished. The congregation’s input – from the three weekly questions and the in-person table talks – provided much of the raw feedback needed to complete these sections.

The committee will meet again on Thursday, April 24.

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The call committee met on Thursday, March 27. We discussed, completed, and approved four of the seven narrative sections from the Ministry Site Profile Part 2 (“Vision”). We will continue to work independently between meetings on a shared digital draft of the MSP in order to be ready to discuss and refine additional sections at our next meeting on Thursday, April 10.

We thank the congregation for continued prayers and support as we work through the process of completing the MSP.

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)ption

Results from the two congregational surveys have been compiled; thanks to the many of you who took the time to provide us with your information and feedback! 90 families provided demographic information, and 84 individuals responded to the Leadership Needs survey. 

One notable statistic from the demographic survey is that 53% of respondents have attended Zion for twenty years or more and an additional 26% have attended for 11-20 years. This shows that we have a loyal base but few newcomers.

Results from the leadership survey revealed the ministry tasks and gifts we most value and hope to see in our next pastor. The top five from each category are shown here:

Ministry tasks required of a senior pastor

• Preaching/Worship – 84.3%

• Building a Sense of Community – 61.4%

• Administration – 33.7%

• Pastoral Care and Visitation – 33.7%

• Interpersonal Climate – 32.5%

Gifts for ministry essential for a senior pastor

• Be an effective communicator – 86.7%

• Build a sense of community among the people with whom s/he works – 74.7%

• Deal effectively with conflict – 73.5%

• Help people with their spiritual lives – 69.9%

• Bring joy and good humor to relationships – 65.1%

Placing pins on the parish hall map was also very helpful. It was determined that only a handful of families live within a mile of Zion, while 50% live within a 1-3 mile radius, and the other 50% live more than 3 miles away from church.

Notes from the committee’s March 27 meeting will be provided in next week’s eNews.

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

Thanks to everyone who has contributed information and ideas to the call committee thus far. Your responses to the Sunday morning writing prompts, emails to the committee, placing pins on the map, and attending the interactive sessions were all very helpful. However, we could use more feedback from our two surveys, so we are extending the deadline to NEXT Monday, March 17. Click on the links below to access them:

• Demographics Survey - one per household 

• Leadership Needs Survey - one per family member 

If you feel that you have not yet had an opportunity to share your feedback, or if you have thought of more things to tell us, please access the call committee webpage (https://zionlutheran-ic.org/call-committee), email us at iczioncall2025@gmail.com, or speak to one of the committee members personally.

The call committee met on Thursday, March 6 in the downstairs lounge to begin filling out the Ministry Site Profile (MSP). We were encouraged by the amount of work we were able to accomplish in our short time together, and we will individually continue to work on pieces of the document in preparation for our next meeting on Thursday, March 27.

With gratitude,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The call committee is grateful for your continued feedback, moral support, and prayers as we work through the process of gathering information for the Ministry Site Profile, the document which will be shown to prospective candidates for our new senior pastor. 

We have already received a number of responses to the two surveys that were sent out last week - thank you! Your feedback will be invaluable to our work. If you haven’t yet had a chance to fill them out, the deadline is next Monday, March 10. Click on the links below to complete the surveys:

• Demographics Survey - one per household 

• Leadership Needs Survey - one per family member 

The committee will meet again on Thursday, March 6. We will share notes from that meeting in next week’s eNews.

With gratitude,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

Janis Bultman delivered a temple talk on Sunday, May 11, to update the congregation about the call committee’s progress. She announced we're almost ready to send the Ministry Site Profile (MSP) to the council. 

Our next steps include the following:

• The MSP will be shared with the Zion church council. We hope to do this within the next week.

• Once accepted by the council, the MSP will be submitted to the synod. 

• Once accepted by the synod, we'll post a summary of the MSP that includes the portion Janis shared on Sunday.

• The synod will make the MSP available to prospective pastoral candidates.

• Finally, the call committee will conduct interviews for a new pastor. 

