March 28th Pastoral Search Update

Over the past month there has been some significant movement in regards to our work to lay the groundwork for hiring an additional pastor. The executive team, who is tasked with setting policy and procedures for our church, had already been going through a pastoral model study over the past year, well before Brandon left. As part of this work they were looking at various models, including a co-pastor model, in anticipation of what the future would hold for Good News leadership.

Most of us grew up in a model where one pastor was the “lead pastor” of a church, and while there are some definite benefits to this model, there are also some drawbacks. Pastors across the board “suffer enormous levels of burnout and career failure. They have higher-than-average levels of depression, sleeplessness, loneliness, and friendlessness. They're more likely to suffer chronic health issues, have strained marriages, poor relationships with their children, and little time to rest, relax, or vacation. On the other hand, a significant number of pastors have also been shown to be power-hungry, narcissistic, prone to abuse, prone to covering up that abuse, and overall simply untrustworthy of leadership.”*

A co-pastoring model provides some areas of strength that a typical lead pastor model lacks. It recognizes that no one man or woman has all skills and competencies of pastoring, such as: counseling, worship, social media and technological communication, teaching, community development, student ministry, leadership team development, and more. A co-pastor model shares the burden of leadership by focusing on the strengths of two individuals in a collaborative leadership system.

After taking some time to discern on the pastoral models, the executive team brought a recommendation to the leadership team to move into a co-pastor model. In looking at the needs of our church at this current time, along with the significant pastoral shortage in our area, they felt the co-pastor model was the best fit for the next season of leadership at Good News.

After much discussion, prayer, and wrestling with the idea in the month of January and February, the leadership team voted and approved a co-pastor model and asked the executive team to work on two unique co-pastor job descriptions. The executive team did just that and shared the co-pastor job descriptions they felt are a best fit for Good News at this time. They created both a Teaching Pastor and Community Formation Pastor role, and split up the duties of a traditional lead pastor between the two.

Below is an overview of the primary duties for each of the co-pastor roles. Some of the duties will be common between the two pastoral roles, but there are obvious unique roles for each position to allow each pastor to work within their primary areas of strength.

Teaching Pastor

• Community Formation Pastor

• Teaching Team and Preaching

• Student/Youth Ministry

• Leadership Team Connection

• Churchwide Communication

• Missions

• Pastoral Care

• Leadership Development

• Staff Performance Review

• Vision Implementation

• Denominational Link

Community Formation Pastor

• Worship Team Development

• Leadership Team Connection

• Community/Discipleship Groups\

• Primary Counselor on Staff

• Leadership Development - Congregation and Volunteers

• Technology Development

• Staff Performance Review

• Vision Implementation

• Pastoral Care

With the decision of our pastoring model in place, the hiring team will now assemble to work on the hiring process with the two co-pastor positions in mind. Rather than hiring a consultant, the hiring team will be leading the hiring process, in anticipation of making a hiring recommendation to the leadership team once they feel the right pastors have been found to fulfill the Teaching and Community Formation Pastor roles.

As you can see, much has been done to help move things forward in the selection of our new pastors, and while it’s not the path we would have anticipated just a few months ago, we know God is moving and we are doing our best to follow where he leads.

Should you have any questions regarding the process and next steps, or would like more information regarding the co-pastoral model, please feel free to reach out to any members of the executive or leadership team. Most importantly, please pray for God’s guidance and wisdom as we take our next steps in the hiring process.