|
Called
to Adventure. The Ministry of LeRoy Ness
I was called to prepare for this adventure in the
Church and was blessed to be a student at Luther Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota. The faculty represented
different perspectives on liturgical form and evangelical zeal but
they all had a common love for the confessions and a respect for each other.
I am thankful that I was taught to examine all sides of an issue and to respect the other and
remain true to the confessions of the church.
It was a blessing to enter the seminary with a
wife. Evelyn was the primary means of support through the seminary and internship years. She left a good
position as the head elementary school librarian in the West St.
Paul School system to follow to Ascension Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for
internship. We had a great internship under Hoover and Shirley Grimsby.
Our first call was to the Bruce-Exeland Lutheran
parish in Northern Wisconsin. There I continued to learn what it was to be a Lutheran Pastor and Evelyn
learned how to support a community. We both learned how to celebrate life and the lives of the people on a very small income. As I recall it was the lowest paid call from
the seminary in 1960. But it was a blessing as the people wanted the church and wanted to be the
church.
While at Luther I came under the influence of Gynther Storaasli who recruited
me and many of my fellow students into The Army Chaplaincy Reserve Program. In 1961 the Department of
Defense notified the Lutheran Church bodies that the thirty-four
spaces allocated for Lutheran Chaplains would either have to be filled or the spaces would be
given to church bodies that would fill them.
It was with a heavy heart that Evelyn and I left
Bruce, Wisconsin. We reported for active duty with the 101st
Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On arrival my
first thought was, "Ness what have you done. You left a place were you were loved and cared
for and have come to a place where no one cares." That thought was driven out of my head with the
first worship service. People cared, God had been there before us and we were embraced
by the people of God.
Our lives in the Army Chaplaincy were filled with
adventure and upheld by God's grace. Our daughter, Elizabeth, was born while we lived and served at
Fort Campbell. We moved often during the Viet Nam War years. Elizabeth was
in three different pre-schools, four elementary schools, and three high schools.
Evelyn was a stay at home mom all those years and she developed numerous leadership and
organizational skills in support of the chapels and the post
communities. At our last assignment we lived in northern Virginia and Evelyn was on the board of
the National Military Family Association.
I enjoyed every day of the twenty-five year
ministry with soldiers. Many times I have experienced a greater sense of inclusion in the Army than I
experience in the civilian church. There is distinction and difference between a private and a general but they both belong. They are both soldiers.
That is not always as clearly seen in the church where we proclaim all are members of the same
body and there is no distinction We are one. This oneness was
operational on a daily basis in the army: in field exercises, garrison duty, war or training; we
were in this together. In physical training we were together. A ten mile run or a twenty mile march was
not a success unless we all finished together. Everything was a training for battle to support
the other and to finish together. The mission of the Army is to close with the enemy and overcome
him. Our mission in the church is to close with the enemy, the devil, and overcome him. We fail to train
together as one in the body of Christ that we might be successful in
our corporate and individual contests with sin, death and the power of the devil.
Upon retirement from my Army duty at the Pentagon I
accepted a call to Zion Lutheran Church on Staten Island and Evelyn and I moved into the parsonage. We
celebrated four and one half years of adventure at Zion. Evelyn was
active in synod work of the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Zion is a congregation with
a history of effective youth work. That effectiveness is witnessed in the large number of students
called to enter the seminary and prepare for the office of ministry in the church. Zion also celebrated
a strong youth retreat ministry.
The adventure in ministry called us from Zion, a beautiful modern church, to Trinity, a beautiful baroque
church. Trinity is located in Kingston, New York in the beautiful Hudson Valley. Evelyn was pleased that
our ministry continued in the Metro New York Synod as
her activity with the synod women's work would continue. Trinity developed an active ministry in the
community. We all worked together to restore the beautiful old building. The
community took note of this restoration effort and the mayor said that
the restoration of Trinity was a source of motivation for the restoration of the area. Trinity sponsored many world class musical groups and opened its doors
to the community with groups from Germany, Russia, South Africa and New York City. It was a great adventure to be part of a restored church in an area of Kingston that
was being restored.
When I turned seventy it was time for a new
adventure. We retired from Trinity and made ourselves available for
an interim ministry anyplace in the world that is interesting.
That interesting place turned out to be close by in Gilbertsville, Pa. New Hanover Lutheran Church is
the oldest German Speaking congregation in the United States. It dates to 1700 and the church building
from the 1740's. Two beautiful churches followed by a third beautiful church after leaving the
military service.
Upon completing a thirteen month interim we were
returning to our house in Kingston and were discussing what we would do now that we are retired. About
a month later Pastor Malfatti left Third Lutheran in Rhinebeck for a call to Florida. So with a
month off I now have the joy of serving a beautiful colonial village Lutheran Church. Shortly after I
came to Third, Memorial in Rock City and St. Paul's Red Hook were
vacated and were being served by interim pastors. The leadership looked to their future and determined
that the only sustainable course of action would be to form a three point parish.
After eighteen months of meetings and getting to know each other we gathered
together in celebration and signed our Covenant of Agreement. This covenant was signed by leaders of the
three congregations, the two pastors serving the three congregations
and Bishop Rimbo of The Metropolitan New York Synod. The three point parish was established and came
into being January 2, 2010. Pastor Dennis O'Rouke and I serve the parish
together. At a date still to be determined I will have the joy of being the pastor of two more
beautiful churches and Dennis will go on to a new adventure.
Our attitude to every new adventure is summed up in
a response by our daughter Elizabeth. She had just finished the first
grade when I told her of our first assignment to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Her response was,
"Daddy I am going to like Kansas Fort Leavenworth. There will be a lot of nice people
there too."
I expect to retire before I am eighty but if I do not I have flunked retirement so many times that I am used to
that failure.
|