Transitional pastor brings candor, calm to First Lutheran
Published 1:25 pm Monday, October 12, 2026
Pastor Joyce Miller is the new transitional pastor at First Lutheran Church in Blair. She first served the congregation several years ago, after a previous pastor left.
“The synod called me up and asked me to come to be a pastoral presence and to care for the people while supplying on Sundays,” Miller said. “And so I did that, and I did it for several months. And so as I did it, I came to know the folks. We love each other.”
When the church’s most recent pastor left, Miller said, “He left a space, right? And so I happened to be a good fit for what the congregation needed.” Until Monday, she was pastor at Immanuel Courtyard and Village Senior Living in Omaha. She is moving to Blair. “I’m just now starting to move in,” she said.
Miller said she first declined the position. “I said, ‘No, no, yes,’” she said. “I thought that I would spend my time until retirement where I was. But as I began to think about it, I figured that my skills and their needs are a good fit. And so are their hearts and mine.”
The people who asked her changed her mind. “I trust them. I know them. They know me,” Miller said. “And as I thought about it, I’ve got some skills that these folks need.”
“As you know, your community’s gone through a couple of tornadoes,” she said. Miller noted the congregation has unexpectedly lost its pastor again, as it did the last time. “I can do stability in the midst of chaos, and I can also do conflict, as in doing conflict means provide pastoral care through it,” she said.
Miller has never been married and has no children. “Never wanted to,” she said. She considers the church her family.
Miller said she felt called to ministry from a young age but resisted it. “I have a long call story, but I haven’t wanted to be a pastor since I was 12 years old,” she said. “But I had a calling, that aching and calling in the heart. And so, for example, women weren’t even being ordained, and my pastor, when I was in eighth grade, asked me, ‘Have you ever thought about being a pastor?’ And I lied and said no.”
Miller was born in the United States and grew up outside Chicago, where her parents met. Her mother is from the Philippines, and her father is from Chicago. She was set to attend St. Francis Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in Joliet, Illinois.
“The Catholic school was the college prep school, and if people could afford it, they sent their kids there because it was an excellent education,” she said. “And my mom is from the Philippines, so she knows that a good Catholic education is a good education.”
Miller has been a pastor for 30 years, and she said with a laugh that “most of them” have been good years.
Beyond bringing calm to a church that has seen turmoil, Miller said she is direct. “I’m known for being candid. If something’s wrong, I’ll say it, and I’ll say what it is. And then we work toward a resolution,” she said.
A transitional pastor can have a hard time earning a congregation’s support when members know she will not stay long-term. Miller said that is part of the reason she is moving to Blair. “I can’t be a full-time presence if I’m not here full time,” she said.
“It means that I show up at the weekly meetings. I do Bible studies during the week. I’m already doing the Wednesdays, right?” she said. “So that means I’m commuting back and forth. I will have office hours, not a whole lot of them, because I plan on being out and about, meeting the folks from the community. And hoping that I get to meet those folks.”
Speaking about helping others, Miller pointed to a T-shirt reading “God’s work, our hands.” “I truly believe,” she said. “I was a Peace Corps volunteer, and that was my deal with God. I don’t wanna do that pastor stuff, but there’s that.”
Asked whether her mission is to be part of the church or to administer it, Miller said, “Yes.”
“I’m a Lutheran through and through, and I truly believe that those things go hand in hand,” she said. “Part of being Lutheran is that we belong to a world community, right? And we have a theology that’s pretty common all around. The radical grace that Lutheranism believes is what I’m about. One of the risks of Lutheranism is that we can become a club rather than God’s hands.”
Miller agreed that First Lutheran can feel like a club, with some members not receiving the care they need. “That’s why I’m here,” she said. “I’ve spent 22 years at Nebraska Medicine as a hospital chaplain. My job was a lot of trauma, a lot of bereavement services, and the kind of stuff that a trauma chaplain does. I’m in the trenches with folks. But I’ve had 25 years of being a chaplain and a pastor at the same time.”
Miller said she loves people enough to tell them the truth. “That’s my reputation,” she said. “I’m known even in the Lutheran circles as someone who speaks the truth, and I don’t do it harshly.”
Asked what Blair residents should know about her, Miller said, “Come and see. But I guess what I would say is that I’m someone who is new here, and I’m also someone ready to welcome others.”
