Bilingual Pastor - Hope Lutheran Church

Job DescriptionJob Description:

Bilingual Pastor - Hope Lutheran Church

Pastor (Solo), Full-Time - Bilingual English/Spanish
Hope Lutheran Church Annandale, Virginia
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Metro DC Synod
A parsonage, and a congregation that lives in two languages
Hope Lutheran Church is calling a solo pastor to serve a bilingual congregation in Annandale, Virginia, seven miles from Washington, DC. A move-in-ready parsonage is provided, with utilities covered - a real home, available now, in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.
Hope was organized in 1957. About fifty people worship here each week, in English and in Spanish, and the Spanish service is not an add-on: it grew from one Sunday a month into a weekly service because the congregation kept showing up for it. Members call Hope "the little church that could." It is small, it is genuinely diverse, and it has spent decades working in Annandale rather than talking about it - a founding member of the Annandale Christian Community for Action, twenty years of adult ESL classes, backpacks and food drives with Annandale High School, quilts for Lutheran World Relief, a monthly seniors' luncheon in its thirty-fifth year, and the local relief effort for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Where Hope is growing right now is with children. Sunday Bible school keeps adding students, Vacation Bible School runs every summer, and the music program has grown enough that children now take part in worship itself rather than sitting through it.
Hope owns its building and its parsonage, rents out a third building on the property, and has been debt-free since 2018, when the last of the mortgage was paid off.
Who we are in Christ
Hope is a Lutheran congregation, which means we start from grace: God's love comes to us as a gift, not a reward, and it comes to everyone at the same table. We gather every week around Word and Sacrament, and we do it in two languages because the Gospel has never belonged to one. At Pentecost each person heard the good news "in their own language" (Acts 2:6), and that is still the church we are trying to be. We believe the body of Christ is bigger than any one denomination, which is why we welcome the gifts of our full communion partners as our own.
What this pastor will do

Preach and preside at worship in both English and Spanish, every week
Lead and reshape ministry with Annandale's Hispanic and immigrant community - the heart of Hope's work and where it is growing
Help members across four generations grow spiritually, with particular attention to children, teens, and young families
Build on a children's ministry that is already growing - Sunday Bible school, Vacation Bible School, and a music program bringing children into worship
Represent Hope beyond its own walls - with neighboring congregations, local non-profits, and local and state government. A fifty-person church extends its reach through partnership or it does not extend it at all.
Expand Hope's social ministries, and start new ones
Build shared community inside the congregation and beyond its doors
Develop leaders - the aim is ministries that outlast any one pastor
Reinvigorate adult ESL, which ran for two decades and has been waiting for new leadership

What this call requires

Ability to preach, teach, lead worship, and provide pastoral care with fluency in both English and Spanish. This is a requirement of the position, not a preference. Hope worships in both languages every week.
Cultural competence with the Hispanic community, not Spanish alone. Many of Hope's neighbors are immigrant families under real pressure, and they can tell the difference.
Ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA or one of its full communion partner churches (preferred), or candidacy with a synod bishop's recommendation - including through TEEM, and including approved candidates awaiting a first call, whose ordination follows the call. Normal preparation is a bachelor's degree and a Master of Divinity, and study still in progress is welcome. Whether preparation is sufficient is the synod's candidacy decision, not ours. Ordained in a partner church? Please read the next section - it is written for you.
A willingness to treat a fifty-person congregation like a mission congregation. Hope is asking for growth, and is honest that membership has declined and its givers are aging.

