Egertson

Like Father, Like Son

The lives of two pastors come full circle to serve the Josephine community

The resemblance is not hard to see. Revs. K.G. and Mark Egertson, Josephine’s the father-and-son chaplaincy team at Josephine, look like father and son, their faces showing the same movements of eyebrow and cheek. Their faces have the same warmth and openness, too, as well they should. After all, they are both veteran pastors, and today they are leading the 2:30 p.m. Prayer and Praise worship service in Josephine’s multipurpose room. The “chapel-in-a-box” has been opened, revealing beautiful stained glass and lighted candles. Colorful curtains have been drawn out across the front wall, transforming Josephine’s multipurpose room into a tranquil place of worship and reflection.

The congregants today are mostly in wheelchairs, some asleep or unaware, but many actively engaged in the hymn singing and the prayers. The Reverends K.G. and Mark stand on either end of the altar, sharing God’s blessings and the wisdom learned from two lifetimes of pastoral care: together, they have spent 83 years serving as Lutheran pastors on the west coast.

The clergymen frame the chapel cabinet. Inside, the back wall has been painted with these words from Psalm 92:12-14: “The righteous grow like a cedar. They are planted in the house of the Lord. In old age they still produce fruit. They are ever full of sap and green, showing that the Lord is upright.” How is it that father and son have come to share the same pulpit, and in a nursing home?

The story begins in part at a bible study breakfast held 25 years ago. Mark Egertson studied at Pacific Lutheran University, earning a B.A. in communications arts and special education in 1972. During his studies, he met Sharon, and they were married during his last year. After he graduated, he worked for a federal education program with developmentally disabled adults. He found the work very draining, however, and realized that he just wasn’t cut out for this kind of work. So instead, he approached Jim Rice, a member of his father’s congregation at Anacortes Lutheran and a busy and successful building contractor. “How often do you take on apprentices?” asked Mark. “See you on Monday,” said Jim. Mark worked in construction for more than ten years.

Mark and Sharon soon started a family. Leif was born in 1973, Ingrid in 1976, and Soren in 1978. Mark developed a circle of close friends, most of whom met together every week for a breakfast and bible study. In time, these friends came to know Mark well -- perhaps even better than he knew himself. In 1980, at one of these breakfast meetings, Mark’s friends decided to tell him something they had been discussing among themselves for some time. It was clear to them that Mark was called to something else besides construction. “Mark,” they told him, “You should be a pastor.”

The suggestion that he enter the ministry wasn’t all that surprising; naturally, as the son of a pastor, and as a member of a family that has had numerous clergy in it, the pastorate was not a strange idea. Mark knew immediately that his friends were right. Still, this would mean some major adjustments, not only his own way of thinking, but for his wife and three children. Mark couldn’t bring himself to talk to Sharon about this breakfast discussion for three days.

Mark shouldn’t have worried, because Sharon was not even surprised. “I’ve been thinking about the very same thing,” she told him. After prayerful consideration, the couple began making plans to move to Iowa, where Mark would attend Wartburg Seminary. Giving up the construction trade and moving to the Midwest to attend school would mean financial hardship for the family, but the Egertson’s were convinced that this was God’s calling on their lives.

And yet, there was still one person Mark hadn’t talked to about his plans: his father K.G. He invited his father to meet him at the Farmhouse Inn near Anacortes, the site of many family gatherings over the years.

According to Mark, K.G.’s response was strangely muted. “I was a little puzzled,” said Mark. “Everyone was excited about this idea except my dad.” K.G. laughed at this. “Of course I was very excited. But I didn’t want him to feel any pressure from me. I wanted him to be sure about this.” Mark was sure, and so was Sharon. With the affirmation of their community of friends, they traveled east, settled at Wartburg, and began a new life as a seminary family.

