A familiar Shafer scene--standing on some table or platform--as he leads pending graduates through last-minute instructions.  This photo was taken just prior to 1998 commencement exercises at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church.

Celebrate Bill Shafer: After 10 devoted years he returns to the pulpit

Being a Director of Seminary Services has been a blessing and a bane for the Rev. William Shafer, who’s juggled many challenges during the 10 years of his professional life at the Seminary.

"I’ve been hearing from students lately just how helpful I have been," says Shafer, who’s stepping down from his post at the end of August to return to parish ministry.

"I’ve met wonderful students here, and there have been many I would love to have as my pastor," he says. "I’ve enjoyed working with most of the people I have known here."

At the same time, he has needed to face down many challenges to his analytical side, the side that pushes constantly for what is realistic. Colleagues attending key planning and budget meetings will likely miss the thorough way Shafer has dissected issues, then methodically raised hard questions about matters of strategic significance to the Seminary. Questions about the new building. Challenging the faculty about how to articulate the direction of an increasingly complicated curriculum.

Bill Shafer’s practiced analysis is flavored with intensity and devotion. Insistent, yet with a gentle side. Mix in a dry, wry wit. Jokes you can sometimes tell in public. What you get is a devil’s advocate with a certain mischievous gleam in the eye. A counter to the visionary side of any strategic planning discipline. Aren’t both elements necessary?

Celebrate Bill Shafer, a pastor’s pastor, who has worked long, tedious hours to manage a myriad of details. Preparing the catalog. Charts that depict the floor plan for graduation. Patiently exhorting student initiates at orientation. Directing the pre-commencement rehearsal from a tabletop or chair. Careful with directions. One wonders what it will be like without the Bill Shafer spice in the Seminary recipe.

In the 10 years Shafer has plied his trade, "the curriculum has become more and more complicated," he says. "We continue to add options and diversify. It has become more of a challenge to monitor the system and track the progress of students." Globalization, interfaith and ecumenical requirements are all newer wrinkles. "I have tried to listen and help others articulate what we really want to do," he says. "I’ve tried to raise questions about what is practical given our resources."

In the 10 years, students have come with more wide-ranging needs in an increasingly diverse community. International students. Students with families. Students facing financial challenges to complete their education. Students from widely diverse backgrounds, many of whom have given up a career to engage in Seminary study. He has worked to help students with interpersonal skills, organization, planning and budgeting. "I have seen a different side of students here than others often see," he says. But few doubt he plays a significant role in their development.

All these talents exude from a man who says he was an agnostic during his college days at Haverford. Pastor Walter Reimet fielded Shafer’s doubts and questions at Temple Lutheran Church, Havertown. "Wally was a teacher who accepted me. He affirmed me as I squirmed and wrestled. I found struggling with the issues of faith liberating." Getting liberated meant pursuing a call to ordination. After a career serving in the admissions office at Haverford, Shafer spent a happy three years at LTSP as a seminarian from 1977 to 1980. Subsequently serving as a pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Wyndmoor, he taught homiletics at the Seminary. That exchange led to a career in Seminary administration.

Though he excelled professionally at the Seminary, he admits: "I have missed the creative side of parish work – the preaching and the teaching, concocting ideas for confirmation, developing a drama about the Book of Exodus."

He will have plenty of time for that now as he explores accepting a call as an interim pastor to a congregation in transition on the territory of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod.

Bill Shafer has gratitude aplenty for Marie, his wife of 33 years, and three adult children, William, John Paul and Kristina. He enjoys gardening, yard work and "watching trains," he says. The latter figures. Bill has anything but a one-track mind.