UDLC Stories: Lindsay Batesmith
Rev. Linsday Batesmith arrived at UDLC in the fall of 2019, expecting to spend five hours a week observing Pastor Keith as a field education student from Princeton Theological Seminary for one academic year. But, as would become the hallmark of her time here, what happened was much different than she expected.
With Pastor Dyan Lawlor retiring, Pastor Keith asked her to take on a more active role—less observing, more doing. Then, Pastor Lindsay encountered another, more radical shift in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began.
“All of my pandemic memories are Pastor Keith on Zoom, trying to find the most faithful way forward,” she said.
Suddenly, this pastor-in-training was helping to work out the logistics of online worship, outdoor Confirmation class, and other aspects of our church’s new, socially distant reality. For example, at first, she and Pastor Keith decided not to preach Sunday sermons on Zoom.
“We decided that would be weird—no one will watch that!” she recalls.
But when members of the congregation reached out to say they missed the sermons, they difgured out how to make it work—the precursor of the more sophisticated virtual worship setup we still have today.
“Following the Holy Spirit in a way that is responsive to the needs of your people—that is what Upper Dublin Lutheran Church and Pastor Keith taught me to do.”
“It was really beautiful to learn what it can look like to have leadership and for the congregation to set a direction,” she said. “The other thing that’s really beautiful about that congregation…was being reverent without taking yourself too seriously.”
Now the pastor of Rejoice Lutheran Church in Erie, Colorado, Pastor Lindsay says her time at UDLC taught her the art of making what she calls “holy pivots.”
She ended up staying on through the spring og 2021 in her final year of seminary, where she was part of other important shifts in the culture of our congregation—difficult conversations about white supremacy and structural racism, and the early discussions about becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation that openly invited and affirms members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
“Following the Holy Spirit in a way that is responsive to the needs of your people—that is what Upper Dublin Lutheran Church and Pastor Keith taught me to do.”