Pastor's Blog: Weighing In on God’s Will
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About a month ago, our church came together on a Wednesday night for a congregational conversation regarding the search for a new Senior Minister. The attendance that night was strong and the conversation lively. Its purpose of course was to apprise the congregation of the challenges that every church will be facing in the months ahead and how our membership sees our church’s strengths and assets in light of those challenges. The comments from that night’s session have helped the Pulpit Nominating Committee frame our church’s situation for the candidates with whom they will be speaking.
Now comes the opportunity to have a second conversation, one that will center on the characteristics we would like to see in our next Senior Minister, the person whose primary role will be to lead the church forward into the good future God has for us to know. The results from this conversation will be equally vital to the Pulpit Nominating Committee as they put together a profile that will serve as a template for their interviews with candidates. The plan is for the conversation to take place following our 9:00 AM combined worship this Sunday morning at 10:15 AM. Children sixth grade and under will have Sunday School during that time. (Please register children to attend at this link.) Everyone else, including youth, will be invited to participate in the churchwide discussion.
What an opportunity to participate in this part of the search process, one none of us should take for granted. Not only will you bless the Pulpit Nominating Committee by your presence and participation in assisting them with the development of a Senior Minister profile, you will also bless the next Senior Minister by offering the church’s expectations of the one who will occupy that significant role in the life of our church.
I have only one request of you as you prepare to join in on the conversation this coming Sunday, a request I know the Pulpit Nominating Committee would certainly share. Please don’t enter the discussion solely with your expectations. Enter instead with a desire to seek God’s will. While I have no doubt that our membership has the spiritual maturity to approach this opportunity in the appropriate manner, it doesn’t hurt to keep before us the tendency we often have to assume we’re always on the same page with God, when such is not always the case. But if we begin now to pray for God’s Spirit to guide our thoughts and speech, then what will come from this Sunday’s conversation will be something that will surely serve our church well for years to come. Certainly, that is an outcome that all of us will want to see and be a part of.
“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).