Day Of Pastoral Interview - Initial Thoughts
Today was the day, that I was asked to preach at New Life in response to a Pastoral Call.
I had prepared my message about Ephesians 5:1-8, was titled Imitate God! I feel this is what God wanted me to bring to New Life. My deepest desire was to preach God's word to them as He wanted regardless if it got the call or not. I do feel that is exactly what was done today.
We showed up at the church about 10:30am for the 11am message. The Old Pastor was still teaching the Sunday School class when we got there. We waited until 10:45 when they were done. Then the introductions began, and everyone was very friendly. I was not sure what to expect with the situation with the old Senior Pastor (SP) being head of the Pastoral search committee. He seemed very happy to have us there.
The old SP, lead the service. I would estimate roughly 30-40 people there this morning. They had a time of prayer with prayer request and praise reports. They specifically spent time talking about the answered prayer from previous prayer requests. I really liked hearing how God has answered prayer. Then all the children were called up to pray with the old SP, our kids enjoyed being included.
Then the Old SP introduced me and invited me up to share God's word. There was no microphone so I had to make sure I projected enough for everyone to hear me. My history of this has been a little mixed, when I do not have a microphone I am loud enough but have done fine without one. This is something I have been working on when doing announcements and prayer time at our current church. Thankfully it was not an issue at all this morning.
The message went very well, at least from my perspective. I made the points I meant to make and only read from my notes when I wanted to get the words a specific way. The message ran 35-40 mins which is what I expected. After my message the service was closed out with the giving of the offering and prayer.
After the service I stood in front of the congregation so they could ask me questions. Overall their were about 1/2 dozen questions asked. Some basic belief questions about eternal security, etc... The one that sticks with me the most is would I be comfortable with the old SP being part of the leadership team or would I ask him to leave. I had a conversation with the old SP about a week ago talking about how with the position being Bi-vocational may require more than 1 person doing everything. As long as he and I can compliment each other and be in agreement I am more than willing to work with him. I was then asked what that would look like, and I said I did not know. It could be a Senior Pastor and Associate Pastor or it could be joint Pastors. That would be something that would have to be worked out. The person who asked the question then commented that they like that idea that way the congregation could meet with who they wanted.
After the Q&A we had a great lunch with most of the congregation. After all they are Baptist and know how to put on a potluck. :) The conversation was as good as the food and we enjoyed our time there.
One nice thing about this congregation was that everyone seems to be very real. Some church going people always put on their church face and act like they are perfect and have no problems. This group of people did not behave that way.
The old SP sent me a message shortly after we left. Here is a quote from the email.
"I heard some very positive comments about you and your preaching/teaching style. It seems you made quite the hit with those I was able to talk to"
Seems I made an impression on at least some of them. My prayer all along is that no matter what happens, that God uses me to touch at least one person. Based on the response, I think God granted me my desire.
The next step is New Life's. Next Sunday they will discussing my interview and voting on whether to extend an official call to me.
For me this week will be a time of prayer. I need to feel God guiding me one way or the other. I am not sure how I feel about it at this time. Please pray for me as seek God's will in anticipation of receiving the call.
Blessings to All,
R
I had prepared my message about Ephesians 5:1-8, was titled Imitate God! I feel this is what God wanted me to bring to New Life. My deepest desire was to preach God's word to them as He wanted regardless if it got the call or not. I do feel that is exactly what was done today.
We showed up at the church about 10:30am for the 11am message. The Old Pastor was still teaching the Sunday School class when we got there. We waited until 10:45 when they were done. Then the introductions began, and everyone was very friendly. I was not sure what to expect with the situation with the old Senior Pastor (SP) being head of the Pastoral search committee. He seemed very happy to have us there.
The old SP, lead the service. I would estimate roughly 30-40 people there this morning. They had a time of prayer with prayer request and praise reports. They specifically spent time talking about the answered prayer from previous prayer requests. I really liked hearing how God has answered prayer. Then all the children were called up to pray with the old SP, our kids enjoyed being included.
Then the Old SP introduced me and invited me up to share God's word. There was no microphone so I had to make sure I projected enough for everyone to hear me. My history of this has been a little mixed, when I do not have a microphone I am loud enough but have done fine without one. This is something I have been working on when doing announcements and prayer time at our current church. Thankfully it was not an issue at all this morning.
The message went very well, at least from my perspective. I made the points I meant to make and only read from my notes when I wanted to get the words a specific way. The message ran 35-40 mins which is what I expected. After my message the service was closed out with the giving of the offering and prayer.
After the service I stood in front of the congregation so they could ask me questions. Overall their were about 1/2 dozen questions asked. Some basic belief questions about eternal security, etc... The one that sticks with me the most is would I be comfortable with the old SP being part of the leadership team or would I ask him to leave. I had a conversation with the old SP about a week ago talking about how with the position being Bi-vocational may require more than 1 person doing everything. As long as he and I can compliment each other and be in agreement I am more than willing to work with him. I was then asked what that would look like, and I said I did not know. It could be a Senior Pastor and Associate Pastor or it could be joint Pastors. That would be something that would have to be worked out. The person who asked the question then commented that they like that idea that way the congregation could meet with who they wanted.
After the Q&A we had a great lunch with most of the congregation. After all they are Baptist and know how to put on a potluck. :) The conversation was as good as the food and we enjoyed our time there.
One nice thing about this congregation was that everyone seems to be very real. Some church going people always put on their church face and act like they are perfect and have no problems. This group of people did not behave that way.
The old SP sent me a message shortly after we left. Here is a quote from the email.
"I heard some very positive comments about you and your preaching/teaching style. It seems you made quite the hit with those I was able to talk to"
Seems I made an impression on at least some of them. My prayer all along is that no matter what happens, that God uses me to touch at least one person. Based on the response, I think God granted me my desire.
The next step is New Life's. Next Sunday they will discussing my interview and voting on whether to extend an official call to me.
For me this week will be a time of prayer. I need to feel God guiding me one way or the other. I am not sure how I feel about it at this time. Please pray for me as seek God's will in anticipation of receiving the call.
Blessings to All,
R
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