Pastor Search Page

Pastor Search Page

SEARCH COMMITTEE PROCESS

We are conducting the search in accordance with the procedures in the EPC Procedure Manual for Ministerial and Candidates Committees found at the EPC Resources website.  You will find the search process in Chapter 5:  Process of Pastoral Search and Call on page 44.
When a church enters the pastor search process, the congregation will elect a Search Committee.  Grace Chapel’s Search Committee is comprised of the following seven people:
                 John Crissman, Julie Folkert, Helene Foster, Katie Jason, Andy Spolsky and French Waller
As an Evangelical Presbyterian church, our congregation has the unique opportunity to call our own pastor.  There is no governing body that assigns us a pastor, instead, our congregation gets to select who our next pastor will be.  To accomplish this task, Evangelical Presbyterian churches put together a Pastor Search Team (PST), which is a Committee made up of members of Grace Chapel that the congregation elects and empowers to find and interview candidates, and then ultimately to select their top choice.
Once the PST has selected their top candidate, the candidate will be vetted by fellow EPC pastors in our “Presbytery.”  The Presbytery tests the pastor’s training, references, and theology, making sure that pastors are qualified and ready to serve as ministers of the Gospel.
Thus, once the PST finds their top candidate and they are approved by our Presbytery, the candidate will come preach at one of our worship services.  After that service is over, the congregation will meet and discuss the candidate and then the congregation will vote on whether or not to call them as our next pastor.  A simple majority is all that is needed, but Lord willing, it will be unanimous, with the PST, Presbytery, candidate and congregation all able to see God at work.
Let us remember to trust that God has already determined who our next pastor will be.  Our church has seen over and over the faithfulness of God.  Let us trust in the Lord just as we have done for many years.