Medford church welcomes new pastor
The Rev. Ian Thormodson will be installed April 13 as the new minister at Trinity Lutheran Church in Medford. He and his wife Brittany and their son Eliot, 2, arrived in town in late March after moving from Richmond, Va. The church was without a minister for nearly three years. Submitted photo
It seems like a bit of divine intervention: After about three years without a pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church in Medford will install its new minister on Palm Sunday.
The comparison of Christ entering Jerusalem, marking the beginning of Holy Week, makes the Rev. Ian Thormodson laugh sheepishly.
“It wasn’t actually the greatest of timing,” he admitted. His wife Brittany, a middle school English teacher, had to leave her job before the school year was over to make the move to Medford.
“But God’s timing is perfect,” Thormodson said. “That (the installation) is going to land on Palm Sunday, it’s cool to see how God made that happen. He obviously knew that this is the way it should be, and this is the way it’s going to be.”
A native of the Eau Claire, Wis., area, he attended seminary in St. Louis, Mo. His assigned job after graduation was as associate pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Richmond, Va.
The couple welcomed their son Eliot, 2, while there.
“We were ready for the next thing,” Thormodson said, “and ready to be back closer to family for the first time since we were married.”
He gave his first sermon in Medford on April 6, after arriving in town the week before. The family had visited Medford in early February, “before we made the decision – or before God made it clear that we would take the job,” he said.
“There’s a lot of potential; the congregation is excited to share the love of Jesus with one another, with the community around us,” Thormodson said. “They’re excited to figure out ways to connect with the community of Medford and beyond, which is awesome.”
The congregation spent three years looking for a pastor following the departure of the Rev. Mark Biebighauser, who served the church for about a decade.
As Thormodson and his family began settling in, visitors stopped by with food and greetings.
“It’s hard to explain,” he said, “but it’s so very evident that people are thrilled that they have a pastor again – and we’re excited to be a part of it. They’ve been patiently waiting for so long, and God finally answered the prayers.”
It was the right move for Thormodson, too.
“I’ll have a little bit different role than I’ve had,” he said. “I get to plan more of the worship; I get to help more intentionally with the direction the church is going to focus and go; I get to be the one that gets to go and see members in the hospital, I get to be the one – though it’ll be hard – to get the phone calls in the middle of the night.
“I’m confident that Trinity is the right place to start doing things,” he said.
The family will stay in the parsonage until their house in Virginia sells, Thormodson said, and until they can find a home in the area.
The parsonage was turned into a ministry space, where members do their outreach of binding volumes of large-print Bibles for the sight-impaired. The Bibles are sent around the world, as well as to prisons.
“It’s a neat little ministry,” Thormodson said, “and a cool way to see how God is using this small church in Medford, Minnesota, to send God’s word across the world.”
His plans for the first year are simple: “It will just be getting to know as many people as possible,” Thormodson said. “I hope to sit down with everyone – and to do the same thing with the community: building relationships and connections with the businesses in town, with the mayor, with the fire department – just getting out there.”
The church has buried six long-time members in the last few months, said Marge Charlton, herself a long-time member.
“We’re hoping that having a minister again, we can get some new members,” she said.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes, Thormodson said.
“There are any number of ways God can work to grow a church, but we as a whole have to decide together on what we’re going to focus on,” he said, “and what we want to really be all about in that space and what we want Trinity Lutheran Church to be known for in the Medford community.”
For now, though, “we’re incredibly thankful and blessed that God chose me to be Trinity’s next pastor,” Thormodson said.
“There’s a peace and a comfort about it; I am 100% confident that this is where my family and I were meant to be.”