Nina Sveinson

Prince of Peace Welcomes Pastor Jill Bergman & Pastor Rory Philstrom

March 24, 2025 by Nina Sveinson

Welcome, Pastor Jill Bergman & Pastor Rory Philstrom!

We are pleased to announce that the Prince of Peace congregation voted to call Jill Bergman as Associate Pastor of Family Ministry and Rory Philstrom as Associate Pastor of Engagement in a special congregational meeting during all worship services on March 23. The meeting resulted in 381 voting yes, 6 voting no and 3 abstained for Jill Bergman and 369 voting yes, 17 voting no and 4 abstained for Rory Philstrom. Both pastors will join us June 1.

Please join us in welcoming Pastor Jill Bergman and Pastor Rory Philstrom to Prince of Peace!

Pastor Jill Bergman Bio:

Pastor Jill Bergman grew up in Albert Lea, MN and received her B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter with a double major in environmental studies and religion. She earned her Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary and has served three congregations prior to Prince of Peace.

Pastor Jill met her husband, Randy, at seminary, and they have been married since 1998. Together, they have raised three daughters with their youngest currently in college. Pastor Jill tries to make time to run as often as possible, having completed five marathons and multiple other distances as well. Her hobby is being a group exercise instructor at the YMCA. She is certified to teach Group Power (weightlifting), Group Core, Group Centergy (PiYo) and Pilates. One of her greatest joys in ministry is leading people outside of their comfort zones and watching them encounter Jesus in a brand-new way. Pastor Jill is looking forward to encountering Jesus with you!

Pastor Rory Philstrom Bio:

Pastor Rory Philstrom has served as the Lead Pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Bloomington, MN since 2016 where he led the community through institutional change, community health and the pandemic response, and addressing the moral issues of affordable housing, anti-racism, and LGBTQ+ allyship. Prior to that, he served as co-pastor with his wife at a four-point parish in western North Dakota.

A Nebraska native, Pastor Rory studied religion at Texas Christian University and was a national student organizer for United Students for Fair Trade before serving in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps and earning his M.Div. at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Passionate about spirituality, joy and innovative ministry, Pastor Rory founded a unique ministry called Roll for Joy that integrates faith and play. He is a current doctoral student in spiritual direction at United Theological Seminary where he is training as a spiritual director and researching the use of tabletop roleplaying games as a tool for spiritual development.

Pastor Rory is married to Rev. Carolyn Philstrom, a hospice chaplain and rare disease community organizer, who thinks Rory’s best qualities are that he is “patient, passionate, generous, and fun-loving.” They have two children, Edan (6) and Josephine (3), who say their dad is “really good at building stuff, helping others when they need help and helping kids when they are hurt or sick.”

Special Congregational Meeting (3/23): Letter of Call for Associate Pastor Positions

March 5, 2025 by Nina Sveinson

Dear Prince of Peace,

I am excited to share that the Prince of Peace Board of Directors reviewed and discussed the recommendations made by both active pastoral call committees at the board meeting on Tuesday, March 4. After careful consideration, the Board voted to recommend that the congregation extend a Letter of Call to the final candidates for two important roles: Associate Pastor of Engagement and Associate Pastor of Family Ministry.

A special congregational meeting will be held during all worship services on Sunday, March 23 (8:45 am and 10:30 am) to vote on calling these pastors to our congregation. All votes must be made in person.

To maintain the confidentiality of the recommended pastors and their current congregations, we will not be revealing their identities or biographies until the day of the congregational vote.

All members are encouraged to attend and participate in this exciting next step in our church’s journey.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of both pastoral call committees. Their dedication, patience and commitment to this process have been invaluable in helping us reach this important moment.

Pastor of Engagement Call Committee: Lindsey Bauer, Kaaryn Cooper, Megan Kot, Julie O’Shaughnessy, Reid Ridpath, Calynn Schuck and Mike Sheldon.

Pastor of Family Ministry Call Committee: Amber Aslakson, Heidi Dummer, Jolene White, Kat Hendrickson, Katie Knight, Lance Odegard, Liz Ridpath, Martell Dennis and Tom Backus.

I look forward to coming together as a congregation on Sunday, March 23 to consider these recommendations and continue moving forward.

Peace,

Paul Dean
Lead Pastor

*This article was updated on March 23 with the candidates bios found below

Pastor Jill Bergman Bio (Associate Pastor of Family Ministry):

Pastor Rory Philstrom Bio (Associate Pastor of Engagement):

Strategic Planning Process Congregational Survey Results

January 19, 2025 by Nina Sveinson

As part of our ongoing strategic planning initiative, we are providing an update on the progress made since we first launched this effort in the fall.

One of the initial steps was to engage with the congregation through a survey to understand your priorities for the future of our church. With 798 members participating in October, the survey results have provided valuable insight as we lean further into the process. You are invited to see the results by viewing the recap video found below.

Looking ahead, the strategic planning team will have a second retreat — originally scheduled for January — in March to refine our vision, set strategic priorities and identify champions for each priority. We will update you on the progress made during this retreat in the April Direction.

We appreciate your continued involvement as we work diligently on both a strategic plan and a capital campaign feasibility study for 2025. These initiatives are critical to ensuring a clear and focused direction for Prince of Peace, and we are grateful for your input and support as we move forward.

2025 Capital Campaign Feasibility Study

January 8, 2025 by Nina Sveinson

As we begin the new year, we are excited to explore the possibility of launching a capital campaign to enhance and improve our building.

