Why we aren't talking

I know this has been a frustrating journey for some of you...and everyone has questions. We are glad to answer the ones we can, and have made every effort to do so here on this blog and in presentations during worship and at the annual meeting in February. The questions we can't or don't answer have nothing to do with us being on a power trip or enjoying stringing you along. Trust us, it is no fun disappointing our friends and fellow brothers and sisters in the church family.

We are knee deep in step six of the journey to hiring a new head of staff/teaching elder. As with any other search process, those applicants participating are doing so with the understanding that their names will not be shared outside of the PNC until such time as the process is complete and they are selected as our candidate, to be introduced to all of you. These people are likely serving other churches currently, and it would be inappropriate (and arguably un-Christian of us, even) to "leak" their names earlier than we should. We beg your continued patience with our need for confidentiality.

I will tell you this. As we explained in February, we reached a disappointing place in December, and it took us a few weeks to recover. At that point, we had received around 200 PIFs and after saying "No, thank you" to three candidates, we still had around 45 active files, to which additional files have been added. We are confident that the discernment process we have employed since that time has been a stronger one, resulting in some rich conversations with a number of wonderful candidates.

We have all reflected on the way the past six months has allowed our church and the PNC to be in a stronger and more confident place of preparedness for the transition of welcoming a new senior pastor. We are indebted to Pastor Steve for his leadership in this season, and for Pastor Mark and Pastor Tom for their service. Finally, the twelve of us have been richly blessed by the array of wonderful preachers who have shared with us in worship, and we trust that you have, as well.

We are confident that our next pastor is someone with whom we are currently in conversation, and as soon as we are able to tell you, we will be thrilled to talk.

Please continue to pray for all of us on the PNC and our candidates.