Family Forum, IPM & How You Can Come Alongside
Dear LTCC Family,
We held our first family forum just a week and a half ago. For those who missed it, it was a helpful time together. Various opinions were expressed as well as clarifying questions asked. We reviewed a bit of where we’ve been, expressed gratitude for past and present leaders, acknowledged our present circumstances, and reaffirmed the decision to seek an intentional interim pastor. Overall, there was encouragement to continue moving forward with God’s leading.
To that end, we also shared where we were in the process of hiring an interim pastor through Interim Pastor Ministries. We discussed how encouraged we are that IPM pastors are specifically trained to build up our church for our next season of ministry, to affirm the strengths of our church while identifying what’s necessary to move forward, and to aid us in being prepared for the future God has for LTCC. Specifically, the interim pastor will lead us through 5 stages of an intentional process:
· Stage 1 – Come to terms with the church’s history.
· Stage 2 – Assess church health.
· Stage 3 – Facilitate action.
· Stage 4 – Lead strategic planning.
· Stage 5 – Coach pastoral search team.
But that is jumping ahead a bit. First, we must wait for IPM to send us potential candidates to consider. We had expected this to take up to 12 weeks, but the Lord has blessed us with a candidate already! The council and elders are currently doing the work of discerning God’s leading regarding this potential candidate with the following steps:
· Perry (council chairman) communicated with the candidate through an initial phone conversation late last week.
· Elders/Council individually reviewed his resume and watched/listened to sermons.
· Elders/Council met Tuesday evening to review this candidate and agreed to take next steps.
· Several Elders/Council members will make phone calls to his references this week.
· Elders/Council will hold a zoom interview with the candidate today (4/28 @ 6:30pm) - Will you pray for that meeting time?
If all goes well and the Lord leads us to do so, we will invite the candidate to visit LTCC for a more personal interview with the elders and council, a meet & greet time with the church family and preaching on a Sunday. This is tentatively scheduled for May 21st.
Please join us in prayer in seeking the Lord’s will regarding this interim candidate.
Many of you have asked, at the forum and outside of that venue, how you can support us as leaders during this time. We so appreciate that! During the forum, Justine answered that question with encouragement for us all to do some introspection, to listen to the Lord’s leading as to whether there are people to whom we need to apologize and seek forgiveness and reconciliation. Honest, spirit-filled communication and unity will provide an atmosphere of support for, not only the leadership, but for each of us as the body of Christ.
On a practical level, since we don’t always have ways to help on the top of our minds, we are working on this list of opportunities to serve outside of Sunday morning. If you’re able to meet one of these needs, fantastic. If not, I’d encourage you to think and pray about what your dream job would be at the church. We are all called to serve, and it is a true blessing to do so. The Lord may be prompting you to serve in an area that hasn’t yet been offered. If so, talk to anyone of us about it! We’d love to connect you with the people or service area that He is leading you into.
For the Elders and Deacons
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