If you would like to view Janis Bultman’s temple talk, it can be found on the Zion webpage: “Worship” - “Online Worship” - “View archived videos on Vimeo.” Or click here. Select the May 11 video; the temple talk begins at the 1:52 mark. 

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The call committee met last Thursday, February 20.

During the past two weeks, we have begun processing the information we have gathered to date. This will be the basis for our official Ministry Site Profile (MSP) document.

We spent the bulk of our Thursday meeting making plans for our Sunday (2/23) table talk meetings. Our goal was to involve the congregation in discerning our purpose, giftedness, and mission for the MSP, and we are so appreciative of the time and feedback given to this process on Sunday!

Those in attendance at the sessions wrote their responses to seven questions (below) on large sheets of paper. These papers will remain posted on the walls of the Fellowship Hall for a few weeks so people can see them and continue adding to them if they’d like. If you cannot make it to Zion in the near future, we welcome you to email us at iczioncall2025@gmail.com with your feedback to any or all of these questions:

1. What are Zion’s top three priorities as a church?

2. What is Zion’s purpose as a church?

3. Who are we?

4. How would you personally like to be involved at Zion?

5. What are Zion’s gifts and resources for fulfilling its purpose?

6. What are Zion’s top three assets?

7. What are Zion’s obstacles to overcome to be able to use our gifts and be the church we want to be?

The committee asks for your feedback one more time by completing two surveys that will be sent to you in the near future. Please plan to complete these surveys by Monday, March 10 at the latest so we can compile the data in a timely manner. With your help, we expect to have enough information to complete the MSP within the next few weeks.

For your convenience, here are the links to those two surveys: 

• Demographics Survey - one per household

• Leadership Needs Survey - one per family member

Thank you in advance for completing these surveys! 

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The Call Committee would like to remind you of our congregational feedback sessions scheduled for this Sunday, February 23. You can choose to attend either before worship at 8:30 or following worship at approximately 10:45. We will provide an opportunity for you to discuss our congregation’s purpose, giftedness, and mission in an interactive format. We hope you’ll join us!

Our next committee meeting will take place on Thursday, February 20. Watch this space in next week’s eNews for a summary of that meeting. 

You can visit the Call Committee page of the Zion website here for information about the committee's work or to respond to any of our three Questions of the Week.

If you have any questions for the Call Committee, feel free to contact us at iczioncall2025@gmail.com.

You may also speak directly with a member of the committee: Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, or Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The call committee met on Thursday, February 6 at the church. 

We continued to discuss methods for gathering information and feedback for the purpose of completing the Ministry Site Profile (MSP): 

• Congregational Meeting - We hope you will plan to arrive early or stay late on Sunday, February 23. On that morning we will provide an opportunity for you to discuss our congregation’s purpose, giftedness, and mission in an interactive format.

• Map - A map of Johnson County has been placed in the Fellowship Hall. Members are encouraged to place a pin on the approximate location of their homes for the purpose of determining the distance people live from Zion. Those who live outside of Johnson County are asked to place their pins around the edge of the map.

• Writing Prompts - We were encouraged to learn that we had received more than 80 responses to the first writing prompt! Thank you for your feedback!

  • Prompt #2 was given on Sunday, February 9, and a third prompt is planned for this Sunday, February 16. 

  • Copies of previous questions will be available in the Narthex, along with a basket for your submissions. The same questions are listed on the call committee’s webpage with a link to the committee’s email address. 

• Survey - watch for a survey to arrive in your email soon. This survey is designed to collect demographic information from current members of the congregation: age/gender of each family member, number of years you have each attended Zion, and languages spoken in your home. Only one survey is needed per household. 

The committee will meet again on Thursday, February 20. 

The Call Committee met on Thursday, January 23 at the church. 
Committee members shared their progress on obtaining statistical and demographic information that will help us complete our current MSP (Ministry Site Profile). 

