Reverend Jason Schultz — a Moose Jaw product and past member of the church — arrived back home earlier this month and has settled in nicely to his new, and old, digs.
“It’s wonderful to be home back among family and friends, definitely it’s wonderful to be back in the ‘holy city’ as I call it, for all the potholes in the road,” Schultz said with a laugh.
“It’s great, it’s challenging right now because of the current pandemic making it more cumbersome than it otherwise would be, but it’s always great to be back.”
Schultz returned home after the local congregation extended a ‘divine call’ through the national Lutheran Church-Canada organization, a move he accepted after spending the last 13 years serving parishioners in the Oxbow area.
“It’s always a super-humbling experience to have that call to come back home to your own congregation where my family and friends are at,” said Schultz, who is joined by wife Regan and children Pria, Phoebe, Ethan, Esther. “It’s definitely a humbling experience, but very exciting and I was thrilled to get that call.”
Schultz has had a chance to take part in a handful of weekly services since arriving and is happy with what he’s seen in spite of the ongoing pandemic and the effect it has had on churches and religious celebrations all over the country.
“It’s looking pretty good,” he said. “We’re seeing around 85 to 90 the last couple of weeks, so it’s going well all things considered. It’s difficult right now trying to meet with people, just because getting into certain senior living facilities and stuff, they don’t have a lot of visitation right now. So trying to connect with people is a little more difficult than it otherwise would be, but other than that, it’s coming together.”
It certainly helps having familiarity with the community.
“It’s easier in that I know a lot of the people from before,” Schultz explained. “The difficulties are connecting with people who I don’t really know and you’re trying to dialogue and visit through a mask or not at all because people aren’t sticking around or leaving right after services… It’s more the pandemic struggle than anything.”
That ongoing problem has taken away from some of the post-service fun that makes community engagement that much easier, such as fellowship times after church.
“We don’t have a chance to sit around the coffee pot afterward, that kind of thing,’ Schultz said. “But we know these are challenges for the short team and things will get better.”
For more on the Moose Jaw Emmanuel Lutheran Church — including samples of Schultz’s sermons — you can check out their Facebook page and visit their website at www.elcmj.ca/ for more information on their day-to-day activities.
