Dear ELPC Members, Friends and Staff,
At ELPC’s Annual Meeting on February 25, we were asked about the five top categories to emerge from the Congregational Assessment Tool (CAT) that 301 of you completed last year. Here they are:
- We are looking for a person to LEAD CHANGE.
- We hope to find a person who VALUES TRADITION.
- We want an ADAPTABLE person.
- We are looking for a SOCIALLY AWARE person.
- We need an ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGER.
As well as keeping these five characteristics in mind, we are seeking a person with experience in a large urban church. We also are looking at ways the various candidates have dealt with conflict in their pastoral positions. We are interested in how they have supported the tenets of a Matthew 25 church: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty. And we want to learn about their experience with LGBTQIA+ ministry.
By the time you read this, we will have reviewed the personal discernment profiles of 42 individuals and interviewed nine candidates on Zoom. One of us moderates the interview and one of us takes notes; interviews last a little over a half hour, and they have been such a help in getting to know who these folks are whose profiles we’ve read and whose sermon videos we’ve watched.
We hope to be starting second interviews fairly soon; months ago when we were preparing to begin the CAT and encouraging all of you to participate, the interview process seemed far away indeed.
There you have it! Please feel free to ask us questions, and we will answer you to the very best of our ability. And, above all, keep praying for your PNC, our potential candidates, and, all of us here at ELPC who care so deeply about the good work our church is doing. We believe we are all in God’s good hands.
In peace,
—Polly McQueen
ELPC Pastor Nominating Committee: Doug Booth, Bill Buchanan, David Carl, Andrea DeVries, Jim Eng, Linda Lane (Chair), Rebecca McGregor (Secretary), Polly McQueen, Antwone Wright