Ending is coming to a ministry that is important to me. Each summer from 1988–2024, the ACTS Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program gathered an ecumenical cohort of preachers from across the United States, Canada, Sweden, and several other countries—along with leading teachers of preaching—for three weeks of classes in Chicago. The students then returned home and, working with a group in their congregation, integrated what they learned into their preaching. I served as dean of this program from 2002–2014. I loved both the work and the people I worked with. Ending my service was hard.
In June, this program held its last summer residency and will end after graduation in 2025. Even though I’ve been away for more than a decade, I was stunned when I received this news. Learning ending is coming to something in which I had so invested myself was hard. Part of me wanted to stop ending from coming. I considered attending the closing celebration. Thankfully, the bishop in me counseled the former dean in me that my presence would not be helpful. The last thing the program’s current leaders needed was me showing up feeling sad or mad or as if I still had a say.
Even more thankfully, a friend who would attend the celebration telephoned and invited my remembrances and reflections. I recalled cherished friendships. I was able to express that the program was important to me. I acknowledged the work we did was meaningful. I admitted I’m sad the program is ending. And I declared my support for the leaders who made the decision to end. Then, to my surprise, another friend sent me a coffee mug from the closing celebration, which I will cherish, at least for a time. When endings come, we grieve. We grieve even harder when we are powerless to stop endings from coming. So, we do our best to express our grief rather than attack, blame, or undermine others.
Ending is coming to a partnership that is dear to me. My friend David is retiring as Director for Evangelical Mission and Assistant to the Bishop in November. David and I became partners in November 2013 and made our partnership official in January 2014. David loves the work and loves the people with whom he works, by which I mean David loves this synod. I expect David will find ending his service hard. I expect that, in the coming years, David will have to watch from the sidelines as ending comes to things in which he invested himself. We can do as my friends did for me and invite David to remember, reflect, and grieve.
I am curious what retirement will look like for David. I give him 15 minutes rocking on his porch before he is on to something else. In reality, David is moving into the next chapter of his life. This will be inconvenient, disruptive, even scary for our synod and for us. We can either bless David or resent David. I recall sitting at my desk in Chicago the day after I was elected bishop. One after another, people filed in to express their dismay that I was forsaking my call to teach preaching, which came from the whole church, to serve a single synod as bishop. Boy, was I feeling guilty because I was deserting my post. Thankfully, a colleague sat down across from me and said, “Craig, you are an excellent preaching professor. You were built to be a bishop.” On my last evening in my office, as I was picking up the last box, putting my keys in my desk drawer, and closing my locked office door behind me, another colleague stepped up and quietly thanked me for my service and assured me that God was calling me to be bishop. When endings come, we bless. We thank. We keep our disappointment and resentment to ourselves, or we find someone safe with whom to share it. We will bless and thank David on November 2 at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Gladwin. Please plan to join us and RSVP here: https://bit.ly/3MCCDu8
Of course, when endings come, we panic. We want to know what comes next. We want to know that everything will be okay. We want answers to questions that no one has the answers to yet. Pastor David, Pastor Chrisy, and I will work together to develop a plan in which David deliberately relinquishes responsibilities in the course of the next three months. I am hoping for a step down rather than a sudden stop. We will keep you posted as the plan unfolds. We will undoubtedly miss something, so we ask for your patience and understanding.
After all, when endings come, some moments are simply jarring. A couple weeks after I was elected bishop, the faculty called a meeting to which I was not invited. It was jarring to be excluded from a meeting of the faculty to which I’d belong for 13 years when there were still three months before I began serving as bishop. It’s hard to live in that in-between space—gone from where you are and not arrived at where you are going. David will experience this—and so will we. When endings come, we therefore endeavor to be understanding and tender with one another.
When endings come, we wait. From December through May, we will be assisted by what churchwide calls “a phone-a-friend DEM” who will advise us “in case you [Bishop Craig] get in over your head.” David and I smiled. Basically, this DEM will consult and keep us informed of everything churchwide wants us to be informed of as Pastor Chrisy and I do the work on the ground. We will begin the process of calling our next DEM and Assistant to the Bishop either in June or October, depending on the outcome of the bishop election in May. If we begin in June, we might expect the position to be filled in September; if we begin in October, we might expect the position to be filled in January.
Most important, when endings come, we trust. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). Jesus does not keep endings from coming. Jesus’ life ended on the cross. And from that ending came a new beginning, as Jesus rose to bring new life as Easter dawned.
When endings come, we can bury our heads in the sand and hope that they will pass us by. We can raise our fists and shout in an attempt to scare endings away. Or we can stand on the rock that is Christ, look endings squarely in the face, acknowledge through our tears that endings are coming, prepare for the endings that will come, and trust Jesus to bring new life.
I know from congregational leaders that I am not alone. Endings are coming to ministries that are important and partnerships that are dear to many of us—in our synod, yes, and also in congregations. Endings are hard and we will grieve. Jesus is with us and will bring new life. I am eager to accompany you on this journey. Please invite me to come alongside whenever I can be helpful.
The Rev. Craig Alan Satterlee, Ph.D., Bishop