| “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States For much of the late spring and early summer, your Pastoral Search Committee engaged in extensive planning of a process to attract a pool of applicants for the position of Senior Pastor at Resurrection MCC, left open by the retiring Reverend Elder Troy Treash. We created an extensive array of materials to be sent to applicants, and more materials to be used in screening and interviewing them. We planned an official launch of the process for August 7, 2023, an application deadline of November 1, 2023, and a start date for the new Senior Pastor of February 1, 2024. We were planning for a voluminous response to our job announcements and our invitations to apply, sent to more than 60 potential applicants. We were planning to narrow down the responding applicants to a handful or so to be interviewed, winnowing further to a few more, and eventually focusing on the single ideal candidate to present to the Congregation. And yet, with all the planning we had done, as the November 1 application deadline loomed near, we realized that our plans might have been too ambitious. Our plans did not consider the abundance of seasonal activity for pastors and their congregations: October as the season of giving, November as the season of gratitude leading up to Advent, December as the season of Jesus’s birth, January as the season of Epiphany. And that’s just the liturgical part. The fall months in the life of any church are usually ripe with activities, sacred and secular. Think fall festivals, Halloween, fundraisers, holiday feasts, donor engagement, and all the pastoral needs. Our planning had brought us far, yet our plans needed to shift. Thus, we established a revised application deadline of February 1, 2024, to allow the ilk of Senior Pastor we desire—a fully engaged, busy one working at a vibrant church—more time to consider the opportunity here at Resurrection, and to prepare the application materials we require. What are we planning next? To trust. We will trust God, trust the process, trust each other, and trust that as we continue reviewing applicants’ materials, evaluating, and interviewing, we shall receive additional applicants from which we can distill our next Senior Pastor. Then we plan to trust that person to lead us to new heights of successful, effective, meaningful ministry in service to the people of Resurrection, to the community, and to the world. “In you, Lord, our God, we put our trust.” — Psalm 25:1 Coveting your prayers, View full newletter HERE |
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| Raymond Turner, Bill Russell, Terry Talley, Sharri McGlauthing, Adan Garcia, Diann Thomason, Van English Resurrection MCC Pastoral Search Committee 2023-2024 PastoralSearch@ResurrectionMCC.org |