Church Life

Date
June 25, 2021
Author
superuser
Category
Church Life

Church Life – News and Updates From
Effort Church
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June 25, 2021

Good Afternoon Church Family,

I hope that your week has gone well, and I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday!

I’ve already heard from some of you with questions about what the next season at Effort holds, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some initial thoughts.

First, I wanted to reiterate what I said during my opening comments at the Council Meeting to the entire congregation. Though Council is steering the ship during this next season, the selection of a new senior pastor is a congregational effort. With that in mind, we highly encourage your participation in council meetings, town halls, etc. as we move forward, and hope that you will reach out to us in person, by phone, or by email (councilchair@effortchurch.org (mailto:councilchair@effortchurch.org) ) to share your thoughts and feelings about this subject.

Second, over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the option of bringing in a third-party consulting group to lead us in some congregational discussions and then, through their nationwide network, help us find resumes of pastors that align with Effort’s culture and values. This has the potential to dramatically reduce the amount of time required to identify a great candidate, which is a desire I’ve heard clearly from many of you.

While this is going on, Council will be forming a pastor search committee. This will be a separate, temporary subcommittee specifically focused on helping interview candidates and sharing their findings with the larger church body. Council will also be, once again, increasing the frequency of its meetings. Once this schedule is finalized, we’ll be sharing it with the congregation so that you will have the option to attend and participate.

In the interim, Matt O’Rear, Darren Keithley, and Jason Bird, together, will serve as our “interim pastor” – these guys have stepped up in a big way since Ben made his announcement and Council has made a commitment to support them in this capacity. A big thanks to these three, who have already developed a preaching schedule to carry us through September.

I want to speak frankly with everyone. We’ve just recently emerged from the marathon of COVID, which was a season full of emotion. We’re now entering into a season that carries a different set of heightened emotions. I would encourage all of us to focus on loving each other well, investing extra effort into listening to each other and helping each other unpack what we’re feeling, and above all else, completely trusting that God already knows the direction forward for this church.

We are certainly sad to see Ben go, but with confidence, we know that as God has called him into this new position, God is currently preparing our new pastor for service at Effort. I ask for you to join me in praying for a smooth transition that goes as quickly as the Lord allows.

Love you guys,

Rob

Rob Jones
Chair, Effort Church Council

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