Remember the story of the time Samuel was told by the Lord to go to
Bethlehem to anoint the new king of Israel? Samuel took his anointing oil and was
sent to Jesse with these instructions, “I will show you what you shall do. And you
shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” (2 Sam. 16:3) Each of Jesse’s sons
came and stood before Samuel, and he thought, “this must be the one.” But God
said, “no.” Finally, the youngest son was brought before Samuel. David. He was the
one. The experience of the PST since just before Christmas has felt similar to
that of Samuel. We interviewed two candidates who seemed to fit the criteria we
were wanting. The team decided that, after a Sunday visit, one of them would not
be a good fit for us, but candidate #2 was the one. We began making plans in
January for him to come to North East in March and candidate for the position of
our new pastor. Unfortunately, because of personal reasons, he removed his name
from consideration. We were so sure, but God has another in mind. So, we looked at
other resumes and believed the Lord was leading us to interview another candidate,
which we did in February. Again, we all felt this was the man God was sending us.
And yet again, the answer from the candidate and God was no. We met again on
February 27 th to pray, plan, and look over more resumés. As a result, we
interviewed two more candidates at our March 12 th meeting and looked at
information regarding an additional one. As a team, we are committed to prayer and
reflection regarding these three, and we ask that you, as a congregation, pray as
well. We know, just as Samuel knew, that God has a man to be the pastor of First
Baptist Church. The Pastoral Search Team is committed to continue the process
with the hope that we will find him before summer.
In His Service,
Pastor Search Team
The big news is that we are pretty much through our initial team building phase, and are ready to cross the threshold into actually advertising the position. One of the things we needed to do was to update the church website and use it as the platform for accepting applications. Some companies still primarily use paper applications for open positions but that is largely for local employment, and even many local companies are going paperless which means that to apply for a job, you need to go to their website and apply online. For companies accepting applications across a wide area many, if not most, are paperless and are increasingly using website applications. Additionally many people who are looking for employment are expecting to apply online. Sending in a paper resume or application is increasingly rare. So with this in mind, we needed to add a way of accepting online applications to FBC’s website. It’s not as easy as it may sound, there’s a number of factors that have to be taken into account to having an online application process. It’s actually pretty complicated, and we are lucky to have a very knowledgeable young woman be able to set that up for us. We’ve been working on this for a while, and the good news is that we have the pages we need on the website with only one small glitch to correct, and we’ll be able to start accepting applications. The Search Team has a number of bulletin boards, employment locations, Bible Colleges, and individuals we intend to post on (or with) to let people know about our search. But we are very happy to be at this point right now, and we are hopeful that we will be able to start the active searching part very soon.
questions or comments.
In His Service,
Pastor Search Team
The process has been one that the entire Pastor Search Team has found rewarding, as we moved from a group of individuals into a solid team. As you may know, we have been working through William Vanderbloemen’s book, “Search: The Pastoral Search Committee Handbook.” We have met regularly, studying and discussing the excellent points he has made concerning this process, usually getting through a chapter every two meetings. We have also reached out to all of you for input, suggestions, and to ask you to complete surveys on issues important to the search. Additionally, we have discussed concerns with FBC’s Elder board, Leadership Council, and the Constitution Committee. The Constitution Committee has recently finished their work, and we are absolutely excited (along with them) for them to have the new church constitution ready for approval!
Although we know the time we have spent so far has sometimes felt like it has taken too long, it has been absolutely essential for us to take this time to build as a team, to put aside any personal agendas, and to fuse as a single entity, focused together on the goal of finding the person God has already set aside to come to First Baptist Church. We truly feel we are a team, working in sync with each other, looking at the issues and finding consensus.
And now the exciting news! Although we are still working through Vanderbloemen’s excellent book, we are also at the point where we are nearly ready to send out notification that we are accepting applications and resumes for FBC’s position of lead Pastor! The page on our website is nearly complete for us to accept applications, and we are looking at multiple other ways of “spreading the word.” Please pray with us that this step in the process is fruitful, and we are able to fully search the applications and resumes that come in.
Your support has been so much appreciated, and your prayers needed as we have journeyed thus far! Thank you for your love and support! As always, please feel free to contact any of us with questions or comments.
In His Service,
Pastor Search Team