Calling A New Senior Pastor

    Calling a new senior pastor is like building a house.  When you build a house you hire an architect to design the house.  Once you decide what type of house you want, you hire a general contractor to build the house.  Construction starts with digging the basement.  Then, you wait for the footers to be poured, the basement walls built upon the footers, and finally the basement slab is poured.  Then you wait for the carpenters to put on the decking, build walls with 2x4 studs, and put the the trusses up for the roof.  Then you wait for the electricians to pull the wires and the plumbers to install pipes.  Then you wait for workers to hang drywall.  Then you wait for the taping of the drywall.  Then you wait for the ceilings and walls to be painted.  Then you wait for the cabinets to be hung, and the finishing carpenters to put up moulding.  All of this can be slowed down by inspections.  Finally, you get a permit of occupancy - no more waiting.
    In the calling of a senior pastor, the architect is the Church Council.  The Council determines what attributes the new senior pastor needs to have.  Then it draws up a congregational profile and a vision describing what Epiphany will look like 10 years from now.  The Council has worked on these plans and hopefully they will be given to the Call Committee by its June 30th meeting.
    The call committee serves as the general contractor in this process.  It receives the plans from the Church Council and discusses them.  The Committee may even ask for some clarification from the Council.  It should be noted that the Call Committee has had its initial meeting with Pastor Ed Williams, the bishop’s assistant who will oversee the call process for the Synod.
    While all of this is occurring, Pastor Williams has been looking for likely candidates to be senior pastor at Epiphany.  The Bishop has asked him to gather information on senior pastors and associate pastors serving congregation worshiping 700+ per weekend.
    The Call Committee contacts Pastor Williams and gives him the congregation’s profile and vision.  Pastor Williams takes that material and compares it with potential candidate information.  In this process, Pastor Williams looks for possible matches. 
    At this point the Call Committee waits for Pastor Williams to identify potential candidates.  When Pastor Williams identifies potential candidates, he has to contact their bishop and ask for permission to talk to those candidates about coming to Epiphany.  There may be some more waiting for bishops to respond to inquiries about candidates.   
    If a bishop gives permission to contact a candidate and the candidate is willing to consider a call to Epiphany, the Call Committee contacts the candidate.  If the initial contact goes well, the Call Committee may visit the candidate at his or her church.  The Committee may invite the candidate to Centerville.  Or, the Committee may choose a different strategy to discern if the potential candidate and Epiphany will be a good match for each other.  All of this takes time and waiting.
    In this process, there will be times when it looks like a lot is happening just as there are times it appears the builders of a house are making great progress.  At other times, it will seem as if nothing is happening.  When it seems as if nothing is happening,  we will have to remind ourselves that the Synod and the Call Committee are doing their job to bring a new senior pastor to Epiphany.
Pastor Pete