Call Process Booklet

year with no guarantees that it might not result in a bad match after all. They don’t like
filling out forms and trying to represent themselves well, and they also don’t like the
intensive scrutiny of Call Committee interviews. They enter the process anticipating a
more fulfilling ministry, a greater degree of family and financial security, but find that the
seeds of struggle over these issues are already present in the interview itself.
Synod Staff
My experience as a call process administrator leads to a list of my own frustrations. I
struggle with the suspiciousness that tends to greet me when I first visit a congregation
to introduce the call process. I am forever amazed by the manifold, inventive ways
people have of subverting and derailing the process. I am concerned about the
entitlement mentality among some rostered leaders that fails to realize that in this day
and time they do have to show results and exhibit leadership that is creative and
missional. I am awestruck by the destructive power of poor communication. And I am
often frustrated by the difficulty of knowing who are “out there” seeking call, what kind
of a ministry setting they might be seeking, and the kind of gifts and passions that they
could bring to their next calls.
The goals of
the ELCA’s
Mobility
Database
Project hold
the promise of
ushering in a
new day in the
call process
work.
Fixing What is Broken
Fixing this situation cannot be accomplished with ease or speed. The
recommendations of the task force in 2006 certainly did not foresee an obvious “fix.”
But the recommendations noted that steps could be taken to make improvements.
While synods pursue the form of the call process that fits their context, we can, on the
churchwide level, provide some tools and supports that can help each of the parties to
the call process faithfully do their work. New churchwide resources can help us identify
the common language and understandings about call and the call process that unite
us. Printed resources can be gathered together that speak to best practices and great
ideas that would benefit rostered leaders, congregations, and synods alike. Technology
can be mustered to give a degree of transparency, mutuality, and timeliness to this
work. Using the Web, congregations can be given a way to publicize their vacancy, and
the call process administrators can be given a way to learn about the availability of
rostered leaders. Creativity and initiative can be encouraged and rewarded.
Cooperation among those engaged in the call process can be strengthened and
enhanced.
These are the goals of the ELCA’s Mobility Database Project, undertaken last summer
to create
1. new forms that encourage reflection, creativity, and a missional mindset;
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Walking together † for the sake of mission † in God’s world
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