TOWER- Pastor Liz Cheney is moving on to a new call. After nine years at Immanuel Lutheran in Tower, she has accepted the position of pastor to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Virginia.
The move was not welcome news for many of Immanuel’s members, who welcomed Pastor Liz to the congregation, and have watched as she grew from a newly-ordained pastor into an experienced and valued leader.
“Immanuel has a gift for nurturing new pastors,” said Cheney, who was an elementary school teacher before changing her profession mid-career. “They are a joy-filled congregation, and they were amazing to work with through the pandemic.”
Many congregants and community members came to say goodbye to Pastor Liz at a community meal hosted by the church on Aug. 23.
“We are sad to see her go,” said Deb Setterberg. “But glad to see her on a new journey.”
“I wanted to tell her she had to stay,” said longtime congregation member Rosie Zimmerman.
“I do understand why she needed to move,” said church member Doris Mosher, who noted that the entire congregation was going to miss Pastor Liz along with her family. Liz’s children, Zac, age 20, and River, an incoming senior at North Woods High School, have both become valued members of the church community.
“This church has been an integral part of their lives,” said Cheney, noting the congregation has watched them both grow up. Zac is now a union equipment operator working for Viita’s Excavating, and River is looking at colleges, where she is hoping to continue to play softball, and thinking about majoring in music therapy.
Cheney was a relatively new pastor when the pandemic hit and church life changed radically. She truly ached that she wasn’t able to visit in person with parishioners and was spending so much time working on delivering a remote service each Sunday. The church still offers a livestream of the weekly service, and for some members, it has become the new normal.
Church attendance is similar to when she started nine years ago, she said, with an average of 60-65 in attendance on Sundays. But attendance had grown to 100 in the summer and 85, on average, in the winter, just before the pandemic hit.
“It’s been a challenge everywhere getting people back to church after the pandemic,” she said.
Cheney said pastors these days are typically moving onto new congregations every four years. Many pastors retired early after the pandemic, said Cheney, because of the added stresses put on church leaders.
The move to Our Savior’s is actually a homecoming for Cheney, who grew up as a member of that congregation and now will be its sole pastor. “I am really excited to give back to that community that gave much to me,” she said. “I have done a lot of praying and discerning the last year or so and have discovered that God is calling me to a new place, a new ministry, a new congregation.”
In a farewell letter to her Immanuel parishioners, Cheney wrote: “You have done well in raising up a first call pastor who has found her wings and is ready to move on to a new journey with a new people in a new place.”
She said she’ll be forever grateful to Immanuel as the place she learned to fly!  “You will do well as you seek a new pastor, as you take time to tell your story and rediscover who you are and who you want to become!  We all are always changing and growing, and I know that God is up to something very good here and God has prepared the heart of a new leader who will come and join you and walk with you into a new time and place!”
Cheney noted that Immanuel remains a health and growing congregation that is willing to try new ideas, which bodes well for the congregation’s future.
While Cheney is making a change, some things will stay the same. She said she’ll continue to coach girls basketball at North Woods, something else she remains passionate about.