Mark was following a path K.G. had carved out more than forty years before. Kermit Gordon Egertson was born in 1914 in Wallingford, Iowa. He decided on the ministry midway through his studies at St. Olaf college in Northfield, Minnesota, and upon graduation in 1938, enrolled in Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

K.G. met his wife Joyce during the Easter season of his senior year at Luther. It was 1942. “I was leaving for my first call in L.A. in three weeks,” remembers K.G. “so there wasn’t much time for this romance!” Joyce visited him in California during the Christmas break, and they were married in June 1943.

K.G.’s first call was to serve with his older brother H.O. Egertson, a pastor since 1932, at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Los Angeles. In 1945, K.G. was assigned to start a new church in Westchester, a suburb of Los Angeles. Mark was the Egertson’s first son, born in 1945. In 1948, K.G. was called to Portsmouth Trinity Lutheran in Portland, Oregon, and in 1956, the couple moved to Novato near San Francisco to plant another church called Good Shepherd Lutheran. K.G. served this congregation until 1959. The Egertson’s adopted a one year old daughter, Maren, in 1958.

In 1960, K.G. was appointed to Anacortes Lutheran in Washington, where he served for twenty years until his retirement in 1980. His retirement coincided almost exactly with his son’s decision to enter the ministry. “I passed the baton to Mark,” says K.G.

After his retirement, K.G. served for several years as visitation pastor at First Lutheran in Mt. Vernon and on the board of Josephine. After his term as board member expired in 1992, he joined Josephine’s chaplaincy team. Today, at age 92, K.G. is still a part of the chaplaincy team, conducting regular worship services and meeting individually with residents.

Mark graduated from Luther Seminary in 1985. His first call was a trial by fire. He had accepted a position as associate position at Peace Lutheran in Pendleton, Oregon. Tragically, just one week after he arrived, the senior pastor died of a stroke. Although Mark had little experience as a pastor, his skill and compassion for the congregation as they went through this difficult time was clear. “It’s obvious you’re their pastor,” said Rev. Cliff Lunde, bishop of the North Pacific synod, after observing his work with the congregation. He urged Mark to accept the church’s call for Mark to be their senior pastor. Mark served Peace Lutheran for ten years.

One important dimension of his ministry at Peace was hospice care, a ministry especially close to his heart. He helped to establish a hospice program in conjunction with the local health care organization’s visiting nurse program.

In 1995, Mark was called to the Davenport area in eastern Washington to serve two small rural congregations, Zion Lutheran in Davenport and Christ Lutheran in Egypt. The challenges of serving two congregation were many, but Mark continued to be involved in hospice care. He also served as a chaplain for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s department.

K.G.’s wife Joyce died in 2003, and the family grieved her loss deeply. After sixty years of marriage, K.G. was all by himself. Although he continued to commute to Josephine from his Mt. Vernon condominium, he found that he did not care for being alone. Eventually, in 2005, he moved into Josephine’s assisted living apartments.

Meanwhile, Mark was also going through a significant transition. The demands of serving two congregations full time were taking their toll on his health, and ongoing conversations with his wife and family, his bishop and his congregation led him to consider if there were other ways he could serve the community of believers.

Mark got something like an answer when several things seemed to happen at once. First, now that K.G. had decided to move out of his condominium, he needed help getting the unit cleaned up and ready for sale. Second, Mark’s health situation became serious enough that he took a leave of absence from the churches in Davenport and Egypt. As a temporary measure, he and Sharon decided to come and stay in K.G.’s condo.

When the administrator of Josephine, heard that Mark was in the area, she invited him to join Josephine’s chaplaincy team. For Mark, it was an easy decision to accept her offer. “The one part of pastoral ministry I have enjoyed the most,” says Mark, “is ministering to the elderly. Now that I’m doing this work at Josephine, I keep pinching myself! It’s just perfect.”

Mark and K.G. are now part of Josephine’s seven-member chaplaincy team. They share responsibility for the weekly “Hymns and Devotions” services, and each spend five to ten hours a week visiting residents.

Mark has recently decided to stay in Mt. Vernon permanently. For the time being, he and Sharon will live in K.G.’s condominium. And meanwhile, he and his father will continue serving God’s people at Josephine. May they both remain “full of sap and green, showing that the Lord is upright.”