Melinda Melhus, the new associate pastor at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in West Salem, was impressed with Our Savior’s almost immediately.

“From the first time I talked with Pastor Dave (Bersagel), I just felt so comfortable,” said Melhus, who was installed in her new position the last weekend in September.

After speaking with Bersagel, Melhus met with the Call Committee in charge of finding a pastor to help out Bersagel.

It was at that point, she recalled, that she learned about the church’s youth and family programs and became very excited. She was particularly impressed that those programs have the greatest amount of participants of any church in the synod.

“Plus there is growth thoughout the area, and it’s a very diverse congregation, agewise,” Melhus said. “From the beginning, this felt like the place I was supposed to be.”

For his part, Bersagel is happy to have Melhus sharing the workload with him. “She’ll be a generalist in the sense that she’ll be doing a little of everything, but she’ll be specifically assigned to working with education and with the youth,” he said.

The two already appear to have established a rapport. “We’ve been enjoying getting to know each other, and it’s been fun,” Bersagel said.

“We will share the ministry 50-50. I am thrilled and so excited!” Melhus said.

Pastoring is not Melhus’ first career. She was in public relations and advertising before entering the Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., in 1996. She grew up in Norway —Norway, Kans., that is — but she has plenty of genuine Norwegian ancestry. The family homestead in north central Kansas, where five generations of her family have farmed, is still there and, for Melhus, so are the values she learned as a kid.

“That rural community really shaped my faith identity,” she said. “I think I grew up with the values of a generation even before my own. The first truckload of grain went to the church — that was First Fruits Giving in action. My family didn’t talk about faith — they lived it. The church has been part of my fiber, my being for my whole life.”

Although Melhus worked mostly for banks and corporations in her first career, she said her core values were always with the church. When she moved to Minnesota in 1991 she was leaning toward working with nonprofit organizations because that was more in line with who she was.

Then a pastor who had noticed her commitment and passion had a question for her. “He said, ‘What better nonprofit than the church?’” Melhus recalled.

Her background in public relations and advertising have worked well in the ministry. “It’s interesting how leadership and public speaking skills have helped me make up for my lack of ministry experience,” Melhus said.

With her public relations background, Melhus ended up doing a lot of work as a staff member at the St. Paul seminary. After getting her master of divinity degree in 2001, Melhus served as an intern at Faith Lutheran Church in Chisholm, Minn., for 2½ years. Prior to that, she did a chaplaincy for St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth, Minn., a trauma center for the entire region.

For the past 5½ years, Melhus was the first full-time pastor for Ostmark Lutheran Church in Watkins, Minn., a small town northwest of the Twin Cities. The congregation there doubled in size during her tenure.

“I did more baptisms than funerals,” she said, “and that’s pretty unusual for a rural congregation.”

One of the things Melhus is most excited about is being part of a team at Our Savior’s. That was not the case in Watkins, where she was the only person people could turn to.

“When you’re alone you have to do everything and that’s just not possible,” she said. During her time at the seminary, Melhus served as an intern at another church in southwest Minnesota and really enjoyed that experience.

“The idea of working with a team again is something I’m very excited about. I believe the whole is greater than the sum of the parts — people working together can accomplish so much!” she said.

Melhus has already found a place to live in West Salem — a duplex she shares with her two cats. She’s also clearly impressed by the beauty she’s found here.

“I’d never seen the bluff country before — it’s incredible!” she said.

Given her Minnesota ties, Melhus said she’s already faced some grilling about her sports allegiances. So far, she’s been able to approach the situation with diplomacy.

“I loved being in Minnesota and now I love being in Wisconsin,” she said. “Kids ask me about the Packers/Viking thing, and I tell them I have all kinds of favorites — including teams from Kansas.”