CAROL SHETLER/The Luminary Chaplain Janet Dougherty (right) with congregates Doris and Lynn Poust of Muncy. The couple were exiting St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Muncy following the installation of pastors.

MUNCY – A first for St. Andrew Lutheran Church was the installation of two leaders called to administer pastoral duties to the congregation and the community.

The year-long search by the Muncy church concluded on Sunday July 10 when the board bestowed the yoke of service upon Pastor Daniel Landin and Chaplain Janet Dougherty.

“You are blessed here,” said Pastor Warren Baker, a founder of the Lutheran Congregational Mission for Christ’s (LCMC) Beyond the River Academy in Minnesota. Also present was Pastor Joan Scheffler of Illinois.

Of the new inductees Baker said, “Both are pastors with very different duties which he enumerated. He also gave the message of the morning titled, “The Workers Are Few,” with scriptures taken from Matthew 9: 35-40.

Songs selected as congregational hymns were favorites of both inductees. For Pastor Landin, it was ‘Day by Day,” and in honor of Chaplain Dougherty, ‘Here I Am Lord.”

CAROL SHETLER/The Luminary Pastor Daniel Landin (right) and congregates Erik and Chelsie Houser of Montoursville. The farewells followed a dual pastor installation service July 10 at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Muncy.

The title of the choir’s anthem was “Rejoice the Lord is King,” led by director and accompanist Joy Barto. Vocalists included Janet Dougherty, Becky and James Houser, Stephanie and Pastor Dan Landin, Donald Miller, Tricia Schultz, Julie Souter and Shirley Watson.

A letter of referral was read from Landin’s former associate, Senior Pastor Stephen Taylor of the Panama Methodist Church in Panama, New York. “For the past three and one-half years, I have seen his love for Jesus, his intellect, and his love for others,” Taylor wrote.

After reading the letter to the assembly, Church council president Dick Langer agreed with the writer saying, “I’ve witnessed the pastor during visitations and conducting services including a funeral.”

Of the circumstances leading him to become a pastor, Landin said, “I grew up in church and pursued Biblical studies at the Robert Wesleyan Christian College in Rochester, New York. I continued on earning a Master of Divinity Degree from Northeastern Seminary, also in Rochester.”

Originally from Warren, Pennsylvania, this is Landin’s first position as senior pastor. Of the Muncy community he said, “We love the area, it’s beautiful. It already feels like home.”

Following the service, the parsonage was filled with more than a dozen family

members who traveled to witness the joyous occasion. They were Landin’s grandparents, parents and siblings.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Chaplain Janet Dougherty had wanted to go into the ministry since she was in high school. However, life’s pathway took her into the military, and a career with the Navy. “My last duty station from which I retired was in Williamsport. My husband John and I decided to remain in the area. He is also a Navy retiree,” she said.

As a member of St. Andrew, she studied with the LCMC’s Beyond the River Academy in Minnesota. “The academy is dedicated to the cause of enabling men and women to prepare for the ministry of Jesus Christ, recognizing the need of pastoral leadership, especially in rural communities around the country,” she said.

“Beyond the River” academy is especially geared to retired persons preparing them to minister to rural congregations who cannot otherwise afford full time pastors.

Due to her previous military service, Dougherty feels her services can lead her to minister in Veterans Hospitals.

In concluding the service, visiting pastor Warren challenged the congregation to “open and read your Bible each morning and pray for you pastors every day. Join them in God’s harvest, for the workers are few.”