To ensure this campaign reflects the needs and priorities of our congregation, we are starting the process of gathering input from you. With the support of GSB Consultants, we are conducting a feasibility study to help us determine which projects are most meaningful and achievable for our church community, and we need your participation. This feasibility study aligns with our ongoing strategic planning process, both part of a broader effort to advance Prince of Peace.

The leadership team at Prince of Peace has identified several potential capital projects, which are outlined in the Capital Campaign Feasibility Study 2025 Prospectus document found below. These projects include essential updates to maintain our building, as well as initiatives designed to expand our reach and impact through ministry.

We invite you to review the prospectus and then share your feedback by completing the congregational survey. Your input will play a crucial role in helping us decide whether to move forward with a capital campaign and which projects we should prioritize. The survey will close on Sunday, January 26.

Additionally, on Sunday, January 26, one of our GSB Consultants will be at Prince of Peace to lead a listening session where we can hear directly from you about which projects you are most excited about and why. An invitation and RSVP email with the details will be sent in the coming week. All are welcome to attend.

We encourage you to share your feedback through the congregational survey and listening session to help shape the church’s future direction. Thank you for joining us in this important process as we seek God’s guidance for 2025 and beyond.

Please click the buttons below to access the documents for this project.

Prospectus: Capital Campaign Feasibility Study

Congregational Survey: Capital Campaign Feasibility Study

Strategic Plan: General Process Overview

December 12, 2024 by Nina Sveinson

Below is an outline of the process and timeline for our strategic planning initiative. This document is fluid but gives individuals an idea of the timeframe for this process.

Part 1: Formation and Listening (September and October, 2024)

Strategy Task Force is built.
Strategy calendar is built for guiding process.
Congregational survey is deployed, results collated and curated and shared with Strategy Team and other core stakeholders.
FaithX Neighborhood Insights Report is obtained and debrief held between the Strategy Team, GSB consultant and Mary Frances of FaithX.
Neighborhood Survey Teams are deployed to engage local neighbors and businesses.
Digital assessment of Prince of Peace’s digital presence made using EVOKE Engagement Experts with a report out of findings.

Part 2: Identity Reflection (November and December 2024)

Identity Advance is held (usually in-person, day-long retreat) to review and reground current (or build whole cloth new) mission, vision and values statements and to perform a congregational SWOTT or SOAR analysis with leaders. Strategic priorities will begin to emerge at this retreat as well.
Identity pieces – mission, vision and values – are built or revised as needed through several working group sessions.

Part 3: Strategy Design and Deployment (January and February 2025)

A Strategy Advance is held, and strategic priorities are identified as an outgrowth of the Listening work and the Identity work. Champions are identified to lead initiatives, and some basic team design and empowerment is begun.
Task Forces finish building their teams.
Strategic Initiative Teams take strategic initiatives, and then design goals for each initiative, and actions to support execution of the goals. All of these are married to timelines and accountable parties.

All of that work is curated into two documents:

A tracking spreadsheet that allows for easy updating of each task force’s work, for insight into progress and for accountability.
A forward-facing document that will be professionally designed that attractively communicates the identity pieces and the strategic planning pieces. The document will come in several formats for page display as attachment to digital communications, a bleed out version for professional printing and a version for internal printing and use.

Part 4: Execution (March 2025 and Beyond… )

Various communication strategies are used to communicate strategic initiatives to the congregation and larger community.
Task Forces begin to work at their particular initiatives.
Coaching Support meeting held with Nathan at month 4.
Coaching Support meeting held with Nathan at month 12.

Congregational Survey for Strategic Planning Process

October 13, 2024 by Nina Sveinson

October 13, 2024

Dear Prince of Peace,

Like most communities of faith that move through a major leadership transition, we find ourselves at an inflection point. Our community certainly remains healthy and vibrant, and as we can clearly see, we are growing. Worshiping rhythms, discipleship rhythms, and volunteerism are all changing around us. As we move into an even more vital future, we need to discern our next best steps.

To help us in that process, we have enlisted the help of Pastor Nathan Swenson-Reinhold, a professional coach and consultant with GSB Fundraising (www.gsbfundraising.com) to work us through a process that helps us reground in the what, who, and how of our lives together. The process will ultimately leave us with a strategic plan to focus and harness our efforts over the next several years so that we can powerfully show up shoulder to shoulder with Jesus in the mission we share. In addition, the work of the strategic planning process will inform and support the capital campaign needs we believe we need to address as well.

We are building a Strategic Planning Team to oversee and guide this process with the help of Pastor Nathan. The people on the team will be: Paul Dean, Kienan Mick, Julie Gorvin, Iver Johnson, Marilyn Tubbs, Erin Bennis and Mike Zick.

We will provide periodic updates. The process began in September. Here in October we will share a congregational survey with you all and would love it if you would respond. The survey is an opportunity to share your sense of the mission of Prince of Peace! It is a privilege you will not want to miss! We will share those results with you in a way that is manageable and digestible after the survey is complete.

We anticipate that by late winter 2025 we will have strategic priorities built based upon this process, and teams built to shepherd our clarified priorities.

What can you do? Participate in the pieces you may be asked to engage in, and pray for our congregation and the process. God continues to work powerfully through Prince of Peace. Pray for our work, for our focus, and for the ministry that is ahead of us.

For more information, please contact Kienan Mick at [email protected] who is involved in this process.

Thank you,

Prince of Peace Leadership

Congregational Survey: Click Here