Pastor Search Updates:
November 21, 2011
The pastor search team would like to report regarding recent happenings with our search process. Two weeks ago, a candidate, who was not familiar with Cookeville prior to this process, visited our campus. He did not meet with the search team for an interview, but did walk through the church buildings with three members of the search team. We have been in communication with him since mid October.
He called on Thursday of this week and shared from his heart that he does not feel at peace with leaving the church where he is serving. He was excited about the possibility of taking the next step, but God closed that door. We, as a search team, are grateful that you are being patient with us as we earnestly seek to find the one man that God has set aside for Stevens Street.
The pastor search team will meet again very soon and will continue to work diligently to seek and find the man that God has raised to be our next senior pastor. Thanks so much for praying for us.
August 15, 2011
After meeting Monday night August 8th, the pastor search team felt a strong presence and calling from the Lord to enter into a waiting period. We are excited about what God has done and what He is going to do. In spite of the fact that we all wholeheartedly WANT to move forward, we know that doing so would be direct disobedience. We would rather wait with God than move on without Him.
So, we have released all three of the pastoral candidates that we have been talking to and will begin a new season of prayer and seeking the Lord. Speaking for the entire search team, our hearts are joined in asking the church to pray for us as we continue the work that has been entrusted to us.
July 28, 2011
The pastor search team met again on Tuesday July 26th. In all, the pastor search team has met 22 times since December of 2010. The following email was sent to our final three candidates as a result of our meeting on Tuesday.
Dear Candidate,
The Pastor Search Team continues to seek God's will. The team is also aware that you are
seeking the same. As prayers have been lifted up for accomplishing this very sensitive task,
so have prayers for you and your family. Thank you for your patience in waiting and for your
willingness to work with us as you seek God's will as well.
The team met Tuesday evening and after several hours were unable to move to one final
candidate at this time. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 8. We are aware
that you were expecting a decision. We apologize for the continued wait.
Please be in prayer for the Pastor Search Team as well as the members of our church. We
will continue in prayer for you. We will also continue to keep you informed of any decisions made.
Sincerely,
Debbie Swafford
Pastor Search Team Secretary
July 13, 2011
Beginning last night, July 12, the pastor search team began a series of 7 scheduled meetings over a 15-day period. Three of the seven scheduled meetings include face-to-face interviews with our three remaining candidates. We are excited about the next two weeks, as we believe that God will reveal many things to us during this time. Tuesday night the 12th, we met with our first candidate and we had a wonderful time. We know that each meeting will be great, and we are confident that God will be present in all of our meetings and will providentially guide our steps.
Please pray for us daily! Tuesday the 26th is the last meeting of the seven currently scheduled. The purpose of that meeting is to determine which of these men God has chosen to be our next senior pastor!
Every single member of the team takes this responsibility very seriously, and we are so grateful for the prayer support we have received from everyone.
June 20, 2011
The pastor search team has met together several times over the past few weeks, and will be meeting again on Wednesday night, June 22 at 7:00 p.m. We have three candidates remaining, and we have now scheduled a time for all three of them to come to Cookeville to meet with the entire search team. Our meeting on Wednesday is to create a list of standard questions for each candidate to answer.
Each of the three candidates will be coming during the week of July 10 or the week of July 17. Most likely, they will be bringing their wife and might bring their children.
One of the candidates is currently located in Tennessee. Georgia and South Carolina are where the other two are located. After meeting each candidate, we will choose a date in which to meet so that we can take the list from three down to one.
Please be praying for the team now, more than ever. Prayer is so key to this process, please partner with us as we work toward discovering God's man for Stevens Street.
June 1, 2011
The Pastor Search Team held a very long meeting on Tuesday, May 24 to watch and listen to a sermon by each of the four candidates. We had a DVD of each candidate and after each sermon, we spent several minutes in prayer then we discussed each sermon and what we liked and what we learned. The final four candidates are all great communicators! So good, in fact, that our team chose at that late hour (11:00 p.m.) not to rush into eliminating any of the candidates. So, we chose to schedule another meeting where we can take the list from four down to three or maybe two.
This week (May 29 - June 4) is family focus week at Stevens Street. During family focus week, we ask all committees, all lifegroups and all other departments etc. to cancel all meetings so that our church body will have a week off from all church activities where they are free to invest in their families. We have also canceled Wednesday evening services for this week. Therefore, the search team is not meeting this week, but will meet next week, the week of June 5. Please be praying for us as we continue down this road. We really do appreciate your prayer support!
