Call Process Booklet

develop a rationale for this activity that was clearly communicated in the materials and
procedures that the synod would use.
Most people are quick to name the negatives that accompanied their experience of the
call process. And I will too. But let it be said, first, that there are clear positives —
congregations successfully undertake the difficult journey that begins in grief and ends
in anticipation, rostered leaders are renewed as they discover new possibilities for their
vision and energy, opportunities to help a ministry setting refocus its mission and
redesign its ministry to find room to grow, and so, despite our frustrations with the
process, God is honored, and the march of the church into the hurts and hearts of this
world picks up its pace.
Joy may come
in the morning,
but many feel
that the call
process
causes us to
linger too long
in the night.
This joy may come in the morning, but many feel that the call process causes us to
linger too long in the night. In 2002, The Lutheran published the results of a very
unscientific survey they had conducted, asking about the experience people had with
the call process. Fully half of the 280 respondents found it to be frustrating; only 15
percent found it to be wonderful. The negatives included the lack of consistency across
the 65 call processes in use in the ELCA, the extended duration of many processes,
the poor communication among the parties to the call process, the mandates for
confidentiality, and the inability to locate an adequate pool of qualified candidates for
consideration. Committees and rostered leaders alike had their horror stories to tell,
and “the synod” was often the perpetrator.
Growing Momentum
The 2003 Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee considered a memorial that originated in
the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod. The memorial cited the confusion and negative
reactions associated with the call process and asked that a study be conducted
resulting in recommendations that might improve the situation. The memorial
specifically expressed a desire for a call process handbook, for information on best
practices, and for information about legal implications. I attended that assembly but I
don’t recall any discussion around this issue, perhaps because it was so obviously a
no-brainer. The call process needed attention.
In 2004, the ELCA Church Council called for a task force to work on this issue. Twenty
leaders representing all segments of the ELCA gathered; Roy Oswald of the Alban
Institute was the resource person. We were divided into work groups to concentrate on
various parts of the problem. We listened, surveyed, mapped out ideas, and presented
some recommendations to a 2006 meeting of the Conference of Bishops. The ideas
that emerged in the task force meeting are now shaping the Mobility Database Project,
begun in 2007, and scheduled for completion by December 2008.
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