I am grateful for the incredible journey on which ministry has taken me for over thirty years back and forth from the east coast to the Midwest, from church ministry to healthcare chaplaincy, from inner city to suburban to small town, from city hospitals to small community hospitals to large academic teaching hospitals. It’s been a wonderful variety of settings and Holy Trinity is the latest spot to land on this ministry adventure!
My educational background reflects the same kind of diversity. High school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire to a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in classical languages and ancient history from Lawrence University in Wisconsin. As a teen-ager and young adult I spent three summers working as a camp counselor at the Lutheran – Camp Calumet in New Hampshire. After college I attended the same seminary as several of my ancestors – Luther Seminary in St. Paul earning a Master’s of Divinity degree which was followed by my ordination as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Lutheran Church in America – a predecessor church body to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. While serving as a church pastor I earned my Doctoral Degree in Pastoral Care from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. While serving as a hospital chaplain I achieved board certification from the Association of Professional Chaplains.
I served as an Urban Resident pastor at St. Matthew’s – Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken, New Jersey which led to leading my own inner-city church, Children’s Memorial Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Then came pastorates at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Shawnee, Kansas followed by Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Kansas. While there I completed a year-long residency in Clinical Pastoral Education which led to board certification as a chaplain in the health-care setting.
As a spiritual care provider I served Lawrence Memorial Community Hospital in Lawrence, Kansas followed by Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri while also serving as a church pastor. The highlight of my ministry as a chaplain came when I served for five years as the Director of Chaplaincy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
I returned to my first love in my ministry journey – church pastor – when I accepted my current call as pastor to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.
One of my favorite scripture lessons which was read at my ordination is written by Paul when he was imprisoned:
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the the calling to which you have been called, with all humilty and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in a bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4: 1-6
–The Rev. John W. Polk
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