Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Holy week was a time of deep spiritual reflection and Easter a joyous celebration. Jesus promised His presence to His followers after His resurrection both then and now in Matthew 28:20 and commanded them and us to be witnesses of His resurrection. The Church was born and immediately caught the attention of the surrounding world. The disciples were ready to do whatever Jesus told them. They knew that Jesus was the leader and they were the followers. We need to develop the same spiritual qualities that the disciples had in the first century. They were marked with humility, simplicity, boldness, and obedience and so should we.
As we prepare for a new season of ministry please pray with our Pulpit Committee as they seek God’s will for the selection of our new Senior Pastor. I have been sharing the need with our Pulpit Committee that our new Senior Pastor must fulfill the position description created by our Board of Deacons and Deaconesses. This is foundational for our Senior Pastor’s calling and competencies. This is the description the Deacon’s created, “The Senior Pastor’s role is primarily that of preaching and teaching the word of God, and shepherding the congregation and the Church Staff. His focus is to be on leading the congregation into Spiritual maturity and equipping them together for the work of ministry as The Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12 -16).”
I have also shared the need that our next Senior Pastor be missional. This additional description has been added to our pastoral profile. The goal is to determine if the candidate has led an externally focused mission in the past and how might he approach the unique challenges of West Church reaching our community and the North Shore. The Pulpit Committee will explore past behavior of the candidates in leading mission as an indicator of future performance.
I have included the summary of a comprehensive survey conducted by The Cecil B Day Foundation. This study evaluated the health of many churches in our area with a specific focus on growth in evangelism and the role of the pastor in the process of reaching their local communities. I hope you will find it informative as well as give you insight into the term “missional” that you will hear as we talk about potential candidates. It will be very important for our next Senior Pastor to be missional and it is an important criterion that the Pulpit Committee is emphasizing in selecting a new Senior Pastor. West Church can learn a great deal from this research project in knowing what to do to reach our community.
Growing in Christ, Pastor Gene
