From Our Pastor!

Surprise!  Actually, it is almost as much of a surprise to me that I am writing this article as it must be to most of you. God surely does have an extraordinary sense of humor!
    I have been in this position before, of course, but once again I am a prime example of the old adage, "Man proposes; God disposes." To put it another way, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."
    As this year began, this certainly wasn't in the plans of this very happily retired Lutheran pastor. As I told both the Search Committee and the Vestry, however, a bit unexpectedly Barbara and I fell in love with St. Paul's, and, as a man under Divine call both in my baptism and in my ordination, I felt obliged to be available to the Spirit's nudging (which at times felt more like a forceful shove!).
    I do not often use the word "humble" to refer to myself, but I am genuinely humbled to be called to serve St. Paul's1. I find two things particularly humbling:  that you have called me in spite of two "impediments," namely my age, and the fact that I am a Lutheran. By the grace of God I hope we can turn those "impediments" into advantages.
    I want to thank Bill Baker, Chair of the Search Committee, and the other members of the Committee: Courtney Warner (formerly Brockman), Anne Hubbard, Barbara Marks, Carol Schutz and Linda Turner, and I also want to thank our Senior Warden, Barbara (Superglue) Hagiwara and the rest of the Vestry:  Ann Harris Smith, Betty Malone, Stevely Anderson, Bob Cichowski, Marty Durrett, Sue Johnson and Ted Inouye. Every courtesy was extended to me during this laborious process, and I hope you appreciate the integrity with which these people followed the procedure as well as their hard work.
    Barbara Hagiwara suggested I might want to look ahead to some of what I hope we might do together in the future at St. Paul's. I'm not ready to do that yet. As I intend to say in my sermon August 28, I hope and pray a defining word for our relationship will be "partnership," that ours will be a partnership in the Gospel (Philippians 1:5), and I pray our partnership in the Gospel will be pleasing to God and bring honor to His Name and that it will be a blessing to us (St. Paul's) and to our community.
        ~Pastor Don Dallmann



    1  If you relate to things like this, I find a wondrous symmetry in the fact that my Grandpa Dallmann was the pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, N.Y., and his influence has been indelibly imprinted on me by the previous generation of the Dallmann clan.