Farewell, Pastor!

The dual parish of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Danville Township, and First Lutheran Church, Waldorf, held a shared service on January 7 to say good-bye to Pastor Michael Mathews, who has served them since 1999. After the service, members of the congregations shared a pot-luck meal, during which they presented Mathews with a parting gift: a clock whose face has been specially printed with a message of thanks and appreciation.

 

Mathews has accepted a call to begin a position with the Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church in Pinetop, Arizona; his installation there is scheduled for February 3.

Mathews admits his career has followed an interesting, and perhaps ironic, path. When seminary student Michael Mathews finished his training to become a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor in the early 1990s, he was asked about his preferences.

 

“I said, since I was used to warmer climates, I would prefer a placement somewhere with mild weather,” he remembers. “And I said I would like to continue working with campus ministry.

 

“Not much later they came back to me and asked which one of those two was more important.”

 

In 1994, Mathews became the campus pastor at Minnesota State University Mankato. He says he enjoyed providing support and guidance to young people at a time of transition and change. As for the cold weather, he concedes he “never really warmed to sub-zero temperatures.”

 

By 1999, he says he was ready for a change. “One thing about campus ministry,” he observes, “is that every semester there’s a sense of starting over and rebuilding. It’s a constant process.”

 

At that time, Mathews had been serving the dual parish of St. John’s and First Lutheran as a “vacancy pastor,” usually an inherently temporary position.

 

“They asked me to stay on,” he recalls. “And now it’s been 24 years that God had me stay.

“It’s certainly not what I had pictured back as I finished my seminary training,” he admits, then shrugs slightly as he says, “We don’t always know what’s best for us, but God does.”

 

Among the many elements he has enjoyed in his work over the past two decades, Mathews names the opportunity to work with people across the various stages of the lifespan. This includes, for example, having baptized and confirmed one young congregation member who is now an adult and has become one of her congregation’s organists. It also includes having officiated at the weddings of young couples and then baptized their children.

 

He has also always been grateful, he says, that the two churches he serves have consistently worked together well and resolved any conflicts “in a God-pleasing manner.”

 

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church is located at about 6,800 feet in the White Mountain range, more than three hours northeast of Phoenix. Information shared with him, Mathews says, indicates the area is something of a summer destination with many cabins and vacation homes where Arizonans can go to retreat from the famously high temperatures of the desert climate. “They tell me the church attendance is roughly double in the summertime,” he shares.

 

The church was encouraged to call Pastor Mathews by some lifelong friends who were once fellow members of his home congregation in San Bernardino, California, and who are now retired in the area.

 

Mathews says he is looking forward to the opportunity to get to know a new community and help its members grow in faith. He admits his thoughts have also occasionally turned to his future retirement, in perhaps eight or ten years. “Arizona is one of the areas I had been considering,” he says. “Now I will have a chance to get to know the area better.”

He also expects to enjoy the warmer climate and the opportunity to go hiking in the mountains.