Mike Bertsch’s parishioners are always glad to see him coming, but it’s not necessarily his words of wisdom or calm demeanor that excite them.
It’s his 7 1/2-month-old daughter, Lucy, who is with him daily in his office at Cornerstone Community Church and on pastoral calls in the area.
“They love it when we show up,” said Mr. Bertsch, 31. “Actually, I don’t think I need to be there.”
The Ohio native is in his third year as part-time pastor of the small East Brainerd Cumberland Presbyterian church, and his wife, Britney, is in her third year as a pediatric resident at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital.
When the couple decided they were ready for children, Mr. Bertsch said, they didn’t expect they would be blessed so quickly. In order for Mrs. Bertsch to finish her residency, the couple decided Mr. Bertsch would keep the baby during the day.
“Nobody (in the church) complained,” he said. “Nobody objected.”
In fact, said the Rev. Cliff Hudson, pastor of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, Tenn., and chairman of the regional presbytery’s Board of Missions, Lucy is a delightful and welcome addition.
“Sometimes it has been just the three of us (in meetings),” he said, “and sometimes it has been with groups of other people. Mike has a way of paying proper attention to her and to church business simultaneously. He is amazing that way. He takes his role as pastor seriously, and he takes his role as dad just as seriously.”
Rose Seemuth of Ringgold, Ga., has had three surgeries in the year she has attended Cornerstone Community and said she loves to see the pastor and his daughter arrive.
“Lucy has become everybody’s favorite,” she said. “She kind of brightens up everybody’s day.”
Lest Lucy’s role be overestimated, Mrs. Seemuth is also grateful for Mr. Bertsch.
“He has always been here,” she said. “He has been shepherding his flock — the best I’ve ever seen.”
Mr. Bertsch said it may seem a little odd his pediatrician wife “knows all the rules, all the details, and I’m here,” but the fact he has their daughter is primary to his wife.
Although he had some experiencing taking care of a much younger sister, he admitted to a little hesitation once he went solo with Lucy after the first of the year, especially since he felt he was “moving in” each day he came to work with all her accouterments.
“It’s a little different when you’re the dad,” Mr. Bertsch said.
Now that Lucy is “getting more vocal” and can roll across the floor, he said the church office where the two spend a good part of their days — with his daughter in a Pack ‘N’ Play — is getting “a little cramped.”
“She’s getting to the age where she needs more attention,” Mr. Bertsch said.
The most difficult aspect of being dad/pastor, he said, is getting Lucy to sleep in the same environment, the Pack ‘N’ Play, where she plays.
“She is overall a pretty good baby,” Mr. Bertsch said. “We have a good time.”
When he makes hospital visits, Lucy stays with one of the willing “many grandmas at the church.”
When Mr. Bertsch is away from her, though, “I feel like I’m missing somebody,” he said.
Things will change later this month when his wife concludes her residency, he winds up his pastorate and the family moves back to Indiana, where his wife will join a pediatric practice in Bedford.
Mr. Bertsch said the couple, who met at Purdue University, was fortunate with his job to be able to do what they did.
“It’s a decision we had the luxury of making,” he said. “Not everybody can make the same decision.”
Although Mrs. Bertsch will be employed full-time in Bedford, they hope she’ll eventually have a slightly more relaxed schedule. So a second child, and the particular pastoral work Mr. Bertsch finds, will determine their course of action then.
“We’ll see what God brings,” he said.
In the meantime, people like Mr. Hudson will smile at the father-daughter pastoral team.
“It is heartwarming to see it,” he said, “and I can tell you, we all hate to see him go.”
Mrs. Seemuth agreed, saying the family’s experience at Cornerstone Community has been positive.
“It’s a heartbreaker,” she said. “We’re happy that Britney has a good job and he will probably have the same type of (pastoral) job. What’s important to him is being with his child. There are plenty of places just like ours. He will have no trouble finding something like that.”