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Pastor Andy Carlsson, Interim Consultant, began serving Trinity on March 1, 2010, during this time of transition between senior pastors. The Rev. Dr. Andrew E. Carlsson was born on April 14, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois. After his family moved to Des Plaines, Illinois, he was baptized and confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church, Des Plaines, June 5, 1949. He graduated from Carthage College, Carthage, Illinois, in 1957, and from Chicago Lutheran Seminary, in 1960. |
Andrew was ordained by the Illinois Synod of the United Lutheran Church in America on May 22, 1960, and served congregations in Texas and western Pennsylvania, as well as Residential Director of the Bethesda Children’s Home, Meadville, Pa. From 1973 to 1988 he served Tabor Lutheran Church in Kane, Pa. He was a leader of the pastoral leadership development program of his synod for ten years and served on the Executive Board for eight years, as well as his involvement in various community programs. In 1988 Pastor Carlsson was called to intentional interim ministry by the Northwestern PA Synod of the ELCA. In 1990 he founded Seed Sower Ministries and has developed and led lay leadership training workshops as well as his “Pastoral Leadership and Awareness Development” program. He was a leader of the Interim Ministry Network, Baltimore, and a faculty member from 1991 – 2004. He served congregations in his synod as an intentional interim pastor as well as consultant to several denominational judicatories for interim ministry throughout the US. He was co-founder in 1994 of the National Association of Lutheran Interim Pastors (NALIP) and is one of its faculty members. Pastor Carlsson has been trained in congregational systems through the Bridgebuilder and Healthy Congregations programs by Peter Steinke and was a frequent facilitator. He is author of the chapter on leadership change during a pastoral transition in the Alban book, Temporary Shepherds, which is a congregational handbook for interim ministry. He was a primary developer and writer for the IMN’s participant’s workbook and faculty manual. He did the same for NALIP. His DMin thesis was a detailed process for the development of lay leadership during the interim period in a congregation between called pastors, utilizing the Transition Team approach. Andy and his wife, Donna, were married in 1957. After raising their five children Donna was the administrative assistant at the Kane hospital for 25 years. They moved to the rural area near Quakertown in the summer of 2009. They have seventeen grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. One of Andy’s hobbies is woodworking making simple furniture to birdhouses. Donna has developed the art of stained glass and also adventures into embroidery and sewing. |