As we are now into the Easter season, we look forward to the culmination of the season with the great Festival of the Ascension of Our Lord. This feast, in effect, celebrates that the victory over death and the devil won by our Lord on the cross and sealed with His resurrection from the tomb is turned into a rout. This is captured in the final stanza of Christopher Wordsworth’s great Ascension hymn:

He has raised our human nature
On the clouds to God’s right hand;
There we sit in heav’nly places,
There with Him in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adored by angels;
Man with God is on the throne.
By our mighty Lord’s ascension
We by faith behold our own.

As is our custom, Our Saviour will celebrate the Ascension with Divine Service on the date forty days after Easter on May 14 at 7:30. Pastor Mark Esser, who has been with us several times this year, will be the preacher and celebrant. If you are at all able, please join us for this most important festival of the church year.

Pastor McClean continues to recover at home. We are still planning a farewell for him on May 31 at the 11:00 AM Divine Service with a luncheon to follow. If you are able to attend and plan on staying for lunch, please sign up on the piano at church or call the church office and leave a message so we can plan for the luncheon. If you would like to send a card or note to Pastor McClean, his address is 4 Upland Rd., Apt. 21, Baltimore, MD, 21210.

As you may realize, Our Saviour is not in a financial position to call a regular full-time pastor. The salary we have been paying Pastor McClean represents only a fraction of what a full-time pastor would ordinarily be paid. Over the years, there have been programs introduced by our church body, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), to help congregations situated as we find ourselves. As mentioned in the March newsletter, one of these programs is the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program. This program is meant for congregations for whom calling a full-time pastor is problematic due to location, finances, or other considerations.

The SMP program is a four-year program, administered by the synodical seminaries, that begins with the candidate taking courses (mostly online, but with some on-campus intensives) while beginning his service as vicar in the church. Ordination occurs at the end of those two years, and an additional two-years of study are then completed. It is ‘specific ministry’ since the candidate is authorized to serve only in that specific place; he is not authorized to take calls to another church or ministry. This is all done under the supervision of a local pastor as well as the district president, the Rev. Dr. William Harmon.

The following is from the Synodical By-laws: Section 2.13, “Membership Status and Limitations Specific Ministry Pastor Status and Limitations.”

2.13.1 A “specific ministry pastor” is a minister of religion—ordained who has completed the requirements for service as a specific ministry pastor and has been examined by one of the Synod’s seminaries, has received a regular call, and has been placed by the Council of Presidents into a specific Word and Sacrament ministry context.

He is eligible to serve only in that specific ministry context for which he has been trained and may not be offered or accept a call for ministry for which he has not been certified as determined by his district president. He shall serve under the supervision of his district president and another pastor who is not a specific ministry pastor.

(a) Because he is under supervision of another pastor and because a specific ministry pastor’s theological education has been formed in part by and for a specific ministry context, he may not be placed or called into ecclesiastical roles that exercise pastoral oversight outside the context of his call.

(b) A specific ministry pastor is not eligible to

(1) serve as a voting delegate to a national convention of the Synod—but may serve as an advisory delegate to national conventions and as a pastoral delegate to district conventions;
(2) hold any elected or appointed office on the district or national Synod level that is assigned by the Bylaws of the Synod to “a pastor” or “an ordained minister” (although specific ministry pastors may serve in all other capacities, especially representing the ministerial contexts in which they serve);
(3) supervise vicars; or
(4) serve as a circuit visitor.*

(c) The ministers of religion—ordained records maintained by district presidents as well as the official membership roster of the Synod shall distinguish between specific ministry pastors and other pastors.

As you can see, there are limits on what a specific ministry pastor can do relative to a pastor that has gone through the traditional route to ordination, but none of those limitations impact the ability of the candidate to do what is his foremost responsibility as an SMP, namely providing Word and Sacrament ministry in a given place. Entrance into the program is generally subject to the desire of the congregation to ultimately call the man to the pastoral office in that place and continuation as an SMP is contingent on the candidate’s successful completion of the program.

It just so happens that we are blessed to have a strong candidate for the SMP program. Scott Jones, who is a life-long Lutheran and member of Our Saviour has indicated his willingness to go through the SMP program so that we may continue to have Word and Sacrament ministry. He has the time and the theological formation to pursue the SMP program. He has been clear in stating that he wants no compensation for this service and that he would bear all the educational expenses himself.

Scott has lived in the Baltimore area his entire life, growing up in Towson, Maryland. He attended Baltimore Lutheran High School and went on to earn an undergraduate degree from Loyola University Maryland and a law degree from the University of Maryland. He was baptized at Faith Lutheran Church and worshipped at First English Lutheran Church before finding his home in the LCMS at Calvary Lutheran. He joined Our Saviour in 2016. His background in law and accounting brings to the SMP program the same discipline and analytical rigor he has applied throughout his professional life. He has spent the better part of his adult life reading, studying, and teaching the Scriptures. He holds without reservation the confession this church was built on, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, and he desires only to be a faithful steward of the rich liturgical tradition Pastor McClean has instilled in all of us.

This will be foremost of the topics at our upcoming Spring Voters Assembly meeting immediately following Divine Service on May 17. Pastor Eric Bednash, our circuit visitor, will be with us that day to preach and celebrate the sacrament and also to guide us in our discussions regarding our path forward focused on the SMP program. In addition to this discussion, we will elect the church council members for the coming year and approve an operating budget for fiscal year 2027. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending that day so you can be a part of this path forward. If you would be interested in serving on the church council or would like to nominate someone, please contact Gabe Purviance (gpurviance@comcast.net).

The Sunday Bible class has begun a study of the risen Christ from the empty tomb to His throne in heaven. The class meets each Sunday at 9:45 AM through May 17. After taking a week’s break for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the class will resume with a study of selected readings from ‘Series A’ of the three-year lectionary (Our Saviour uses the historic one-year lectionary at its Sunday services).

With Frank Ford, we mourn the recent death of his daughter, Yolanda. There will be a memorial service for Yolanda on June 6 at 11:00 AM, with a repast to follow. Pastor Elliot Robertson has agreed to conduct the service.

We continue to remember in prayer Pastor McClean, Bridget Bauman, James Bauman, Christopher Bell, Bertha Buchanan, Dana Carmichael, Tim Doswell, Quilla Downs, Bunny Duckett, Joyce Eaves, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Sean Fortune, Lynne Funck, Katherine Gray, Sherry James, Gloria Jones, Byron Masterson, Mary Mokris, Julia Silver, Robert Siperek Jr., Lawrence Smallwood, Paul Swank, George Volkman, Gary Watson, Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan and Steven Gibson.

We are asking everyone to update their contact information if at all possible. If you have email, you can send a message to oslbaltimore@yahoo.com or call the church office at (410) 235–9553 and leave a message. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to reach out via this phone number or email.

In Christ and on behalf of the Church Council,
Paul Techau, Council President

Free Flea Market

The first Free Flea Market was held April 11th and there were a number of new people who attended. So we are becoming a place to go! Two attendees gave us donations that totaled $22! We now are in need of household items and shoes. If you have something to donate, please let Judy Volkman know. Together we make a difference in someone’s life!