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Pastor Wolff says,
"God Kept Moving Me"
By Lee Hughes
Pastor Ed Wolff, recently chosen as our transition minister, comes to the assignment with an impressive resume. Before entering seminary at age 55, he had worked nine years as a CPA for a major accounting firm, 14 years in executive positions at three banks, and nine years as manager of symphony orchestras.
He entered the ministry at 59 and spent the next seven years as pastor of churches in South Carolina. Since his retirement in 2003 from full-time ministry, he has served the Southeastern Synod as "assistant to the bishop/ pastor of transitional ministries." Right now he is concluding a transitional ministry for the two congregations of the Lutheran Parish of Parrotsville in Cocke County.
Pastor Wolff's ministry at Our Savior Lutheran Church will be his fourth such assignment. His first Sunday in OSLC's pulpit will be July 22. He is to serve until a full-time minister is chosen to succeed Pastor Arne Walker, who retired last month. Transitional ministries can be a year or more in duration.
Pastor Wolff and his wife, Frankie, live in Jonesborough. He will travel to our parish on Wednesday afternoons and leave after Sunday services. The church is providing him with an apartment.
Now for some detail of Pastor Wolff's resume: His accounting job was with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. The banks that employed him as an executive were in Cincinnati, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Peoria, Illinois. The orchestra organizations he managed were the Alabama Symphony, in Birmingham, and the Charleston Symphony.
"As I look back on my life's journey, I sense that there was much guidance from God," Pastor Wolff said. "Many times I probably took a wrong turn but God kept moving me for his purpose. The call became very obvious on Sunday, March 8, 1992. I was worshiping and in the midst of the service, this thought entered my head: 'Go to the seminary.' It was the farthest thing from my regular thought process. There was much rapid discernment afterward. I enrolled in the seminary and began my studies in the summer of that year.
As far as the symphony career is concerned, I was active as a volunteer with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. I was treasurer, president, and fund drive chairperson in my six year's on the board. When I was looking at options for a career change, the music director suggested I examine symphony management as a possibility.
"I have no doubt that God has been guiding my life. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize it much of the time." Each of the career changes in my life was a learning experience that assisted me in my life's journey. Fortunately, I finally became aware of what God wanted me to really do when I grew up!"
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