MENU
SECTIONS
OTHER
CLASSIFIEDS
CONTACT US / FAQ
Advertisement
The congregation sining during the service at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo, Ohio, on September 1, 2019. The congregation is celebrating its 50th anniversary. They recently came together with Epiphany Lutheran Church to form the West Toledo Parish, which is essentially run as one parish with two churches. They're served by Pastor Steve Smithberger and Vicar David Frye [not present]. The Blade/Jetta Fraser.
19
MORE

A breed apart: At 50, All Saints Lutheran still breaking new ground

THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER

A breed apart: At 50, All Saints Lutheran still breaking new ground

Since they gathered for their first-ever worship service at Luke’s Barn on Sept. 29,1968, All Saints Lutheran Church has been drawn to the new and the different.

They didn’t want a traditional liturgy. They didn’t want traditional hymns. And when they eventually moved into their own church on Heatherdowns Boulevard in 1975, they didn’t want a traditional-looking church, Ted Beitelschees said.

He’s been a member since he was tossing paper airplanes at the back of the barn services as a child.

Advertisement

So as his congregation enters a landmark anniversary year – 50 years since they signed their charter in 1969 – he said it makes sense to him that they would do so with a new and different model of ministry. Since February, All Saints Lutheran Church and Epiphany Lutheran Church, another parish under the Northwest Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have been operating together as the West Toledo Parish.

Statue of Cardinal John Henry Newman at the Corpus Christi University Parish in Toledo.
Nicki Gorny
Soon-to-be-saint is venerated namesake for college Catholic clubs

Of particular note is their pastoral leadership: They’re served by a veteran pastor, the Rev. Steve Smithberger, as well as a seminarian, David Frye, in an arrangement that’s treading new ground in the synod.

Instead of a more traditional path through seminary, which sees a candidate for ordination in their denomination spend just one of four years in an internship, their vicar, as they call Mr. Frye, is essentially training on the ground as he simultaneously pursues his master of divinity degree

If You Go

What: Marching Forward In Faith, celebrating 50 years of ministry at All Saints Lutheran Church

When: 10:30 a.m. Sunday, worship, followed by a potluck

Where: All Saints Lutheran Church, 5445 Heatherdowns Blvd.

Information: bit.ly/2lLXqCt

He’s currently enrolled in the collaborative learning program at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Iowa, which has been offering this seminary model since 2016. He takes classes virtually.

Advertisement

He’s the first to take this path through seminary in the Northwest Ohio Synod, although a similar program, Theological Education for Emerging Ministries, or TEEM, is set to launch locally with a first cohort in the fall, according to Sherry Krieger, the synod’s director of leadership development and congregational care. The five individuals in this cohort will likewise pursue ordination while simultaneously serving a regional parish, but they’ll be working toward a certificate rather than a master’s degree while they’re in seminary.

The synod expects to see more of these nontraditional paths through seminary going forward.

“The world is changing. Our church is changing,” Ms. Krieger said. “We need to respond in ways that allow us to be flexible.”

Mr. Beitelschees sees his congregation as well positioned to try that out.

First Unitarian Church of Toledo
The Blade
Religious offerings: Come together for World Peace Day

“I think it’s entirely fitting that we would be doing something new and novel,” Mr. Beitelschees said. “We’ve been doing that all along.”

Call to action

All Saints Lutheran Church isn’t new to the role of a pastoral training ground in some ways, as Mr. Beitelschees and Norm Merkel, another long-time member of the congregation, can attest. They’ve welcomed five intern pastors since 1982, according to a detailed history prepared in line with an anniversary celebration this weekend. One former intern, Brad Gee, even went on to accept a call to serve there as a full-time pastor in 1987.

The current arrangement was catalyzed by the retirement of the Rev. Brenda Piper in December, 2018. Mr. Beitelschees and Mr. Merkel recalled that the congregation was told to expect the process to call a new full-time pastor to extend for at least two years.

It was Pastor Smithberger, then serving Epiphany Lutheran Church, who approached Northwest Ohio Synod Bishop Daniel Beaudoin with the idea that the congregations could better utilize their local seminarian. Pastor Smithberger had been tapped to take on some of the responsibilities for the nearby congregation until they would have a new pastor in place.

Mr. Frye had been a long-time member of his congregation at Epiphany. Mr. Frye had grown up in the ELCA, and always felt called toward some sort of involvement in the church, he said. But it wasn’t until a sermon in September 2017 – he was 35 at the time – when he experienced a call toward ordained ministry that he joked felt like he’d been hit upside the head.

He enrolled in online classes through United Lutheran Seminary in August, 2018, and had since been juggling those classes with his job at the Zepf Center.

“I’m looking at that and thinking, ‘Why are you working there if we’ve got pulpits that need to be filled?’,” Pastor Smithberger recalled.

The conversation with the bishop led to the creation of the West Toledo Parish, a partnership in which the two churches share some, but not all, elements of day-to-day operations. All Saints Lutheran Church and Epiphany Lutheran Church each retain their own distinct identity and membership, for example, even as they work and sometimes worship together.

Vicar Frye serves both churches as a “synodically authorized minister.” He’s under the instruction and supervision of his senior pastor, who likewise serves both churches, but he otherwise has essentially the same pastoral duties as any ordained minister.

