Ministry Outside the Box: Meet Gulf Coast Synod Candidate Angela Fleeger
By Tracey Breashears Schultz, Bishop’s Associate for Leadership
Angela and Chuck Fleeger
Angela Fleeger is serving as intern pastor at Celebration Church in Cypress, TX. She has a year of academics to complete after internship, which means she’s looking to May 2026 for graduation and first call. As a collaborative learning (CL) student at Wartburg Seminary, Angela has had the opportunity to “practice ministry immediately,” having been assigned to her site since her second semester of seminary. What she likes about the program is “what you learn, you put to use in your context.” Essentially, by the time she graduates, Angela will have been on staff at Celebration for 3 ½ years, which is longer than the average first call!
Last year, her supervising pastor, Ryan Dockery, took a new call in another synod. He did so in conversation with her, so she was not surprised when he announced the change, but it did cause Angela to ask some questions: Who would supervise her now? Could she keep her CL site? Was God teaching her she had become really good at navigating change?
She asked that last question because prior to her work at Celebration, she had been on staff at Peace Lutheran in College Station. Over the span of twenty years, she went from being “very part-time” as Parish Assistant for Sunday School to also teaching confirmation. After that, she moved from 20 hours/week to 30 hours/week (plus) as she headed the youth program and eventually became their Parish Assistant for Education, Youth, & Family. During that time, Angela saw her church go through numerous transitions in pastoral leadership. She can count five called pastors and three interim pastors for whom she worked during her ministry at Peace! Each supervisor did things a little differently and set some new expectations, but what she learned through it all was God is faithful, and those serving the church wanted the same things she did – the best for the church and God’s people.
When Pastor Ryan talked with her about his transition, Angela thought “Here we go again!” but she also thought, “This isn’t new to me. I have been here before. I can do transition.” During this time, I had spoken with Pastor Cheryl Lamaak, whose term call at St John in Waller, TX was coming to an end, as I knew she would be open to serving as an interim pastor. I had in mind she and Angela may work well together. I set up an opportunity to introduce them to each other by planning to meet them at a coffee shop in October (2024). When I finally made it through traffic delays and a detour, Angela and Pastor Cheryl had found each other (without my help), settled on a pleasant place to sit, and began talking about ministry, life, family – you name it! When I arrived and found them together, I was so happy they had connected so quickly, and I joked that they “didn’t really need me at all!” In reflecting about it later, I think this transition was easy because Angela was open to it. Her experience had taught her how to accept and navigate change and how to trust God in the process.
Celebration’s Amen Ramen drive for Cypress Assistance Ministries
When Angela first met the leadership at Celebration, in February 2023, she was up front with them. She had never served a congregation that was a Reconciling in Christ community. One church member told her, “We’re gonna welcome you no matter who you are.” At the time, Celebration was worshiping on the porch of a pub. Angela was delighted by the “outside the box” worship setting, the flexibility the congregation would give her “to try new things,” and their core beliefs around radical welcome and believing the best of everyone. She has since come to know the community in a deeper way. Many have been hurt by the church or are new to it. She finds they’re hungry to learn and to hear the gospel, and they are generous and fun. Last year, for example, they collected 3,000 packages of Ramen noodles for Cypress Assistance Ministries (CAM), a project they called “Amen Ramen.”
Sustaining her and supporting her in her call to ministry is her close family. Angela has been married to Chuck for 34 years, and they live in Bryan. They have two adult children and two grandchildren. As to what she hopes for her first call, Angela is open to just about anything, and so is Chuck. They’ve, after all, become really good at accepting change, trusting God in it, and thinking outside the box!