Senior Pastor Search Committee Update
The following information was presented during worship on May 30, 2010.
We love this church. We love the leadership of the pastors and elders and deacons, staff and men and women who serve diligently. We understand that some or many of you are frustrated with the duration of the search. We understand and feel that more than anyone because of the weight of our task. As a committee, we argue and cry and pray and repent and ask forgiveness of each other as we deal with the stress and realities of the task you have given us.
As a side note, I think this committee has become a picture of how a church should relate, in real life with one another. We have had over 200 men recommended to us in one way or another since February. We have chosen to interview, review or personally spend time with dozens of men since last February. We have met with four seminary presidents and spoken other search committees. We have been turned down by men we think we would have liked. We have gone back to some of them encouraging them to consider God’s calling. We have had men we like drop in our lap and men we thought we would like end up being men that are not right for Southwood. We have traveled and listened to hundreds of sermons and will continue to do so. The fact is this: You sit this morning in the pew of one of the largest churches in our denomination. You sit in a church with a vision and desire to advance the Kingdom in a way that is not common in the PCA. And you sit in the pew of a church too special to this committee to just find a guy who can preach one sermon well.
We do need a prophet who can preach to us and to the world around us. We need a man who is pastoral but understands how to be a priest in a large church. We need a king who understands what it takes to run a large church and is a visionary with the fortitude to lead us. We need a man who loves his family more than his church. We need a man who understands grace to such an extent that he will change our hearts with the gospel and at the same time truly loves the lost and understands their needs. A man who can embrace Lincoln Village and the future of our ministries to the poor and a man who can work well with our session and staff. Simply stated we are picking from a small pool…but it is God’s pool.
The committee over this past year has seen God work and He has made it evident to us that He is in charge of finding our next pastor. We diligently serve you and are working hard but our timetables or those that any of you can think up are subject to His and He loves this place more than you or me.
A quote from one of the men we have spoken to has encouraged me greatly and I think will you as well. “His holy will is certainly going to be accomplished no question about it, therefore I have the boldness to act and move and run and jump and play and rejoice in the wonderful context of His sovereignty AND His goodness. I’m jealous to steal back the joy of Christianity from the Pentecostals! They are having all the fun–they actually believe that God still works and that he desires their good!“
As we wait, let’s remember the next man is not our King. Barney was not our King, Mike was not our King. Israel idolized the idea of a King and got Saul. Let us be a church who worships the one true King and God of our next pastor and trusts in His timing and a church that continues to move forward under the leadership of our Ruling and Teaching Elders who have been ordained and placed here. Please be in prayer for us, for Southwood, for our staff and for yourselves that we will be patient, excited and hopeful because we have a God who does care deeply for us. Finally, please be in prayer for the next man, his wife, his family and his church who will undoubtably be brokenhearted. We are interested in hearing from you, to hear your ideas and thoughts.