The Rev. Betsy Miller to Serve as Director of Congregational
Leadership and Resources, Western District

At the 2004 Western District Synod the Western District Executive Board was authorized to develop a new position within the district for Congregational Leadership and Resources. The aim of this position was to assist congregations in their service to God and in their call to grow churches.

Since the time of synod the Western District Executive Board has been busy determining what the position would entail and, once that was established, who within the district would best serve under such a call.

The Rev. Elizabeth “Betsy” Miller, pastor of Lake Mills Moravian Church, Lake Mills, Wisconsin, accepted that call and in March 2005 will begin serving as Director of Congregational Leadership and Resources, Western District, Northern Province of the Moravian Church in North America.

The Rev. Miller, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a 1985 graduate of Moravian Theological Seminary, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has served the Lake Mills congregation since her ordination as a Deacon in 1985, and in 1987 was consecrated a Presbyter. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Moravian Theological Seminary since 1986 and has also served on the Western District Executive Board since 2000. Upon her reelection to the District Board in 2004 she stated, “I have served on the Western District Executive Board for the past four years and want to offer back what I have learned about how we can help our congregations, pastors, and lay people be more effective in bearing witness to God’s saving love. I believe God is calling me to offer my gifts in leadership and vision.” The Rev. Miller’s call to this new position seems a natural step in serving God’s call upon her in ministry.

In her new position the Rev. Miller will be responsible for assisting pastors and congregations in the district in fulfilling their calls as disciples of Jesus Christ. Her duties include, but are not limited to, providing congregational assessment workshops throughout the district; offering workshops and training opportunities throughout the district for clergy and lay persons; communicate provincial, district, and ecumenical resources available to clergy and congregations; and enhance the recruitment of pastors and leadership for the future. Of the new position the Rev. Miller states, “I am excited about the opportunity to be a source of encouragement and vision for the pastors and leaders who serve the Lord in congregations around the Western District. I look forward to visiting with pastors and listening to their dreams, their concerns, and their ideas about how we as the church can be faithful to God’s call to make disciples and teach them to be effective servants of the Lord.”

The Rev. Miller will work under the direction of the Rev. Larry Christianson, President of the Western District, whom she says “has been one of my mentors since I served a summer internship with him in 1983.” In working with the Rev. Christianson she states, “I hope to relieve Larry of some of the burdens of travel and meeting responsibilities and free him up to be the visionary leader of our district that God has called him to be.”

While early on she plans to visit with and listen to district pastors about how she can be most helpful to them in providing workshops and resources one of her first tasks in the position is to develop a prayer calendar for all of the congregations throughout the district. She wants to invite all church members to pray for the “growth and vitality of our churches” focusing on specific churches each day. She also hopes to offer a prayer request site within the district webpage so that specific prayer requests can be known to everyone in the district to hold up in prayer. She will focus on this task first because, as she says, “Our work as leaders and disciples must be bathed in prayer, for it is only through the power of God’s Holy Spirit that we can grow and be a witness of faith and hope in our world.”

The Rev. Miller will continue to live in Lake Mills and will work from the Sun Prairie, Wisconsin office of the district.