For Steven Koski, choosing to relocate from his comfortable job near Chicago and move to the great unknown of Bend was not so much a decision as it was a moment of clarity.

It was what God was calling him to do, he said. He only had to realize it.

Koski is the new senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Bend, one of Bend’s oldest churches and one deeply embedded in the community’s social service work. He will deliver his first sermon at 9 a.m. Sunday.

”I’m excited to be here because I sense in this place a desire to make a difference, not only in our lives but also in how this community reaches out to make a difference in Bend,” Koski said.

Koski came to Bend this week from the First Presbyterian Church of La Grange, Ill., where he had served since 1999. His wife, Laurie, and sons, Jacob, 13, and Jonah, 11, will follow after the end of the school year.

A long road

The job of choosing a new pastor for the 500-member church was a big one, said church administrator Boyd Levet, and one the church took more than two years to complete.

Tom and Patty Campbell-Schmitt, former co-pastors of the church, departed in August 2003 to take over leadership of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in southwest Portland. The couple had been at First Presbyterian of Bend for 15 years, and left a lasting impression.

”It would have been unfair to ourselves and to the new pastor to bring someone in cold right away,” said Judy Alford, who was on the church’s pastor nominating committee, the group charged with the job of choosing a new pastor. Churchgoers would inevitably make comparisons or note differences between the former pastors and the new one.

”It’s like breaking up,” Koski said of the relationship between a church and its leader. ”There’s this big void left behind.”

Presbyterian churches are required by their ruling body to undergo a self-evaluation process after the departure of a senior pastor, Alford said. The process includes an intimate look at the church’s congregation, practices, mission and goals.

”We had to ask who are we? Where are we? What direction do we want to go in?” Alford said.

The church spent seven months studying the vision of the church through focus groups and conversations with members and friends.

It then drafted a statement of its vision that highlights what the church wants to focus on.

”The goals are the same – to grow in our spirituality and understand the ways we believe God calls us to act and behave as Christians,” Alford said. ”That doesn’t change. What does change is the demographics of the church and the needs of the people.”

First Presbyterian is a more diverse church today than it was in 1988, when the Campbell-Schmitts began their tenure as co-pastors. There are more single parents and more families in which two parents work outside the home. Many church members like a more contemporary worship style, and families have different needs today than they did 15 years ago, Alford said.

”Churches are living things and they need to evolve to keep up with the demands of society,” she said.

The church’s new vision statement reinforces First Presbyterian’s long-standing Christ-centered philosophy, but emphasizes ministry to young families and the value of the creative tension that diversity brings.

Once the church articulated its new vision, the search for a new pastor began anew. Applications from 140 interested pastors flooded the church office, and Alford’s committee narrowed its search to a few pastors who came to Oregon to preach sermons in neutral churches in Portland or the Willamette valley, where Bend church members went to see them.

In August, with a congregation impatient for a new leader, Alford’s committee offered the position to Koski, she said, pending congregation approval.

Koski came to Bend in November to deliver a Sunday sermon to his potential new congregation. After a weekend of social events and sermons on Sunday to a packed sanctuary, the congregation voted with written ballots – all 560 votes cast supported choosing Koski as their new pastor.

Moving forward

Koski hopes to bring to First Presbyterian an appreciation for the strong foundations of the church, but also a desire to try new things.

”I want us to stay grounded in tradition while at the same time opening ourselves to the new winds of the spirit,” he said.

Koski, 43, grew up in northern Minnesota. He attended Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., where he majored in psychology and English (a short stint as a professional actor suggested a theater major, but he didn’t want to commit his soul to it, he said).

After working for some time with drug-addicted youth in a residential treatment facility, Koski set his sights on ministry.

”I realized that under the addition was a total lack of self-worth,” he said. ”I wanted them to see themselves the way God sees them.”

He attended Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, earning his doctorate of ministry.

Koski and his wife lived in Australia for 12 years, where he was pastor of a church in south Australia, and where both of his children were born. He also had a successful public speaking career in Australia, often appearing at schools to speak about child self-esteem.

The Koski family moved to La Grange, Ill., in 1999. His church there served a congregation of 900 in an affluent suburb of Chicago.

But after six years there, he was ready for a new challenge, he said.

”I feel most alive when we’re willing to take some risks,” he said.

”I felt called to this place because of the potential I see in this place and the amazing commitment of the people to living their faith in their daily lives.” First Presbyterian has a long history of community outreach that was inspiring, he said. Members of First Presbyterian have been involved in the founding of a number of local social service agencies, including Habitat for Humanity, the Bethlehem Inn homeless shelter, Grandma’s House shelter for pregnant teens and Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers. Koski wants to add to that legacy of service to the community with activities like some he instituted in his La Grange church, such as truly free car washes, where no money is accepted for the service, and days of delivering bottles of water to construction workers on hot days – just because.

It’s about making the invisible visible,” he said. ”We hear words like ‘God’s grace’ and ‘Christ’s love’ but they’re not really visible. Part of the challenge of the church is to make that visible.”

While he loved Illinois, Koski’s enthusiasm for outdoor activities and clear-sky mountain views made Bend an attractive option, as well.

”I love Chicago, but you can stare at the Sears Tower for only so long,” he said.

Koski will speak Sunday about the vibrancy of faith in the first in a five-part series of sermons addressing First Presbyterian’s new vision statement, which he said was a big factor in his move to Bend. He believes in the concept of ”joyfully dancing to the rhythms of divine grace” that’s expressed in the church’s vision.

”The potential here is extraordinary,” he said. ”Part of what I think I bring is a passion to bring the good news of God’s love for all people in fresh ways.”