The last nine months have had plenty of activity! The Elders conducted a four-month listening tour of over 600 people in the congregation. Along the path of that tour, they gathered plenty of thoughts about our church and a future Senior Pastor.
Our elder ballots of May 1 showed that all four elders on the slate received at least a 95% affirmation. This is a good indicator that our church is in a healthy place to move forward with a Senior Pastor search at this time.
How do we form a Search Committee?
The church constitution says that a Pulpit Committee “shall be activated as needed and shall consist of the elected elders and two members elected by the congregation. It shall select its own chairman.”
What does the Search Committee do?
Again the church constitution says: “It shall conduct the search for and evaluate the qualifications of Senior Pastoral candidates and make appropriate recommendations to the Elder Board. It shall perform all functions necessary to the discharge of this responsibility, including the following:
- Communicate with the Evangelical Free Church of America headquarters and the EFCA West superintendent for names of potential candidates.
- Solicit names of potential candidates from the congregation.
- Investigate and communicate with promising potential candidates, maintaining appropriate confidentiality.
- Arrange guest speaking engagements and interviews, as appropriate, for those candidates who appear to meet the desired qualifications.
- Recommend to the Elder Board one candidate for Senior Pastor.
We are working on several documents needed for the search: A Senior Pastor Opportunity Profile, a Church Profile and a Senior Pastor Limitations Document. That last document currently exists but needs to be edited and then published to the congregation.
Your Part
The Elders would like you to recommend members to serve on the Search Team. Each name will be considered and I’m sure that we will get hundreds of names for the few open positions. Please email your suggestions to search@evfreefullerton.com by May 23. There will be a Congregational Meeting on Sunday, June 12 at 3:30pm in the Worship Center to introduce the Search Team members and on Sunday morning, June 19, we will ask you to vote on the two congregational members of the Search Team.
The second aspect is to pray. Obviously let’s pray for God’s spirit to work in our Search Team to find the right person. We want to find a Senior Pastor who can preach and shepherd our congregation. Yet, he is only one person and it is our responsibility to be a congregation of “believer priests.” We all need to take on the mantle of ministry and serving others, sharing the love of Christ. We need to continue on the path of spiritual health, peace and love in Christ.
Please send recommendations for Search Team members to search@evfreefullerton.com and let’s all join together in prayer.
David Fletcher
Executive Pastor