Additionally, four ways to elicit feedback from the congregation are in the works:

1. A prompt will be provided each week for 3-4 weeks to which members of the congregation will be asked to respond. Each week’s question(s) will be shared in the Friday eNews in case people would like to ponder their responses ahead of time. On Sunday mornings, paper will be distributed and time will be given for people to write their thoughts. For those who cannot attend in person, responses are welcome at our new call committee email address: iczioncall2025@gmail.com.

2. We will also soon be asking members to complete a short online (Google Forms) survey which will be sent directly to your email address.

3. Watch for a map to be placed on a bulletin board in the church where each family can use a push pin to identify the approximate location of their home. This will help the committee to determine location demographics for the MSP, which asks for the percentage of families each living within 0.5, 1, and 3+ miles from Zion.

4. Finally, we will have in-person opportunities for congregational feedback on Sunday, February 23. Identical content will be presented both before and after worship, and we hope you will be able to attend one of these work sessions. More information about the 23rd will be forthcoming; planning this event will be the goal of our next meeting on Thursday, February 6.

We are hopeful that we can collect all necessary input by the end of March so that we can complete the MSP sometime in April. We will keep you updated on our progress!
As stated above, our new email address is iczioncall2025@gmail.com. You are welcome to contact the committee here with your thoughts throughout the call process. 

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The Call Committee met on Thursday, January 9 to officially begin the work of calling a new pastor. The committee was then officially installed on Sunday, January 12 during worship.

At the January 9 meeting we brainstormed the logistics of completing the large and somewhat daunting MSP (Ministry Site Profile), which is the first step in the call process: 

• Members of the call committee will work on completing much of the demographic information that will describe both our congregation and the community we serve. 

• In order to complete the core narrative pieces of the MSP, we will soon be formally asking members of the congregation for their valuable input regarding Zion’s current values, mission, and vision. The committee discussed the possibility of using several methods to collect your thoughts, which will include all or some of the following: soliciting written responses during church services, scheduling in-person meetings that will take place both before and after worship, providing large sheets of paper in the church on which people can record their ideas, offering online opportunities for people to give input, and several possible others. 

As action items for our next meeting, we agreed to review the synod’s videos for recommended questions to ask the congregation and to identify more possible ways to collect input.

We plan to meet biweekly on Thursdays for the next couple of months and then adjust the schedule as needed after spring break. Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, January 23 at the church.

Our goal is to be as transparent as possible throughout the process, so please don’t hesitate to contact us with your thoughts, concerns, or questions. And please keep us in your prayers!

You’ll find more more detailed information on the call process here: https://www.seiasynod.org/call-process

You can view a three-minute informational video about the MSP here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/11140959/video/954922465

Respectfully,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, and Gary Reimer (co-chair)

The Call Committee has formed and will be installed during the worship service on Sunday, January 12.  Call Committee members met in mid-December to learn about the call process from Pastor Dan Kuckuck, our synod’s Assistant to the Bishop for Leadership and Congregational Transitions. The Call Committee will meet again on January 9, and will aim to meet biweekly going forward. During the coming weeks and with essential input from the congregation, the committee will work together to identify Zion’s current values, mission and vision. This will help the committee create a Ministry Site Profile (MSP), a snapshot of Zion to share with the congregation, synod, and prospective pastoral candidates. The committee will be communicating more details soon on opportunities for gathering inputs from the congregation.  Please keep the committee in your prayers. 

You’ll find more detailed information on the call process here: https://www.seiasynod.org/call-process

You can view a three-minute informational video about the MSP here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/11140959/video/954922465

Respectfully submitted,

Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle, Janis Bultman (co-chair), Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Matt Hafar, Kristi Harper, Gary Reimer (co-chair)

Call Committee Update

The members of the call committee have been updated to include Janis Bultman and Gary Reimer as co-chairs of the committee. 

Jim Lane has stepped down from the committee due to health issues. We appreciate his willingness to serve  and send our prayers for his recovery. 

Call Committee Members: Janis Bultman, Gary Reimer, Matt Hafar, Mike Cilek, Sarah Gunderson, Wendy Berg, Jessica Boyle ,Kristi Harper