May 19, 2011
The pastor search team met again on Tuesday May 17 to pray and to seek the Lord through the process of determining who our next permanent pastor will be. After 3 hours, we concluded our meeting with prayer and we walked out with 4 remaining pastoral candidates. We began the meeting with 19, and after the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we were able to agree on 4 candidates to ask for more information. We will meet again on Tuesday May 24 to possibly take the list from 4 down to 3 or 2. Please be praying for us as we only want what God wants. We could use all of the prayer support we can get!
May 5, 2011
The pastor search team recently met on May 2 for several
hours. At the time, we had asked our remaining candidates
to write a letter asking to share their hearts about why they
feel led to pursue this pastoral vacancy at Stevens Street.
Of the original 375 or so candidates, we asked this of only
22 of them. Of those, 3 replied that they no longer were
able to be considered for various reasons. We now have
in our possession personal letters from all 19 remaining
candidates.
I can tell you candidly, that many of the letters are quite
compelling and most of these men have been praying for
our church for over a year.
The search team plans to meet again on Tuesday night,
May 17 at 6pm. Our goal that night is to take the list from
19 to an actual top ten, maybe a top five. At some point
thereafter, we will be discussing the logistics of checking
all references, interviews etc…
Our church by-laws stipulate that we pursue only one
candidate at a time. Therefore, the process of going from
10 or 5 down to 1 will take longer than you might expect.
We are seeking the will of God, and have no other agenda
besides that.
Please be praying for us and all the remaining candidates as
we all earnestly seek to do the will of our Father.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Pastor Search Team, after another series of long meetings, has taken the original list of over 370 resumes (this number changes often as they have continued to come in) down to a list of 22 candidates.
The 22 candidates are from 10 different states. We have asked these candidates to write a letter to the Pastor Search Team sharing with us how God specifically moved their heart to pursue this position at Stevens Street.
After meeting regularly for many weeks, we are taking a short break to give the candidates time to compose the letter and send it back to us.
Please continue to pray for all of the remaining candidates, their churches, and the pastor search team.
As a reminder, there is a weekly hour of prayer set aside specifically for this team and the process on Sunday evenings at 5pm in our Fellowship Hall. Please consider joining the group to pray as we seek God's will and God's man.
Date - March 30, 2011
The pastor search team has had the following meetings since the last written update:
Sunday February 27 – Purpose of that meeting was to create a plan for our March
7 meeting regarding the overall volume of resumes received.
Monday, March 7 – began the process of sorting through the resumes with the
initial plan to use agree-upon standards to help us make the large list of resumes
more manageable. We received 362 resumes from 38 different states and four foreign countries.
Sunday March 13 – we met for 3 ½ hours to continue the process of reading
through the resumes, letters etc…
Sunday March 20 – we met for another 3 hours. We completed the first complete
cycle of reading through all of the resumes. We began the next cycle of choosing
a much smaller list to begin to work through. We have 200 resumes remaining
after the first cycle. We hope to have no more than 50 or 60 after the completion
of the next round. Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 4 at 6pm.
Please continue to pray for the team as we continue to seek the Lord in finding His man
for Stevens Street.
Sunday January 23, 2011
The pastor search team met again on Monday, January 17, 2011. After prayer, the primary purpose was to determine specifics regarding advertising of the position of senior pastor and the method by which we will receive applications and resumes.
The following is a time line that was agreed upon by the committee.
• Place ad for position online and in state-wide Baptist newspaper beginning on January 24, 2011.
• Deadline to receive application or resume will be Monday, February 28, 2011.
• Next meeting of the pastor search team will be Monday, March 7 to distribute resumes to all team members and begin the process of praying over each resume received.
Each resume received will go to the pastor search team secretary, and will not be reviewed by anyone until the deadline has passed.
As always, we covet your prayers as we walk through this process together.
See the ad here.
January 9, 2011
The Pastor Search Committee has met three times.
At the first meeting on December 15th the committee elected Jim Copeland as Chairman and Dale Bohannon as Vice-Chairman.
On Thursday, January 6 this committee met for prayer and prayer only.
Yesterday was the third meeting with a random sampling of deacons attending, as well as our church staff. Bro. Joel Wood met with and gave us good advice and direction. We are pleased with our beginning and look forward to see what God will do in our pastor search.
You may expect regular updates from the committee. Our next meeting is planned for Monday, January 17th.
Please pray for the Pastor Search Committee as they trust God to lead us. Your prayers are essential. We would appreciate if you would pray for us by name. The following church members are serving on this committee:
Jim Copeland
Dale Bohannon
Jeanette Copeland
Kyle Hanna
Judy Key
Jon Overholt
Randle Phipps
John Weakley
Lee Bailey
Debbie Swafford is serving as secretary.