Update from our Pastoral Search Team
The Pastoral Search Team has been meeting for about 3 months now, and we’d like to share what our meetings have looked like, along with some status on where we are in the process.
We always start our meetings with a concerted, intentional time of prayer for specific categories (usually 1 per week): our future Lead Pastor, the RGBC congregation, or ourselves as a search team. There are a number of focus areas within each of those categories that we pray for. From the very start, we as a team have wanted to place a high priority on prayer. To that end, at the beginning of our meetings, we all go around and pray for one of the above-mentioned categories. We want to seek God’s guidance throughout the process and pray for His wisdom to direct us. It is a joy for us to spend this time in prayer together.
After we pray, we turn to Scripture and read through the two pastoral qualification passages in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Then, we give a little commentary on either the qualification passages, something from the books of 1 Timothy/2 Timothy/Titus, or helpful material to keep us focused on our task (e.g. articles, podcasts, books, etc.).
So, where are we in the process? We have posted the job description to SBC Seminaries, ministry partners, and our denominations main website. To date, we have received 51 resumes. We take time to assess each candidate based on their resume and any other information they’ve given us about themselves (e.g. cover letter, ministry philosophy, doctrinal statement, sermon postings, written articles, podcasts, etc.). After discussion among the team, we place the candidate into one of three categories: not a good fit, hold, or proceed to send a questionnaire. The questionnaire we send is around 25 questions. The majority of the questions at this point are doctrinal in nature with a few administrative questions. We have sent out a handful of questionnaires to-date and are waiting to receive them back. This is currently where we are in the process.
Once the questionnaires have been returned, we will prayerfully review and rank the candidates. This will lead to a video call with the Search Team so that we can learn more about the candidate and their desire to pastor at RGBC. After this point, the elders will meet with the candidate to assess their doctrine and prayerfully determine if they will be a good fit for us as a church. If things progress in a positive direction, the elders will recommend to the church a candidate to come and preach in view of a call for the Lead Pastor position. During this time, the congregation will have an opportunity to meet the candidate and to assess his preaching gifts for vocational elder. Of course, everyone will be given ample notice when we get this far into the process. We will continue to keep you posted on how things are proceeding through both the e-newsletter and communications at our Sunday gatherings. In the meantime, if you have any questions please reach out to one of us.
We have been encouraged by the conversations we’ve had with many of you on the process so far, as well as the daily prayer you’ve committed yourselves to on our behalf. Please do remember we have set aside a time for us as a church to gather and pray before the worship service in room 103 by the church office. We are currently meeting there to pray from 10:05-10:20am. Please swing by as you are able.
We covet your continued prayers, and we look forward to how the Lord will lead as we continue this work. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to anyone on the search team.
Blessings!
– The Pastoral Search Team