Pastoral Letter from Rev. Dan Potaznick

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. — Ephesians 3:20-21 [NRSVUE]

After much prayer and discernment, I am announcing my resignation as Associate Pastor for Outreach at St. John’s, effective June 30, 2026. I do not leave St. John’s so much as I am being called into a new season of ministry. I have accepted a full-time call as the Director of Generosity and Strategic Development for the Grand Canyon Synod Office of the Bishop, where I hope, God willing, to serve the whole Body of Christ across our synod and the ELCA.

This decision has not come easily. I love this congregation and I am proud of what God has built through our work together. I believe deeply in the ministry happening through these doors. Leaving is its own kind of grief.

And I also trust that God, who was at work here before I arrived, will continue that work long after I am gone. The doors will stay open. The neighbors will still come. And St. John’s Lutheran Church will keep doing what it has always done: celebrate, proclaim, and serve.

Before I ever preached a sermon here, as we discerned together my call to serve St. John’s as your Associate Pastor, I walked the courtyard. What I found was not what I expected from a church campus. All of the numbered doors lining the parking lot and the courtyard were not pointed inward toward the congregation. They were pointed outward, toward the neighbor.

Every door told a story. A food pantry serving hundreds of families each month. Sunday school classrooms and meeting rooms that become Family Promise shelter four times a year. A chapel where meals are served and worship is held and all are welcome.

I was drawn to St. John’s because of this. The building shares a theology of radical welcome and grace. Before any program or initiative, our campus had already said something about who this congregation is and who it exists for.

Three years later, our outreach has only expanded. Our doors hold a clothing closet for neighbors experiencing homelessness. The glass doors to the narthex open all summer long so that anyone who needs relief from the Arizona heat has a place to come. We even added a door with our free little library.

It has been the privilege of my ministry life to serve as your Associate Pastor for Outreach these past three years. What we have built together is, at its heart, a story about the power of relationships and partnerships. Together we welcomed new members, built partnerships with organizations serving our neighbors, carried ashes to college campuses, replaced all of our plumbing, and asked again and again what it truly means to welcome a stranger. At the heart of all of it was this congregation’s long-established conviction that the church exists not for itself, but for the world.

Thank you, St. John’s, and thanks be to God.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Dan Potaznick