Every member of our church had the opportunity to nominate someone for the Pastor's Search Committee. The only condition is that the person nominated had to consent to the nomination ahead of time. When the list of nominees came out, there were two surprising omissions. The only two members of the previous committee (from 15 years ago) still at the church declined to be nominated. Both would've been elected had they been nominated.
There were two concerns I had about whom the by-laws allowed to be nominated. First, two staff members were nominated. I think that staff members should not be allowed onto a search committee. It would be difficult to keep one’s own personal thoughts from getting entangled with what is best for the church. Second, there were two couples nominated. On a committee this size (7 members), I’m not sure it is wise to have so much influence concentrated in one family. Kadie was also nominated, but we didn’t think it was right for each of our names to be on the list, so she declined the nomination.
(As it turns out, neither staff member was elected to the committee. None of the individuals from the couples were elected either, so it turned out alright.)
So there were about twenty four people nominated for the committee. The following week, after much emphasis on prayer and fasting, the church voted. Each church member received a ballot and voted for seven candidates. The top seven recipients were elected to the committee and then the next two were designated alternates.
The committee is a good one, I think, though not quite as representative of the church as I would’ve liked. Particularly glaring is a lack of representation among the senior adults. The eldest member of the committee is in her early sixties. We have several large senior adult classes and I think we’re going to have to work hard to keep them included. Most of the rest of us are in our early thirties to mid-forties. Three of the members are in the young married class I teach. None of us are single and two of us are women. I’d like to see each of those groups represented more.
There were two concerns I had about whom the by-laws allowed to be nominated. First, two staff members were nominated. I think that staff members should not be allowed onto a search committee. It would be difficult to keep one’s own personal thoughts from getting entangled with what is best for the church. Second, there were two couples nominated. On a committee this size (7 members), I’m not sure it is wise to have so much influence concentrated in one family. Kadie was also nominated, but we didn’t think it was right for each of our names to be on the list, so she declined the nomination.
(As it turns out, neither staff member was elected to the committee. None of the individuals from the couples were elected either, so it turned out alright.)
So there were about twenty four people nominated for the committee. The following week, after much emphasis on prayer and fasting, the church voted. Each church member received a ballot and voted for seven candidates. The top seven recipients were elected to the committee and then the next two were designated alternates.
The committee is a good one, I think, though not quite as representative of the church as I would’ve liked. Particularly glaring is a lack of representation among the senior adults. The eldest member of the committee is in her early sixties. We have several large senior adult classes and I think we’re going to have to work hard to keep them included. Most of the rest of us are in our early thirties to mid-forties. Three of the members are in the young married class I teach. None of us are single and two of us are women. I’d like to see each of those groups represented more.
We’ve immediately been confronted with having to make a few decisions on procedure...
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1 comment:
It's probably better there are no single people on the committee. If they're like the single people I know, they'd talk to a prospective pastor once, maybe even meet for coffee or a movie, then never call them back.
(Married people automatically have a better track record of finding and keeping people.)
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