Dear Brunswick Church friends and family,

We are having a called meeting of the church on May 5 immediately following the 11 a.m. worship service for a number of reasons.

First, we would like to spend some time praying for guidance, wisdom and the moment of the Holy Spirit in our work to find a new Associate Pastor. We also encourage and give tools to the whole congregation to be in regular prayer while we look for the new Associate Pastor. 

Second, to change the terms of call for the Associate Pastor from “Stated Supply”, which is a temporary position that has to be renewed every year, to a “Regular Call”, which has no end point. A good analogy in the differences between the types of pastoral calls is the difference between tenured and non-tenured positions.

The third piece of business for the meeting will be to approve and install the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee. The current membership of the APNC will be continuing if approved by the congregation at the congregational meeting. The reason we need to do this is that with the change in call position, the authority to hire changes from the Session to the congregation, therefore the congregation needs to authorize the APNC to do its work.

The final item on the agenda is informational. The APNC in consultation with the Session and Presbytery representatives has recommended that we use a national pastoral recruiting firm to assist in the search. This recommendation comes after prayer, research, and over a year of working diligently using the tools that the denomination has provided.  The team has reviewed over two hundred resumes and worked diligently but they feel that a change is needed to kick-start the process.  The APNC, Session, and I want to provide as much transparency as possible in the process and so we bring this before you. We want to give you the chance to question the representatives of the APNC and Session about the process in this forum.

Blessings,
Henry