Over the past two months, the Transition Team has been meeting weekly to work through the transition process, as The Book of Order and Salem Presbytery outline. As of late April, the Transitional Pastor job description has been created, posted on the WestPresChurch.org website, and shared via the weekly Salem Presbytery newsletter. Presbytery has assigned PCUSA Minster Pat Fletcher as the Team’s liaison. She is available to answer process questions and offer appropriate guidance.
Interested candidates have begun reaching out to Janet Hurd, Team Chair. Upon receiving a candidate’s PDP (in layman’s terms, a resume or CV), the first step is to have the General Presbyter run a background check to ensure the candidate is qualified to apply. The PDPs are then shared with the Transition Team.
The church’s version of a resume is called an MDP. The Team completed that document and received the Session’s approval to submit it. Next, the MDP needs the Presbytery’s Commission on Ministry’s (COM) approval, and then it will be posted on the PCUSA’s job board, the Church Leadership Connection (CLC). This will allow us to reach candidates nationally.
In the coming weeks, the committee will continue to accept applications, begin phone interviews to narrow the candidate pool, review recorded examples of sermons, and move towards final candidates and full committee interviews. We hope to have our Transitional Pastor in place by early fall. In the interim, worship will be led by Sam, Cindy, and visiting clergy.
Given the size of our congregation, the potential for a gap between Ernie’s departure and the Transitional Pastor starting, and the scope of the Transitional Pastor’s duties once they begin, Butch Sherrill has graciously agreed to assist with pastoral visitation temporarily. He will occasionally fill in with worship leadership and preaching, as well.
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