Foundation exec. Laura Csellak
renewing her career as a parish pastor

After six years at LTSP she’ll
Shepherd St. Andrew’s Church in Easton, PA

Csellak: "My fondest memories are the relationships I've had with seminary alums, friends and students."

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 26, 2003) --Pastor Laura Csellak still remembers the day in 1996 the phone rang in her Dansville, NY, kitchen nearly seven years ago. It was Larry House, now director of the LTSP Foundation, about a job. She was serving at the time as co-pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Dansville, with her spouse, the Rev. Mark Swanson (LTSP 1988).

"I was really excited," Csellak recalls. "I never dreamed that I would be called back to serve the seminary I graduated from in 1986." She said yes to Larry. For most of her six-year seminary career, Csellak served as associate director for the LTSP Foundation, overseeing the seminary’s former Annual Fund program and the current Leadership Fund initiatives, managing special events like the annual Spring Convocation, and relating to seminary alums. For the past 18 months, she has served as coordinator for the seminary’s capital campaign entitled "Building in Faith for People of Faith." The campaign seeks support for continuing campus renewal, including a new Learning Center upgrades to the Krauth Memorial Library.

Now, Csellak has accepted a new call – to be pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Easton, PA. The congregation is about 20 miles from the church her husband serves – St. Paul’s Lutheran Blue Church in Coopersburg, PA.

"My best memories of the seminary are the relationships I’ve had with alums, friends of the seminary and leaders of congregations I worked with in the Seminary Sunday Campaign," Csellak says. The latter campaign offers congregations to focus on learning about the seminary’s mission during a Sunday morning activity.

Pastor Laura Csellak with spouse, Mark Swanson, and sons, Stefan, 12, and Luke, 10. Csellak served the seminary for more than six years.

She says she found herself yearning recently for a chance to shepherd a congregation and enjoy contact with parishioners once more. Csellak is eager for the opportunities St. Andrew’s affords. "I’ve learned some new skills at the seminary that I think excite the people of St. Andrew’s," she says. Those skills include how to run a stewardship campaign and making use of administrative and long-range planning skills. Csellak also feels she has grown through many preaching opportunities in Region 7 congregations as a seminary representative.

"St. Andrew’s is a very warm and hospitable congregation," she says of the 50-year-old parish. "The church is surrounded by new housing developments. I look forward to the mission work I will have a chance to do." That opportunity includes making door-to-door calls to introduce herself to neighbors surrounding the church.

She and husband, Mark, are parents of two sons – Stefan, 12, and Luke, 10.