Large Church Keeps Personal Touch
People who attend Redeemer Lutheran Church will be seeing a lot more of the Rev. Dave Stuenkel.
He’s worked there part-time for six years, but now he’s becoming a full-time pastor with a very special job - making sure the large congregation feels like a small family, and reaching out to people in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons.
Stuenkel, 49, has worked as a chaplain at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla and most recently at Sacred Heart Medical Center. He said working in a hospital got increasingly tough.
“Working in a hospital got to be frustrating,” he said. “People now come in a lot sicker, and stay for shorter periods of time.”
It was difficult just to get in to see a patient. With his new job at Redeemer, he’ll be able to visit patients before and after their hospital visit, as well as during.
“If you work out of a parish base … you can track a person longer once they get out of the hospital,” he said.
Stuenkel will also visit inmates in the county jail and state penitentiary.
The other part of his job is making sure no one feels lost in the large congregation. Redeemer has about 1,600 members, and without any kind of small group effort folks can feel unwelcome, Stuenkel said.
“When a church gets to be big, it has to find ways to be small,” he said. He’ll set up small groups, some with very specialized goals. Whether it be moms or teenagers, everyone wants to feel connected to others with whom they have something in common.
Stuenkel said the concept will become so important to the church that most of its individual ministry will come from the small groups. When someone has a problem, they’ll go to a group leader or share their problem with other members.
That kind of ministry - where the church reaches out to people outside it and really makes an effort to take care of those within it - is Stuenkel’s dream job.
“It feels to me like a total, spiritual health-care package,” he said.
Redeemer Lutheran, 3606 S. Schafer Road, will hold an installation ceremony for Stuenkel on Jan. 14 at 10:45 a.m.
Fighting racism
Opportunity Presbyterian Church, 202 N. Pines Road, will have a special presentation Wednesday entitled “Facing Up to the Militias.”
The Rev. Mary Robinson-Mohr, pastor of Sandpoint Presbyterian, will speak at 6:30 p.m. She’ll explore how churches in North Idaho can band together to oppose hate groups and how to answer those who use the Bible as justification for racism.
, DataTimes