We are excited to share that that the Synod Council has called the Reverend Kristen Schmid to serve as our new full-time Assistant to the Bishop for Transformational Communities. Growing out of the CaSTLE Project (Community and Small Town Lived Ecclesiology) with Wartburg Theological Seminary, the Assistant to the Bishop for Transformational Communities will serve collaboratively with our current synod staff and leaders in cultivating an ecclesiological transformation in small town and rural communities across the synod, focused on baptismal renewal and mission. This position will accompany small town and rural communities of disciples by nurturing in them a rediscovery of God’s baptismal mission and identity for them and by equipping them with resources for more fully living into Christ’s mission in their local contexts and beyond. Funded by the generous CaSTLE Project grant we received from Wartburg Seminary, this position is a five-year term call.
Since 2021, Pastor Schmid has been serving as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Logansport, Indiana, and St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Camden, Indiana, two small rural congregations north of Lafayette. Having grown up in California, Pastor Schmid graduated from Stanford University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology. In 2001, she earned a Master of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2021, she graduated from Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (LSTC) with her Master of Divinity degree, having completed her internship at Salem Lutheran Church in Peoria. Prior to ordination, Kristen served as the Director of Spiritual Gifts Ministries at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Springfield and, for 17 years, worked as a photojournalist with an emphasis on documentary storytelling.
Pastor Schmid will begin her new role here in the synod on September 16 and will be present with us at our Fall Theological Conference at Pere Marquette. “I feel that God is calling me to take the exciting risk of paying attention to how the Holy Spirit is moving in our rural congregations,” Pastor Schmid says, “and to work with others to steward the gifts of what we find.”
Pastor Schmid is married to Ted Schurter, also a photographer and journalist. They have two sons: Samuel (19) and Eli (16).
We look forward to welcoming Pastor Schmid back to our synod in this new calling. Come, Holy Spirit!