Hope Lutheran Pastor Keith Marshall preached his last sermon to his congregation of ten years on July 20.

Now he’s shedding the pastoral black and donning the ecclesial purple of the Bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA), and, come fall, visit each and every one of the 83 churches he now oversees.

Marshall was officially elected to the bishop position, a six-year term, by the synod (a group of churches in a geographical area) on June 14.

“I’m excited to go out and see all the different churches in the different corners of the synod,” Marshall said in a recent interview, adding that he was “shocked” he was elected, despite the fact he spent close to a year preparing for this possibility.

In order to see all of these churches and preach at a new one every Sunday, Marshall will be traveling — a lot; his synod stretches from all the Lutheran churches west of the Cascades from the north corners of the Olympic Peninsula to Portland, Oregon. There’s an estimated 20,000 congregation members total in the Southwestern Washington Synod.

It could be worse, he joked — he could be in the Nebraska synod, which encompasses the entire state.

Marshall’s journey to bishophood started when he was 16 years old when a friend invited him to the Trinity Lutheran youth group.

This was a year after his mother died from congenital heart failure.

“I’ve never been so welcomed and loved and cared for by a group of people in my entire life,” Marshall said. “… “[I] was in a place of a lot of questions, a lot of hurt, and a lot of confusion, and boy, talk about a community and God welcoming me in.”

This took him from being a camp leader to a youth director leader position in Lakewood for a decade; then Marshall earned his Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary in 2014, and he returned to Trinity Lutheran a year later.

“To then end up back in Enumclaw, to do the thing I had felt such a nudge to do at that age, has been a real blessing,” he said. “… A lot of people quote the scripture, ‘prophets are never welcome in their home town.’ That certainly wasn’t my case.”

Acceptance, Marshall said, is a theme at Hope Lutheran.

A few years before he returned to Enumclaw, the ECLA as a whole voted to recognize and perform same-sex couples and marriages, as well as allow LGBTQ+ pastors preach. This vote was the result of decades of work toward “reconciliation” that started in 1974 with the formation of the group Lutherans Concerned for Gay People (now ReconcilingWorks) formed in 1974.

Hope Lutheran, though, embraced the title of “reconciled church” in 2023.

“It’s been one of the best decisions the church has ever made,” Marshall said. “… This is who we are as a church.”

But reconciliation remains controversial, and not every Lutheran church — even in the PNW — has decided to go down that path. This is only one of many issues and topics Marshall has to keep in mind as he assumes his new role in shepherding a wide variety of congregations, from central Tacoma and Seattle to rural Neah Bay, that may not agree with positions he has taken as a pastor.

This may also include his views on the COVID-19 pandemic; a Church Corner published in the Courier-Herald went viral on social media in September 2022 when Marshall resisted the idea of “religious exemption” for vaccines. The photo of the column was shared more than 35,000 times on Facebook, and received more than 1,800 up/downvotes on Reddit at the time.

“I have been asked if I regret writing the column, that if I could take it back, would I? As a good Lutheran, I will quote Martin Luther, ‘Unless I am convinced by Scripture and reason, my conscience is bound to the Word of God. I cannot, and I will not recant anything, for going against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. Here I stand. I can do no other,’” Marshall wrote in response to both the vitriol and support he received during this time. “Though that time immediately following the column was tumultuous, I refuse to allow that time to be defined by the hate and anger of others. Instead, that time of my life will be defined by God’s all-encompassing love poured out through my family, friends, church, community, and strangers. To paraphrase what a friend shared with me, ‘While hate is loud, love lasts longer.’”

Marshall said it will be difficult to find the balance of “boldly” proclaiming what you believe in, but also doing so in a way that is “gracious and loving,” but he hopes to lead his synod by listening to every congregation’s needs and desires — not just spiritual, but also logistical support and various programs.

“It’s not just putting forth my great ideas I have, but really to take some time to pause and listen,” Marshall said. “… Taking some time to… hear what people are yearning for, hoping for, what their dreams are for their church, their needs and their communities’ [needs].”

Still, one of the goals Marshall has is to lead a revitalization of youth ministry, like bringing some of the smaller groups of youth together or retreats and support youth leaders.

“It was just one of those [things] that in the midst of COVID… fell off,” Marshall said. “But that was such an important part of my story and my life… that is an area of focus I would like to have.”