Lutheran church gets creative with pastor shortage, bringing in United Methodist minister

JACKSON TWP. − That Christ Lutheran Church has a new pastor normally wouldn't be big news outside its walls.

Pastors often come and go over time.

What makes the hiring of Rev. Ashwin "Ash" Welch noteworthy is that it took the church, at 3545 Amherst Ave. NW, more than a year to find him ― even though he lived less than a mile away.

It's even more significant because Welch is a retired United Methodist minister whose appointment was made possible because of a historic ministry sharing agreement forged by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and several other denominations, including the United Methodists.

The unusual appointment highlights a larger issue ― a dwindling number of people willing to serve in ministry.

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"The reality is people would rather go into careers in engineering, medical school, computers and networking and other fields; they want to earn more money," Welch said.

"They want to provide for their families. And even in the United Methodist Church, we've had a lot of discussion about how we can raise the salaries of clergy so that they can provide a meaningful wage. That's been a major challenge in ministry all along, not only for the United Methodist and Lutherans, but in every denomination."

Shari Middaugh, Christ Lutheran Church's council president, said the church lost its pastor of 15 years in early 2023 when the Rev. Nancy Bacon's husband accepted a pastoral appointment in Illinois.

In the ensuing months, the church relied on a succession of temporary pastors.

Help wanted: Making a mission profile

"We were informed that a new pastor was going to be anywhere in the ballpark of 12 to 24 months," Middaugh recalled. "I was like, 'Nope, that's not happening. We're gonna speed this up.' (The synod) gave us some resources."

Middaugh said Christ Church was tasked with forming a selection committee and creating a "mission" profile, which was placed on the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's East Ohio Synod website.

"We had to do some self-studying of our own church to find out who we are and what we're looking for in a pastor," she said. "They told us that you may have to be a little more creative in what you're looking for and how you're willing to do that, meaning maybe merging or (pastor) sharing, and different ideas of that nature."

Meanwhile, Middaugh was tasked with finding supply pastors.

"We had probably six or seven different pastors that would come in. They were just here on Sundays; that's all they did," she recalled. "We had a couple of ladies in our office who stepped up did and an awesome job as secretaries."

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America bishop explains the process

Bishop Laura Barbins, prelate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's East Ohio Synod, said replacing a pastor is a more nuanced process than most people realize.

"I think it's important to know that the 12 to 24 months is because it takes that long for a congregation to write a job description," she said.

"We work much more, I would say, like the private sector in terms of a company will see that they have a need, they go to the drawing board and create a job description, and then they post it and then they wait. I know, that's because I'm waiting for somebody to answer a job description of mine. Congregations don't often realize it takes a long time to figure out what you want, and so they don't think about it that way. They think about it like, we won't be able to get them candidates."

Barbins said Christ Church is not the first in the synod to have a pastor from a different denomination. One of their previous pastors was a Presbyterian (USA).

She acknowledged that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America currently has fewer pastoral candidates.

"I think one thing is just ... demographics," she said. "There are less people in general, and now you add to that, there are fewer people in congregations. The biggest growing religion in the United States has been the 'Nones.'"

Barbis said because of the decline in membership, many churches simply can't afford a full-time pastor.

"Of our 145 congregations, about 37% think that they're looking for a pastor," she said. "They might have an interim in place or they probably have some sort of pastoral oversight. But of that 37%, 40% of them aren't in a 'call' process. They're not even looking at it because they just aren't able."

Meet the Rev. Ashwin 'Ash' Welch

Welch, the son of an American father and Indian mother who were Methodist missionaries, was born and raised in Ludhiana, India. He came to America at 17 to attend Heidelberg College, with plans to become a counselor.

"I started working with people with developmental disabilities; adults first, and then children," Welch said. "Later, my wife and I were missionaries in England and India. It was when we returned from India in 1988 that my son challenged me to go into ministry. He was 7. The call had been there, but I didn't respond to it. He kind of nudged me in that direction. He said, 'Papa why don't you go to seminary? You do public speaking and counseling, and that's what preachers do.' And I said, 'Son, who have you've been talking to?'"

Welch entered the Methodist Theological Seminary in Delaware, Ohio, earning dual degrees in theology and counseling.

