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I want to begin by thanking you for considering me for this position at your church. My name is Steve Bliss. I am 35 years old. I am married to a wonderful woman named Sheila and we have a terrific 2-˝ year old son named Kyle. We live in Spicer, Minnesota where Sheila works as a substitute teacher.
I grew up in San Jose, California, in a Christian home. The church we attended was a part of the Reformed Church of America denomination. In 1990 I joined the Navy and served a five-year enlistment as a Hospital Corpsman. In that time I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and a few different places in San Diego. I was also in the Middle East for about six months during the first Gulf War.
I began to think that the Lord might be calling me to ministry while I was in the Navy. I was at home visiting family, and a sermon that I heard one Sunday had a strong effect on me. In this sermon, the pastor spoke of how he struggled with his call. I had never heard this concept. I figured that people who went into the ministry always knew they would go into the ministry. After hearing this sermon, I didn’t necessarily start thinking that I was called to the ministry, but I at least realized that it was possible.
A few years later, I got out of the Navy and moved up to Oregon. I worked various jobs in the medical field, but my focus was going to school and getting a degree in public relations. This was also where I met my wife and became a Lutheran. Sheila and I met only a few months after I moved to Oregon in Feb. 1995. We were married on June 28, 1997. While all of this was going on, I was really starting to think that the Lord might have been calling me to ministry. One day, when I was nearing my graduation form college (Southern Oregon University), I went and told my pastor that I thought that I might have been being called to the ministry. He was very supportive and confirming.
Upon recommendation from my candidacy committee, I took a year off of school before coming to seminary. This enabled me to do a “mini-internship” at my church. This was the best thing I could have done before coming to seminary. I preached once a month, got involved with the youth, went out on calls with the pastor and did anything that would give me an idea of what I was getting myself into.
Since coming to seminary, I have felt a strong call to rural ministry. I have tried to become more familiar with rural culture. I feel that the Lord has a lot of exciting things planned for me in rural ministry and I believe an internship at your church would be an excellent way for me to begin my rural ministry experience.