Table Talk Newsletter

Pastor’s Letter

Call Committee Update

Pastor Raymond Waespi is now our called pastor, effective January 1, after 3 years as interim pastor, and a previous 2 years as interim pastor in 2017-19. We thank God for Pr. Ray’s willingness to serve the people of Christ the King and the community.

The special congregation meeting and vote were Sunday, December 21. We were honored to have Rev. Dr. Charlane Lines, Assistant to the Bishop, at the meeting and also lead the worship service. Pastor Ray accepted the next day.

A lot preceded this, going back to April when the committee started work on the Ministry Site Profile (MSP) which is the description of our church and the position. The Council approved the MSP in August. In the August-September timeframe we started considering Pr. Ray, realizing that he fit what we described in the MSP. There was much prayer and discernment on our part and then on Pr. Ray’s part when he said he was willing to move forward with us.

The November Table Talk article mentioned that the MSP was posted September 30 and that we met with Bishop Jeff R. Johnson and Pr. Charlane in late October. They were very gracious and approved us recommending Pr. Ray to the congregation. At the December 21 congregation meeting, Pr. Charlane commented that it was partly because “Christ the King did the work.”

The December 21 meeting also included the congregation approval of the compensation package. The amount is within the amount approved December 7 as part of the 2026 budget. This is because for the budget the Finance Committee used the most conservative of 4 candidate scenarios prepared by our treasurer.

The pastor position is currently a halftime position. A key part of the position is figuring out our church's future, working with the Ad Hoc Committee, which has also been CTK's Call Committee for several months.

At this time CTK celebrates having a called pastor, the birth of Christ and the New Year.

Yours in Christ,

CTK Call Committee - Kris, Joe, Alan, Peggy, Pat, Jim