About Our Pastor

                                                                Pastor Bill Thalacker has been serving St. John’s since March of 2003. His   
                                                                pastoral work has been in congregations in Northeast Iowa and before coming here
                                                                he served recently at Trinity in Waterloo.  He is a graduate of Wartburg College
                                                                and has post-graduate degrees from Wartburg Seminary, the University of Iowa 
                                                                and Luther Seminary.  He and his wife Marilyn who was originally from Oelwein
                                                                are the parents of five children and fourteen grandchildren.  Pastor “T” (as he is
                                                                known) has been active in church and community affairs including local minister
                                                                organizations, the Alliance for the Mentally Ill and Exchange Club.  He is a former
                                                                registered Iowa high school sports official for basketball, baseball and softball.  His
                                                                hobbies include golf, bicycling (he’s ridden Ragbrai for thirty years), hunting and
                                                                fishing, and gardening.  His special pastoral interests are in personal and marriage
                                                                counseling, ecumenism and the relations of the Church with other religious groups
                                                                and in adult education for and in the church. 

******Pastor T's Notes for September 2010******

 From the first of September until the end of May, things are really jumping around here at St John's. We have a lot of things to do.

 I was reflecting on that with the Church Council last week and commented on the fact that during the summer months I usually have one preparation for Sunday morning, namely the service and the sermon for which to get ready. When we get to September that moves up to always two preparations for a Sunday and sometimes three preparations that are required. This fall there may be some days when that will go to four. And that really isn't any different for any of you than it is for me. To prepare / to say hopeful prayers for the well-being of the congregation and all its members / to quietly prepare oneself for worship / for hearing the Word and receiving the sacrament / etc., can only be a benefit to all of us.

Fortunately, I really do love the work...the learning / sharing / growing / etc., and I don't know any other way that would be happening were it not for the increased intensity. I hope that you do to. We have a great opportunity before us this fall...if intense.

We are going to be having one added task this fall. In response to the almost unanimous expression of the congregation in the last item of the straw poll that we took at the semi-annual meeting, one of the tasks to which we are setting ourselves as a congregation is to look at some of the alternatives to our congregation's membership in the ELCA. A committee was selected that includes the President of the congregation, Mary Jane and the two other deacons, Mark and Trent. Gary Mixdorf and I will also be member of the committee. The task is not going to be only to collect the necessary information from responsible persons and representatives of the ELCA and other groups...it will also be necessary to analyze the information and reflect on the implications of maintaining the status quo or of a change in affiliation from the ELCA to some other Lutheran group.

We are going to be doing that in a series of special meetings and we can only encourage you to participate in that process.

Along the way, I might add that I have had a number of persons say, "I have been really interested in some of the subjects of the Adult Sunday Class (ASC) and learning more about that. Admit it...you may have been one of those persons. Again, we can only encourage you to move ahead with your inclinations. This fall we are going to be looking at some Lutheran Church history themes / some New Testament materials / and we are going to take a little more careful look at Islam and its relationship with Christianity. In addition we're going to do our usual "Free-for-All" and look at a variety of other contemporary issues that impact Christian faith locally, in this country and around the world. We hope you will be able to share that learning.

We hope you've had a good summer. Now let's get to work this fall.

                                                                God Bless us all,
                                                                      Pastor T.