The Concordia Story: A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church 1951-2001

Still the period beginning in January was a
painful one for Concordia.
“I can remember in early January getting six
and seven calls a day in my office from members
and staff asking, ‘Gee, what do we do about this
and what do we do about that.’ The first problem
was that I didn’t know the answers, and the
second was that these were decisions that Dr.
Merkens had usually made. We had the typical
power struggles going on that you have when
you change leadership.
“But Pastor Ebs hung in there through all that
and was really helpful in working through the
tough decisions.”
The greater challenge was finding a senior
pastor for the church. Concordia had never
formed a call committee before, so the group
had to learn how other LCMS congregations
approached the task and then had to invent its
own rules specific to Concordia.
According to Ebs, “They always said that a
church would be vacant for one month for each
year the previous pastor had served. That would
have been three and a half years. I would have
gotten ulcers and died. We just didn’t have that
luxury of time.
“We began our task without any preordained
choices. We really started from ground zero.”
Seale says the call committee planned to have
a call out no later than May of 1994. In reality,
the call was issued in March, just three months
after formation of the committee.
“Dr. Merkens’ leadership and instruction led
the process we incorporated into that committee,”
said Seale. “We knew we were Concordia Lutheran
Church and we were different. The whole process
was goal-oriented, thanks to the legacy left by Dr.
Merkens. We told Pastor Kieschnick [President of
the Texas District in 1994] that we were going to
call a pastor and have him here in six months. He
just couldn’t believe we were working on such a
schedule. In reality, from our first meeting on
December 19 to the installation on June 5 was less
than six months. That’s rather remarkable, when
you think about it.”
The committee actually received no input
from the Texas District, as recommendations
were not received in the time frame set by the
aggressive group.
The call committee initially requested that members
of Concordia nominate pastors to be considered
for the call. Thirty-six nominations were received
and a few of these declined to be considered.
Questionnaires were filled out by the candidates
and reviewed by the committee.
Phone interviews were also conducted.
“Very quickly we got the list down to five,”
said Seale. “Then we cut it to three. The cut to
three was really difficult, though.”
Members of the committee volunteered to travel
unannounced to hear the finalists preach. Gorder
and Seale just happened to draw the assignment to
go to Michigan to hear Dr. William Thompson,
pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica.
“When I heard him preach, I told Joe, ‘This
guy is pretty special,’” recalled Seale. “We were
the last ones to leave the church. Dr. Thompson
and his wife were greeting everyone. I had never
✦
Left: Concordia confirmed 84 youth in
1985, the largest junior confirmation
class ever in the Missouri Synod.
Below: Concordia’s parking lot at
Basse Road had spaces for over
600 automobiles.
Chapter III ✦ 47