Lord of Grace Family and Friends
As the year comes to close, so does the transition process
First off, a big thank you for your faithfulness, prayers and participation in the cottage meetings and the all-church survey. We have a much better picture of who we are, where we want to be, and what we are looking for in a pastor.
Here’s what’s left for us to complete -
Transition Report – We will be summarizing the data in the survey and the cottage meetings to determine the top themes about who we are, what’s going well, where we struggle, where we want to be, and what we are most looking for in a pastor. This information will be used to create a Transition Report to the Council, and once approved, to the congregation. In addition, we will be including information about Church finances, time and talent, strategic vision, church and Marana demographics. This should be completed by end of January
Updating Policies, Procedures, and Job Descriptions – as part of completing the transition, we need to update our policies, procedures and job descriptions. I want to thank Rod Boorse, Carol Buuck, Candy Borstad, Carolyn Bernheim, Erica Yngve, Cindy Stein, Sam Lyth and Joy Folkvord for stepping up to help us complete this work. Hopefully we can complete these updates by the end of January.
Ministry Site Profile – The approved transition report will be used to generate a Ministry Site Profile (MSP). This is the final step in the transition process. The MSP is submitted to the Synod and is used by the Synod to post our position for potential pastoral candidates. It is similar to the transition report and tells the story of who we have been, who are now, and who we want to be. Once this is submitted to Synod, the work of the transition is complete, and the process of calling a new pastor begins. This should be completed in February
1st Call to evaluate – Once the MSP is complete, if Pastor Randy is feeling called to apply to the position, he will be our first candidate to evaluate. Fortunately, we have a lot more feedback with Pastor Randy than we would get for most pastoral candidates, so it should make the process of evaluating him much faster and easier. To help pave the way for this, ensure you are providing feedback to the church leaders on how you have been impacted by Pastor Randy, both positively and negatively. Church leaders include Council members, Committee/Ministry Leaders, or members of the transition team (myself, Cindy Stein, Laura Tanem-Hernandez, Sam Lyth, Sue Justis, Joy Folkvord, or Richard Green)
Thanks for your continued prayer and support –
William Willcoxson
wwillcoxson@comcast.net