"And it was during my third year that I became convinced God had called me to ministry," he said.

In 1997, the Lutherans entered into a "Full Communion on the Basis of A Common Calling," a historic agreement to share in baptism, Eucharist and ministry with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Reformed Church in America. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has since forged agreements with other denominations including the UMC, the Moravians, United Church of Christ, Methodists, and the Episcopal church.

"I think, in some ways, God prepared me for this because during my college years, I worshipped for a year in Heidelberg, Germany, with a Lutheran congregation," Welch said. "It was a very early preparation for understanding who Martin Luther was and doctrines like 'Sola Scriptura.' In my last appointment, in Galion, I became close friends with other Lutheran pastors."

Christ Church's appointment of Welch is a case of serendipity and perfect timing. To be closer to their adult sons, who live in Northeast Ohio, Welch and his wife purchased a home in 2023 about a mile from Christ Church.

"We were exploring different churches and settled on one, but it was not this one," he said. "At that point, we were considering United Methodist churches."

Welch said he also was hoping to resume counseling but learned his credentials were no longer valid without doing 2,000 more hours of studying in a practicum.

"The practicum I did 30 years ago no longer counts for anything," he said. "So, I found out that I can't do what I've always wanted to do. I joined the Civil Air Patrol and became the chaplain of the two squadrons at Akron-Canton Airport, but that wasn't enough for me. That was only two Sunday evenings a month; I was looking for something more."

Last July, the Welches came home from a trip to find they couldn't enter their house due to storm damage.

"The power got knocked out because lightning struck a tree in front of our house," he said. "Our neighbors said it may be days until they get it fixed because there were so many people out on calls. So, we went over to Meldrum's Restaurant and after we got done eating, I overheard a couple behind me talking about their church being without a pastor for a long time. And I said, 'Which church is it?' They said it's Christ Lutheran Church, and I said, 'Where is that located?' And they said it's on Amherst, right up the road. And I said, 'You may not know this, but since 2009, we've had a joint agreement between Methodists and Lutherans to share in ministry.' And I gave them my name and number.

"A month later, the bishop's assistant called me and said, 'We're looking for someone help them out.' And he said, 'I checked your record and you're OK to go.' So, my wife served during September of last year, and I did from October 'til December. We were hoping they'd find a pastor in the meantime."

But when the pastor at Otterbein United Methodist Church suddenly quit, Welch was dispatched to Navarre for six months.

"I was very active in ministry there," he said. "Every Sunday, the people said, 'Can't we keep you?' I said, 'No, you have a pastor coming.' I'd hoped that I could come back (to Christ Lutheran) after that."

Middaugh said she hoped so, too.

"Because the synod kept telling us 'God will guide you through this whole process,' I'm like, 'You know what? I think God is yelling at us that Pastor Ash is our person," she said. "I don't know how else he could say it any louder other than a bolt of lightning. So, we all decided that we wanted to pursue him. I reached out to Pastor Ash and said, 'Hey, we want to pursue you if you are interested,' and he said yes, most definitely he was. And so I got hold of the synod and said, 'This is who we want to call.' And they said, 'We need to figure this all out.'"

'A big paradigm shift'

After the pastoral committee, church council and congregation all voted "yes" unanimously, the local Lutheran and UMC bishops successfully negotiated Welch's appointment.

"I consider myself a missionary to the Lutherans," Welch said.

Barbins said several factors have contributed to the trend of fewer clergy, starting with inadequate pay. Even if a pastor works part time elsewhere, parishioners still expect full-time commitment.

"So, I think it's a combination of demographics, and also viable work, and then I think the third third leg of the stool, is we as a church have not been doing a good job encouraging people to go into ministry," she said. "We don't look at somebody and say, 'You know what? You show the gifts that the church needs,' or 'We really see that God is calling you to this,' or they see how much grief their own pastor gets and they think, 'Why would I ever want that?'"

Barbins said she believes the church is undergoing "a big paradigm shift."

"For people who love adventure, who love Jesus and can tolerate a little bit of chaos," she said, "it's a really fun time to be in ministry."

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com . On Twitter: @cgoshayREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Lutheran church gets creative with pastor shortage, bringing in United Methodist minister