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Walking into the 2023 Rostered Ministers Gathering in the middle of a sweltering summer in Phoenix, Jealaine Marple wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
“I was hemming and hawing about whether I wanted to go,” the pastor said, “because it’s July in Phoenix, and who does that to themselves?” But then the gathering put out the call for workshop and affinity group volunteers, and Marple, founder of the Facebook group “Lutheran Leader Moms,” decided to bring her fellow “moms in ministry” together in Phoenix.
It was the right decision. “The best way to describe it is that I didn’t know that’s what I needed until I got there,” she said. “You don’t know how thirsty you are until you start drinking.”
A time of intentional connection
First held in Atlanta in 2017, then in Phoenix in 2023 after a COVID-related hiatus, the Rostered Ministers Gathering is “a time of intentional connection” when pastors and deacons “can renew our strength, enjoy camaraderie with colleagues and reflect on the Holy Spirit’s work among us.”
This year, rostered ministers will gather July 6-9 in Indianapolis under the theme “Woven Together,” centered on Ephesians 2:10: “For we are what [God] has made us.”
Participants will explore what it means to be “woven together” through:
- Sessions featuring dynamic keynote speakers, including Teresa Smallwood, the James Franklin Kelly and Hope Eyster Kelly Associate Professor of Public Theology and vice president and dean of academic affairs at United Lutheran Seminary; and Yehiel Curry, ELCA presiding bishop.
- Worship that includes beautiful music and powerful preaching with Stephanie Spellers, canon-in-residence of St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City; Baird Linke, writer, ecojustice activist and pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Bonner, Mont.; Sharei Green, Womanist theologian and pastor of United Faith Lutheran Church in Chicago; and Lucille “CeCee” Mills, ELCA secretary.
- Workshops that offer opportunities for learning, reflection and connection across ministry contexts.
- Time in community with affinity groups.
This year’s gathering is leaning into the importance of creatively combining different and seemingly disparate threads: it will feature both a theologian and artist-in-residence. Leila Ortiz, former bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod, will work in tandem with Lori Kochanski, a fiber artist and ELCA pastor, to link together the event’s worship experiences, workshops and keynote sessions. Kochanski will create a tapestry made from fabric contributed by her fellow rostered ministers.
“The polarities are strong. The season is heavy,” Ortiz said “As rostered ministers of the gospel, we’re called to all of it and to everyone … that’s messy and complicated … the threads that are involved in the tapestry aren’t all the same colors or the same material. We’re all different with different lived experiences and worldviews, and we’re bringing all of it to the work and the creative process.
“[Lori] will give a creative lens … and by the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I’ll be able to give language to what we’re experiencing together—how all the conversations, all the sermons and all the addresses have implications for our discipleship and leadership beyond our time together … especially for such a time as this.”
Walking this road together
What does coming together with colleagues in ministry mean for attendees? Susan Candea, former bishop of the Central States Synod and a 2023 gathering alumna, said it means building relationships with other pastors and deacons—an essential activity in today’s faith community.
“The more we can build relationships with one another, the more we find spaces and opportunities to be vulnerable and speak our truth, the more empowered we are to go back into our congregations and model that kind of relationship-building with others,” she said.
Marple, interim pastor of Salem Lutheran Church just outside Kansas City, highlights the joy of knowing and being known: being able to talk shop with people who understand, whether it’s about worship, Sunday school, or navigating a fractured social and political landscape. “There’s beauty in being in a room with people who speak the same language … we’re walking this road together,” she said.
Ortiz affirmed, “We remind each other that we’re not alone. … We can simply be together, lament together, rejoice together and tell the whole story of our experience.”
It’s not just about relationships with each other. The gathering also allows leaders to strengthen their relationship with God, to stop the ever-flowing tide of tasks, duties and responsibilities and listen to God’s voice.
“We all need to pause and take a breath of the Spirit,” Candea said.
An event like this is a rare opportunity for pastors and deacons to sit in the pews and be fed. “The Rostered Ministers Gathering took the things that I love about church and put them in one place,” Marple said. “Awesome music, amazing worship, fantastic speakers … win, win, win.”
It’s a different kind of continuing education that weaves together the practical and the spiritual, where the everyday grind of ministry meets the wonder, grace and truth found in quality time with the Divine and siblings in Christ. “When you come to this, you bring your experiences into a context where you can continue to learn and ask questions and grow,” Candea said.
Ortiz sees this process of doing faith together, especially in today’s divided social and political climate, as “balm for the sick soul” that provides “room for healing and wholeness” so pastors and deacons can “continue serving and saying yes to the call God has placed before us.”
Marple, Candea and Ortiz all encourage their colleagues in ministry to come to Indianapolis this summer for a time of self-care. Calling to mind the prophet Elijah receiving divine nourishment after fleeing from Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1-8) and the angels ministering to Jesus after his temptation (Matthew 4:11), Marple said, “It’s a chance to lay down the stole of pastor or deacon and receive care.”
They also see inherent value in congregations supporting their leaders’ gathering attendance. “This is an investment in the health of your minister for the sake of the health of your community,” Candea said.
Marple summarized: “Healthy leaders result in healthy congregations.”
Ortiz added, “The church and the world can’t afford for the truth tellers and the healers and those who participate in matters of justice to believe they’re alone in the world.
“This is exactly the right time to be in community, be with colleagues, listen and learn from one another.”
All ELCA deacons, pastors, bishops and candidates approved for call are invited to attend the gathering. Early bird registration is open through March 31, and regular registration closes June 5. For more information and to register, visit elca.org/rmg.
