At the beginning of this year, the Pastor of our church resigned. Many of the church members felt that his resignation had been coming for a long time. The church has been in a “slump” lately. It was pretty obvious that people in the church were getting discouraged with the lack of growth in numbers and, perhaps, spiritually.
Our Pastor has been in our church for thirteen years, so he has had a strong influence on the style and tone of the service, as well as the attitudes of people in the church.
Since it is an Independent Baptist Church, we do not have an association that assigns or recommends a new Pastor to replace the old one. There is an advantage to this system of finding a pastor. The Deacon Board as well as the church membership gets to interview each applicant and then a three-fourths majority vote is necessary to “call” or “hire” a Pastor. This process is supposed to ensure that the Pastor and the church are a good fit for each other. It also gives opportunity for all of those involved to pray and seek God for His will.
However, there are some disadvantages. Since we don’t have a governing body to place a pastor in our church, the process can take anywhere from months to years to find and employ a suitable Pastor. People in the church may become discouraged without a visible leader behind the pulpit and some people may even leave the church.
We are now in the beginning stages of this process. The deacons have met and discussed the qualities they would like to see in a Pastor and have informed area Pastors that we are searching for someone. We have also compiled information about our church to send to interested parties.
Looking for a new Pastor can be a trying and difficult process. However, it is also exciting that our church is now able to move in a new direction with new leadership.
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