Dear Friends in Christ,
Yesterday at worship, I announced that Pastor Syl Estevez has agreed to serve our congregation as our interim pastor.  Pastor Syl will be sharing time between us and his home congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Port Charlotte.  He will begin his ministry with our congregation on July 1st, and Sunday, July 6th, will be his first day of leading worship.  As I previously indicated, it will be necessary to adjust the time of Sunday worship.  Effective July 6th, worship will begin at 10:45 am.  Please join me in welcoming Pastor Estevez to Faith Lutheran.  If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or any of the church council members.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Kamm
Council President, Faith Lutheran Church

Update
Dear Friends in Christ,
Following worship this past Sunday, I provided an update on the status of our call process. I started the discussion with a financial update. Through the first four months of 2025 we are on pace with our budget. However, our seasonal members have departed and, historically, the next 7 months will be a financial challenge. Based on our recent giving history (including the past two years), the council believes we are not in a position to call a fulltime pastor. Our best option is a shared time agreement with another congregation. Many churches are finding themselves in a similar position.

It has been almost 4 months since the council was introduced to Pastor Nicole Eastwood, Assistant to the Bishop for Transition & Candidacy in the Florida/Bahamas synod. Pastor Nicole is our contact to assist with the interim/call process. The synod relies on a pool of candidates mostly comprised of retired pastors from multiple denominations to act as interim pastors. For the first 3 months, no interim candidates were provided to us. Pastor Eastwood indicated our local area is void of candidates.

Four weeks ago, Pastor Eastwood contacted me indicating she believed she had an interim pastor to serve our congregation. Through an associate, Pastor Eastwood met Pastor Syl Estevez of First Presbyterian Church of Port Charlotte. Pastor Estevez had been highly recommended by the Presbyterian Church’s senior leadership. Through their meeting, Pastor Estevez expressed interest in serving as our Interim in a shared time relationship. Pastor Nicole told me there would be one catch: we would need to change the time of our Sunday worship, as First Presbyterian worships Sundays at 9:00 am. I was asked to speak to the council about this opportunity and to get their feedback on changing our worship time. We likely would move our worship start time to 10:45 am. I spoke with all the council members, and we decided to proceed to meet Pastor Estevez. Pastor Eastwood indicated if the meeting went well, she would start to work on the interim contract. I met Pastor Estevez for lunch on May 16th and we had an exceptionally good conversation. The council met with Pastor Estevez for an hour and a half following our council meeting on May 20th. The council was impressed with Pastor Estevez and we decided to proceed. Following the meeting, I e-mailed Pastor Eastwood informing her we wanted to move forward with Pastor Estevez. As of now, I am waiting on a response from Pastor Eastwood. It is our hope to be able to complete the process and have Pastor Estevez in place for July.

There were a lot of good questions and discussions during Sunday’s meeting. I wish the entire congregation could have been in attendance. This message falls short of covering our entire discussion; however, it does provide you with a summary of the council’s rationale and our position in the process.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or any member of the council. I will communicate further as we make progress.

Yours in Christ,

Jeff Kamm
Council President, Faith Lutheran Rotonda