The Network family has lost one of its own.
Beth Smallbeck passed away peacefully on June 9th, surrounded by her family, following a cardiac arrest on June 3rd. She was a beloved mother, friend, and faithful servant of Christ, and her death leaves a real and tender gap in the community she helped build over many years.
Many of you knew Beth. Some of you worked alongside her on Network teams. Others were supported by her in your own ministry, perhaps without fully realizing how much of herself she poured into that work. That was Beth. Her daughter wrote this week that she was “a light to anybody she came in contact with,” and I don’t think anyone who crossed her path would push back on that.
Beth served Grace Lutheran Church in Wenatchee, Washington, for many years before retiring and relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she continued doing what she apparently couldn’t stop doing: being present for a congregation, serving part-time, staying connected to the work. Retirement, for Beth, seemed more like a change of address than a change of calling.
Her contributions to this Network were substantial. She served on numerous teams over the years, stepped into the role of Regional Facilitator, and most recently brought her wisdom and experience to one of our strategic planning teams. Beth also served as a volunteer at the ELCA Youth Gathering, and then for a couple of cycles, was the team leader for the volunteers team. That’s the kind of arc that tells you something about a person. Beth wasn’t someone who showed up once and moved on. She stayed. She invested. She gave the Network and the wider church her time, her energy, and her hard-won knowledge of what ministry in the real world actually looks like.
I once brought a group from the congregation I was serving out from Minnesota to Holden Village. I called to ask Beth if there was a good, simple and affordable way to transport the group from the Seattle airport up to Chelan. Even over the phone, I could hear her smile as she said “I’ll drive you.” Sure enough, she showed up at the airport in the church van and drove us all the say to Chelan. That’s the kind of person she was.
Beth was passionate making the Network (and the church!) a place where everyone felt welcome, and where everyone’s gifts were honored.
Her daughter’s announcement is worth sitting with for a moment. She described her mother as “a messenger of Christ, a true and faithful servant, the definition of what you’d want as a mother, daughter, sister, friend.” She noted that Beth was “a pillar of MANY communities.” The word many is doing real work in that sentence. Beth didn’t belong to just one corner of the church. She belonged to a lot of people, in a lot of places, and all of them are grieving right now.
Her family finds comfort in the resurrection, in the confidence that Beth is reunited with loved ones who went before her, and that she rests in the arms of the One she spent her life pointing others toward. That’s a good word. That’s the word we cling to.
Her family is planning celebrations of life in the coming months, and we will share details as they become available.
For now, we give thanks. For Beth’s decades of service. For the way she showed up. For the relationships she built and sustained. For the ministry she made possible in others.
If you’d like to share a memory or a word of gratitude for Beth in the comments, please do. Her family would be blessed to hear how she touched this community.
Rest in peace, Beth. You will be missed.
Rest eternal grant her O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon her.
Network is a Verb 