(The Christian Post) Since their former Pastor Darren Paulson resigned last September as the COVID-19 pandemic raged into its second year, congregants of Atonement Lutheran Church in Billing Heights, Montana, have been waiting patiently for their local synod to replace him.
With a national shortage of “at least 600” pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America under which the Atonement Lutheran Church operates, according to lay leader Kristin LaVe, it might be some time before their wait for a new pastor is over.
“The shortage [is what’s behind the wait], that’s what they’re telling us from the synod,” Nancy Rupe, the church’s office administrator who now runs the daily operations of the church with more than 260 active members, told The Christian Post on Tuesday. “Our pastor resigned and took a position at another organization in September and so we’ve been in the call process since that time.”