“We didn’t hesitate to say let’s give it a shot,” Mr. Beitelschees said.

“I think both congregations are excited about participating in the formation of a new pastor,” Pastor Smithberger said. “That has been something that I think people have really grabbed onto.”

A numbers game

A lengthy call period isn’t unusual in mainline denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where any talk of pulpits that need to be filled isn’t quite as straight-forward as simply looking at ratio of nationwide pastors to parishes.

In a report on clergy supply and demand in the denomination released in 2016, researchers considered numerous factors, including the decreasing number of nationwide congregations with the financial capacity to call a full-time pastor. They concluded that the denomination is seeing a shortage of clergy: In simplest terms, pastors are retiring at a higher rate than they’re being ordained.

When they released the report in 2016, researchers projected that by 2019, retirements would outpace ordinations by 197 in the ELCA. The gap between pastors and the congregations that could afford to call them would yawn to 1,020.

(That’s 5,844 projected pastor to 6,864 projected congregations.)

The difference between ordinations and retirements became notable in 2012. In 2010, for comparison, the number of pastors was just 13 short of the number of congregations that could afford to call them.

“There’s clearly fewer pastors available and fewer people going into seminary, which is one of those reasons for a more flexible response to education in our church,” Ms. Krieger, of the Northwest Ohio Synod, said. TEEM and arrangements like the West Toledo Parish are “an alternative way to raise up leaders from within who have the gifts for ministry.”

Vicar Frye sees the benefits, too. For seminarians like himself, who are in second- or third-careers and who are often as a consequence more established in their communities, it can be difficult to relocate to a seminary, as once would have been the norm.

Distance learning has helped in this regard, he said.

“But seminary is still expensive and it can still be difficult to perform a job in the secular world while still trying to meet the needs of the spiritual one,” he said. “With this collaborative learning program, you get to marry the need with what abilities you have.”

For All Saints and for Vicar Frye, the current arrangement is working out well. As a synodically authorized minister, he’s able to preside over most sacraments like communion or baptisms, the same as an ordained minister. He’s heading up youth and family ministries for the West Toledo Parish, and he preaches at one of the other church each weekend.

He said he hopes to see paths to ordination like his more prevalent in the future.

“I would hope this style of program really does take off,” he said.

First Published September 14, 2019, 12:01 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS  
Join the Conversation
We value your comments and civil discourse. Click here to review our Commenting Guidelines.
Must Read
Partners
Advertisement
The congregation sining during the service at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo, Ohio, on September 1, 2019. The congregation is celebrating its 50th anniversary. They recently came together with Epiphany Lutheran Church to form the West Toledo Parish, which is essentially run as one parish with two churches. They're served by Pastor Steve Smithberger and Vicar David Frye [not present]. The Blade/Jetta Fraser.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger, left, offers communion to Rex Yarger, right, and other members at All Saints Lutheran Church on Sept. 1 in Toledo. The congregation is celebrating its 50th anniversary. They recently came together with Epiphany Lutheran Church to form the West Toledo Parish.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger, left, speaks with some of the younger parishioners Sept. 1 at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo. They recently came together with Epiphany Lutheran Church to form the West Toledo Parish.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Vicar David Frye
Pastor Steve Smithberger, facing camera, offers communion Sept. 1 at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger, facing camera, offers communion at All Saints Lutheran Church on Sept. 1 in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger, right, speaks with parishioners as they leave after service Sept. 1 at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo. The painting above is a rendition of the 'Last Supper' featuring locals in the same positions as the Apostles.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger, facing camera from right, prays with some young parishioners at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo on Sept. 1 after speaking with them directly about how "nothing good comes from fighting."  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Ninety-one people attended the first worship service at Luke’s Barn, a rental hall at the Lucas County Recreation Center, on Sept. 29, 1968. All Saints Lutheran Church moved to Heatherdowns Boulevard in 1975, and is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Ninety-one people attended the first worship service at Luke’s Barn, a rental hall at the Lucas County Recreation Center, on Sept. 29, 1968. All Saints Lutheran Church moved to Heatherdowns Boulevard in 1975, and is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
All Saints Lutheran Church broke ground on its current church in 1974, and began worshiping there the following year. The design of the church is intentionally nontraditional.
Pastor Steve Smithberger, facing camera, offers communion at All Saints Lutheran Church on Sept. 1 in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger, facing camera, offers communion Sept. 1 at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo. The congregation is celebrating its 50th anniversary. They recently came together with Epiphany Lutheran Church to form the West Toledo Parish, which is essentially run as one parish with two churches. They're served by Pastor Steve Smithberger and Vicar David Frye [not pictured].  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo pictured Sept. 1.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Pastor Steve Smithberger speaks during the service at All Saints Lutheran Church in Toledo on Sept. 1.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Early members of All Saints Lutheran Church break ground on their currently building, 5445 Heatherdowns Blvd., on July 14, 1974. The design is intentionally nontraditional.
All Saints Lutheran Church members worship for the first time in their current sanctuary on Feb. 23, 1975.
THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
Pittsburgh skyline silhouette
TOP
Email a Story