A more extensive version of the following information was
presented by members of the PNC at the WCPC Annual Meeting on February 10,
2013.
Gregg Larson opened by introducing the PNC (10 of 12 members were present).
“My
fellow PNC members and I are glad to be here tonight, not only as your PNC but
also as fellow members of Whitworth Community Presbyterian Church. The reason for our participation during
tonight’s annual meeting is to provide relevant and helpful information to all
of you regarding our current search for a new Head of Staff/Teaching
Elder. We will be making this
presentation as a group with some slides, and there will be time for open
questions at the end.”
Gregg
started by showing the PNC blog, highlighting the PNC membership list and then
Steps to Calling a New Teaching Elder/Head of Staff page.
“The main page
not only shows the current blog post but off to the side there are links to
additional pages that have information such as a list of who is on the
committee and the steps of the process and where we are in the process.”
“The first
three steps (Organize, Explore and Create) took us from January to about mid-June.”
“Since mid-June
and moving into weekly meetings in August we have been diligently working on
the next three steps (Search, Consider, and Select).”
“We will be
excited when the day comes that we can follow with the last two steps (Nominate
and Celebrate).”
Kara Koerper then went into a little more depth about our process for the past few months.
“Since we were
receiving a great quantity of PIFs (we have now received nearly 180) we felt it
would be best to divide the work over four small groups, each comprised of
three members of the PNC. Each group was
assigned a portion of the collected PIFs to review and rank. Those applicants that were ranked highly by
the small group were then brought to the entire PNC for review and further
discernment. As our process of winnowing has proceeded we have made email
contact at least once or twice with every applicant and have had phone contact
with nine different candidates.”
“Of those nine,
we listened to several sermons from each candidate. Some answered written
questions, were interviewed by phone and we have had three in-person on-site
interviews. Though we as a PNC are
excited for steps seven and eight to be completed, much to our disappointment, for
three different reasons, it became clear to us that none of our three
candidates was God’s choice for our church.”
“Yet, despite
the frustration we have experienced, we have a renewed sense of hope that God’s
timing is prevailing and that His choice for us is on their way. We can all meditate on Romans 5:3-5 – We also
rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God
has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given
us. “
Bill Yakely
then added his perspective on where we find ourselves in the process.
“Hebrews 4:3 says ‘His works were finished
from the foundation of the world.’”
“Nobody
controls his own life or the life of a 12-member PNC. The author of Hebrews argues that history
merely unfolds what God completed before the foundation of the world; to submit
your will to His defines what it means to ‘rest.’ Here the ‘rest’ may be redefined
in finding a shepherd of the flock or Teaching Elder/Head of Staff, whoever that
might be.”
“As was mentioned
before, in August we started to receive a significant number of PIFs and we
diligently started to meet weekly. Every
PNC is unique in its own path and cannot be compared against another, except in
our desire to seek God's will or His ‘rest.’”
“We have a
diverse group that adequately represents the diversity of our
congregation. We will be thrilled to
come to you with a final candidate.
However, we are not in control.
Isaiah 51:15 says, ‘For I am the Lord your God who churns up the sea so
that its waves roar---the Lord Almighty is his name.’”
“Thanks for your continued prayers on behalf of the
committee--remembering that the Lord God Almighty will churn up a sea of
candidates and the lesson we all need to remember is that we do not control God
--Thanks be to God!”
The PNC presentation concluded with a Q&A session moderated by Tad Wisenor, during which a number of questions were asked and additional perspectives shared.
