Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!
- Psalm 90: 1-2, 16-17
Meadowview Family,
Greetings from the Pastoral Search Committee! We are excited to provide you with the first update from the committee itself. It has been a month since the Session provided the latest from this process, and we have committed to continue these monthly updates, with corresponding updates from the pulpit on Sunday morning, as long as our work continues.
1. Training (July)
As was communicated during the nomination and election period, the first month of our work was spent on training and the election of committee officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary). The elected officers were announced in a previous update. This training process was ably led by Pastor George as we sought to prepare ourselves, not only with information and skills, but with unity and camaraderie as we seek to carry out a singular mission.
The topics covered during this training were communicated in a previous update. Beyond the items listed in the training schedule, the committee spent time bonding as a group knowing that, not only does the search process require extensive time together, but each member should feel comfortable and free to express their heart to the group without reservation.
By God’s grace, the committee has experienced a sweet spirit of unity in our work, and we are thankful for the prayers of the congregation to that end. We ask that you continue in prayer toward this – that God would bless our unity knowing that a group of nine individuals will likely bring differing perspectives to the conversation.
2. Bylaws (August)
Beginning with our first meeting in August, the committee began working on our own. While Pastor George led the training in July, which included the alternates, from this point forward, all work of the committee is carried out solely by the nine members voted on by the congregation and listed in the July 1st update.
Before digging into the applications we have received since the posting of our job listing in June, the committee took time to establish clear guidelines and a straightforward process for our work. This required discussing and reducing to writing our desires for things such as confidentiality, the role of alternates, how meetings operate, congregational updates, and, most significantly, the applicant review process. Our desire was to have rules and procedures in place before we began the weighty work of analyzing and voting on applicants.
This discussion and documentation process resulted in what we are calling our committee’s Bylaws. In order to provide as much transparency as possible, we are making them available to the congregation and they are available for download here.
While we seek transparency with our process we also understand the need to maintain confidentiality regarding the evaluation and selection of particular candidates. This allows the committee to work as designed where each member contributes based on their own personal convictions. We ask the congregation to continue to trust that God has put in place the committee He desires and pray that He will enable us to carry out this task.
3. Review Process (August)
Having established our process, we have begun the intensive and extensive process of reviewing the men who have applied. We ask that you pray for wisdom as we continue to review applications, listen to sermons, and discuss these men. Each of us is committed to investing as many hours as is required to find the man we believe God has already chosen to be our next Senior Pastor. So, pray not only for us but also for the man, that God would, even now, prepare his heart and mind to shepherd our congregation.
While we believe God has chosen a particular man for this calling, we are also aware there are many gifted men who have applied who love God and are called to Gospel ministry. Be also in prayer for each of these men, their families, and our conversations with them. Pray that those who are not selected by the committee would not be disheartened but would trust God’s perfect plan for their ministry.
As a committee we value prayer as a integral part of this process. Each week we schedule a time for group prayer during our meetings. Few things are more encouraging to tired minds and heavy hearts than to hear the prayers of the fellow committee members on behalf of each other, the church, the applicants, and the process. We have no doubt there is more happening in all this than just the selection of a new Senior Pastor.
4. Psalm 90
Recognizing that God has promised that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28) and that, as believers, we are all “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18), the committee has embraced the truth that the even the search process itself will be used by God to refine us, His children, into the image of His Son. So, while it is a “means to an end”, we are trusting that it is so much more than that – that God is using even the process of reviewing, discussing, praying, and waiting for our own good, the building up of His Church, and ultimately for His own glory.
To that end, each week we have been looking at a portion of Psalm 90 before we begin our work. We are seeking to understand what God is teaching us and where we, individually and collectively, need to grow through the search process itself. Psalm 90 begins with a remembrance of God’s faithfulness and ends with a faith-filled call for Him to pour out His favor on us and to establish our work. We encourage you to read through this psalm and to remember us in prayer – that the Spirit would be at work within us all.
This is the desire of the committee for ourselves, but also for the entire body here at Meadowview. To provide a regular reminder of this, each Sunday that an update is given from the pulpit, we will be singing the hymn “O God Our Help in Ages Past” as part of our worship service. This hymn, written by Isaac Watts in 1719, was taken from Psalm 90. It is a beautiful reminder of the faithfulness of our great God in the midst of and despite our difficult circumstances, and our total reliance on His power to both sustain and enable us.
May God use this time of uncertainty and waiting to unite our hearts and to prepare in us an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (2 Cor. 4:17) We pray this for the committee, the congregation, our future Senior Pastor, and for the Sayour family as they transition to Florida.
With God, nothing is wasted!
Soli Deo Gloria,
The Pastoral Search Committee
LINKS FOR RESOURCES
- The Church Profile Document – Check it Out!
- The Sr. Pastor Position has Been Posted: PCA Website & the GRN Website.
- The Search Committee was Elected: Names & Training Schedule
- Past Updates & Announcements: 2/2, 3/2, 3/27, 4/28, 5/15, 5/28, 6/19, 7/1, 7/15, 7/25
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