Everything is significant

Dear LTCC Family,

I read a quote this week by author and pastor John Piper, “In God’s providence, everything is significant, everything is meaningful.  Nothing is random, nothing is pointless, nothing is meaningless.”  For me personally, this caused a pause in the busyness of my day; especially considering our joint Elder, Church Council (Deacons), and Succession Committee meeting this past Tuesday night.  Before I get into the outcomes of that meeting, I want to thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement for many of us leading up to the meeting.

Hurt, Division, and Expectation

With the events leading up to our last Members Meeting and since then, we as leaders see the hurt, division, and urgent expectancy of a Sr. Pastor in our church family.  Years’ worth of hurt and frustration were released at the meeting.  Leaders left hurt from accusations and wondering how to lead moving forward. A resigned brother is searching for what’s next.  We are divided on our church leadership model. Some of us have realized we could have taught on it more, while others have never really understood it and/or engaged with it.  For some, trust has eroded over time.  Add to this the anticipation of a new Sr. Pastor.  Imagine being the man asked to enter a church family with an unclear leadership model, division, and brittle levels of trust.  Thank you, God, for your providence.

A Way Forward

These were the weighty topics the Elders, Church Council, and Succession Committee members wrestled with for over four hours last Tuesday.  In the end, we are aligned on this path forward:

  • Pause. We will pause all Sr. Pastor search activity.

  • Affirm. In addition to the feedback received up until now, we ask for your engagement in our process to affirm our leaders. It is a significant time to determine who our elders and deacons will be moving forward, and your participation is very much needed. This annual affirmation process will start next week and conclude in January. It will be modified this year to include online voting. More on this next week.

  • Restore. With affirmed leaders recognized, as a church we will work together to review and modify our leadership structure and associated processes. We will also address the hurt and division within the family. We are considering partnering with outside resources to guide, counsel, and consult. An interim pastor is a possibility.

  • Resume. We will resume our Sr. Pastor search activity when restoration is progressing well.

 

Nathan Betts

The Succession Committee with the support of the Church Council and the Elders will not bring Nathan forward as a Sr. Pastor candidate at this time.  We agree that once we resume succession activity and if Nathan is still interested, available, and ready, we will consider his candidacy.  Our reasons are as follows:

  • We are not ready. We need to focus on church family health. We need a team of elders, a modified leadership structure, and an undivided church family to receive a Sr. Pastor and for that Pastor to flourish.

  • He is not ready. Nathan has understandably requested time to restore. While he stated he’s interested in the role, he’s wanting time to restore to a level required for pastoring and he agrees now is the time to pause and work toward restoration.

 

The Church Council has approved to pay Nathan through December of this year.

In Summary and Closing

We are going to Pause, Affirm, Restore and Resume.  We do not make these decisions lightly and we realize there might be sharp disagreement.  In God’s providence, this is all very significant and meaningful.  We are not here in this place randomly.  We trust God has a point in all of this.  

As we once again process weighty news, I encourage you to pray before reacting.  How can you engage in our path forward?  How can you support those hurting in our church?  How can we all glorify God in the coming weeks and months as we work towards unity in our church family?  We will all experience this in our own way, but I pray there’s a commonality for us all in that we draw closer to Jesus Christ as well as to each other.
 

Blessings,

Perry (on behalf of Elders, Church Council, and Succession Committee)
 

PS – If you’d like a jumpstart on learning about our annual affirmation process, go to our informational page here.  

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