ELCA and full communion partner pastors: preferred
We are looking first for a pastor of the ELCA or of one of the six churches the ELCA is in full communion with:

The Episcopal Church
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Reformed Church in America
United Church of Christ
Moravian Church in America (Northern and Southern Provinces)
The United Methodist Church

Full communion means our churches recognize one another's ministries and share one table. A minister ordained in any of these churches can serve an ELCA congregation under the full communion agreements (for most partners, the Orderly Exchange of ordained ministers), and the Metro DC Synod office handles the arrangement. If that is you, we would genuinely like to hear from you.
Ordained somewhere else? There is still a path: reception onto the ELCA roster. It takes longer, and the synod office will tell you what it involves in your case. Write to us anyway.
Either way it starts in the same place: contact the Metro DC Synod office, and write to us as well.
What Hope offers the pastor
An office manager and a working Council that carry administration, legal, and financial detail. A cadre of volunteers who show up and need someone to build them into teams. A small church where a pastor does a bit of everything and has room to grow into it. Fertile ground: an engaged Spanish-speaking community already at the door. And virtual worship and study offerings kept from the pandemic years.
Compensation
$75,000-$95,000 per year, depending on experience, plus a move-in-ready parsonage with utilities covered by the congregation. This is defined compensation under the Metro DC Synod's 2026 guidelines, and it does not include the value of the parsonage or its utilities; pension and health coverage (through Portico Benefit Services, the ELCA's benefits ministry, for ELCA clergy) and expense reimbursement are provided in addition.
What the parsonage is worth. The Metro DC Synod's 2026 compensation worksheet values housing in a provided parsonage at roughly $25,000 to $32,000 a year for a call at this level, and the congregation pays its utilities on top of that. In practical terms, this call carries the housing that a comparable salary elsewhere would have to buy in one of the most expensive markets in the country.
Also provided: four weeks of vacation a year, including three Sundays two weeks of continuing-education time a year, which may accumulate for up to three years a $3,000 annual allowance for professional expenses, synod meetings, and continuing education, at least $500 of it for continuing education mileage for church business at the IRS rate, within limits set in the Letter of Call parental leave of at least six weeks with full salary, housing, and benefits moving expenses, negotiable
How this call works
Our Ministry Site Profile is approved by the synod bishop and live. Candidates are introduced through the synod. The call committee interviews, the congregation votes by a two-thirds majority, and the Letter of Call is countersigned by the bishop.
If you are rostered, the fastest way to be considered is to ask your synod office to forward your Rostered Minister Profile to the Metro DC Synod.
One piece of process, said plainly: the Letter of Call itself goes to a minister on the ELCA roster of Ministers of Word and Sacrament, or to a candidate our synod bishop recommends for this congregation (ELCA constitution C9.02). That is the constitution we serve under rather than a preference of ours - and it is a question the synod settles, not one we decide here. So if you are not on that roster today, treat it as a starting point rather than a stop sign. Write to us anyway.
A resume and short letter of interest is welcome if you'd like to send one. Links to two recorded sermons - one in English, one in Spanish - are welcome but not required. Please do not send references at this stage.
Interview accommodations are available on request.
Priority review begins Monday, October 26, 2026; open until filled.
Pastor(a) Solo(a), Tiempo Completo - Bilingüe Inglés/Español
Iglesia Luterana Hope 4604 Ravensworth Rd, Annandale, Virginia 22003
Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en América Sínodo Metro DC
Una casa pastoral, y una congregación que vive en dos idiomas
La Iglesia Luterana Hope busca llamar a un pastor o una pastora para servir a una congregación bilingüe en Annandale, Virginia, a siete millas de Washington, DC. Se provee una casa pastoral lista para habitar, con los servicios públicos cubiertos - un hogar de verdad, disponible ya, en uno de los mercados de vivienda más caros del país.
Hope se organizó en 1957. Unas cincuenta personas adoran aquí cada semana, en inglés y en español, y el culto en español no es un añadido: pasó de ser un domingo al mes a ser semanal porque la congregación siguió llegando. Sus miembros llaman a Hope "la iglesita que sí pudo." Es pequeña, es realmente diversa, y lleva décadas trabajando en Annandale en vez de hablar de ello - miembro fundador de Annandale Christian Community for Action, veinte años de clases de inglés para adultos, mochilas y colectas de alimentos con la escuela secundaria de Annandale, colchas para Lutheran World Relief . click apply for full job details