The constitution in place at Deerbrook explains the process in which any Pastoral Search Team is supposed to operate. When profiles of potential Associate Pastor(s) come in, the team will review the profiles and through prayer, interviews, discernment the team will narrow the selection down and present ONE candidate to the congregation. If that individual isn’t the person Deerbrook wants; at that time the process will begin all over again and another individual will be selected to come before the congregation. There will only be ONE candidate to view and vote on.
The Pastoral Search Team created a timeline of the selection process.
October and November the team will be gathering information from you to help determine a profile of what we are to be looking for in our next Associate Pastor.
December and the first half of January we will be assimilating the information gathered, preparing a package to present to perspective candidates and be in contact with Dave Benedict from the Covenant. This is also the time when any candidates you have in mind can apply through the Covenant.
Mid-January and beyond the team will begin looking at candidates and once ONE is selected, that individual will be presented to you.
The Pastoral Search Team discussed foundational requirements of the next Associate Pastor and looked at them as given characteristics and/or competency; however, we didn’t communicate that well to you in the survey. Foundational requirements are that the person is strongly rooted in the Word, lives his/her life according to God’s plan, Spirit filled, and has a Biblical calling.
The Associate Pastor Search Team will be conducting Focus Groups on Sunday, November
18 at 4 & 6 p.m. at the church.
If you would like to be part of the focus
group to assist with the Associate Pastoral Search, please sign up for one of
the sessions by contacting DeAnna Anderson at 816-739-2197 or anderson.deanna@gmail.com
The search committee has prepared a survey to gain an understanding of congregational needs and desires as it pertains to the search for an associate pastor. The survey will be conducted over the next 2 weeks to give everyone a chance to participate.
Your responses are very important to the process and we encourage everyone to take the survey as it only takes a few minutes.
Please click HERE to take the survey!
Welcome to the Deerbrook Associate Pastor Search Team Blog
In our first meetings we determined some basic tenants that we will follow as we seek God's leading in our efforts to call an associate pastor.
- Follow God’s Direction – The Pastoral Search Team first and foremost wants to follow God’s direction and find the individual who God has pre-selected. Each of us will continually pray that we find the person whom God has pre-selected and we urge each and every one to please be praying for the team to identify the person whom God has pre-selected for our Associate Pastor.
- Representative Democracy – that the team members were selected to represent the congregation and welcome any and all input from you. The members are sensitive to your input, will discuss your input and make decisions that he/she thinks is in the best interest of Deerbrook.
- Confidentiality – As the team continues in the process of reviewing candidates and narrowing down potential Associate Pastor Candidates, the team will keep any and all specific information regarding names, how many applicants, discussions that occur in meetings within the members of team. Confidentiality is a necessity in being able to trust and respect one another during this selection period. As a team we are committed to confidentiality within the team and team members will not share information regarding the search outside of the whole team, including not sharing team information with spouses.
- Communication – The team has laid out timelines to keep the process moving along and will seek feedback from you along way and will do our best to keep you updated as to where the team is heading.
- The Process – The team will be following the process of search and selection as laid out by the Covenant denomination and as stated in our constitution. We will be gathering information from you through focus groups, online blog and survey during October and November. The next step is for the team to assimilate the information and develop a package that we can send out to any interested candidates and solicit information to any interested candidates that you bring to us. Once candidates are sent to us, we will begin looking at candidates and narrowing them down to present ONE candidate to you. The covenant process of presenting candidates is one candidate is selected by the team that you chose to represent the congregation. That one candidate will be presented to the congregation during a meet and greet weekend. That one candidate will be voted on. If that candidate is not selected the process is repeated. We just want to make clear that we are following the process as stated in our constitution and as explained to us by the Covenant. We will not present more than one candidate at a time and we will not have several candidates come before the congregation to speak.
- Consensus – The team has unanimously decided to proceed using consensus as our decision making process.
