THE LAST WORD:

Newport Harbor Lutheran Church has fallen on some hard times. The congregation has shrunk to about 200, and a bookkeeper was convicted in May of embezzling about $320,000 from the church over a four-year period.

But hope has arrived in its new pastor, Bradley Stienstra.

His arrival in Newport Beach goes against expectations. The congregation probably should have recruited a young pastor, but to his surprise they kept coming back to the 59-year-old until he agreed to leave his Riverside church of 19 years to help Newport Harbor recover.

“But I couldn’t ignore that at every point I could come up with — and there were lots of solid objections — there was still this insistent voice that said I want to be there,” he said.

That sort of commitment must hearten a congregation that has seen several leaders come and go since a more vibrant time in the early ’90s. One pastor even quit on short notice, church members say.

But interim Pastor John Embree, who specializes in stabilizing troubled Lutheran churches, steered the congregation into calmer waters before handing it off.

We pray Stienstra will succeed.