New beginnings

MAT-SU -- Sunday will mark the last service as pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church for Kathryn Franzenburg, who said resigning will allow both her and the church to move into a new future.

After leading the church for 10 years, Franzenburg said she feels stirred to move on. It's a bittersweet decision, she said, and she's not yet ready to relinquish ties to the community.

"I think my calling is to move in a new direction -- it's been very, very difficult because I have a deep love for the people," Franzenburg said. "When you've been in the community for 10 years, you form connections. It takes a while to build that trust, and it makes it hard to leave."

Franzenburg isn't leaving with another pastorship in mind, although she said she does have an interview scheduled. After nearly 20 years as a pastor helping to grow struggling churches, she hopes to travel to South America and to work more with third-world poor. After a lot of contemplation and prayer -- and discussions with members of the congregation -- she said she feels it's time to bow out of the picture and allow the congregation to move forward in a new way.

"My decision, partly, to resign at this time, is that I feel like the redevelopment phase is over, and the development phase is beginning," Franzenburg said.

A decade ago, Franzenburg got a call from a member of Trinity Lutheran who described a dwindling church in a troubled strip mall owned by the church, but that the congregation was considering selling to build a new church. They were even contemplating whether to continue on as a church, Franzenburg said.

Franzenburg said she envisioned a boxy strip mall, and was amazed when she arrived to find the towering barn-like structure with vaulted ceilings, large windows and excellent acoustics that sits next to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway two miles from Palmer. At the time, she said, the building was half-vacant and the congregation was undecided as to how to proceed. She had been sought out to lead the church because of her skills as a "development pastor," someone who leads a congregation through a struggling time, and helps them make decisions about what they would like to become in the future. Through a lot of discussion, the congregation decided to continue using the building as a meeting place, and to open it up for others to use.

"I think our philosophy is that this building was given to us, through someone else's hardships," Franzenburg said. "We decided to use the building to serve the community."

It didn't take long before opportunities to turn the building into a service-oriented community center presented themselves. Shortly after Franzenburg arrived, the issue of runaway youth in the community rose to a level of public concern and work began to find a place for troubled teens to stay.

Peg Rogers, the director of the Dorothy Saxton Youth Shelter at the time, said her group learned Trinity had space available and approached Franzenburg about using it.

"She was very interested in doing community outreach," Rogers said. Franzenburg, she said, brought the idea before the congregation, who gave their approval and offered very low rent to the shelter. "We didn't have much money -- we were on a shoestring budget. She thought it was a really excellent way for the church to give back to the community."

With a green light, community members pitched in and made changes to make the rented area fit their needs. Church members helped along with the community, offering necessary items such as a washer and dryer, to the shelter.

John Stein, the current director of Kids Are People Too, said the good relationship with the church and other groups who moved into the center continued over recent years, as the youth shelter grew and moved out, and the space they rented was transformed into a transitional living center, which also grew and, on Jan. 1, moved out of the center as well.

"They've been terrific landlords -- very understanding," Stein said. "Not that there haven't been incidents."

He chuckled about one particular occasion in which a teen at the shelter ran into a public area, screaming a stream of obscenities -- just as church members were arriving for Sunday services. But, he said, the congregation was understanding, and they, along with others who rent space at the center, worked to maintain a good relationship. He pointed to Franzenburg's compassion and direction as part of the reason for the good relationships.

"Kathy has been incredibly supportive all that time," Stein said. "She has a real view for community service, and she extended that through the congregation."

Under Franzenburg's tenure, both the congregation and the building have branched out in several ways. Volunteers from the church regularly help at Valley Community for Recycling Solutions and are determined to make the center a "green" building. Franzenburg, during the past 10 years, has been involved with local groups such as Hospice of Mat-Su, where she served as chaplain for a time, along with other support groups such as Compassionate Friends, which recently merged with Hospice. The Greater Palmer and Wasilla Boys and Girls Club got its start in the center, and grew so quickly they had to move into a new space within little more than a year. Countless other community groups have used the center over the years for meeting space, storage space or office space.

It appears the once-empty space will remain a fixture of the community, but the church is considering whether it's time to find a new space all their own, or continue sharing the space with other building tenants. With Franzenburg's resignation, she said, the congregation plans to reevaluate its role in the community, and where they plan to go in the future. The church's annual meeting is set for Feb. 1, and Franzenburg said a bishop from the Lutheran Church will meet with the congregation to begin the process of finding a new pastor and, in the meantime, bring in an interim pastor. She set her last service for the 25th, she said, to allow the annual meeting to focus on the church's new direction.

Franzenburg's last service is slated to be one about new beginnings, she said. New members will be inducted into the church, baptisms are planned, and young church members will go through Confirmation.

"As we think about that final worship service, it will be a service about hope in the future," Franzenburg said. "It's a sense of calling forth; not so much a good-bye service as a calling-forth service."

Trinity Lutheran Church holds worship services in the center's east wing on Sunday at 10 a.m. A farewell celebration, honoring Franzenburg's contributions to the community is planned for 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23 at the Trinity Barn, and the public is welcome to attend.