The following is an update from the Pastor Search Committee.
June 7, 2020
All nine members of the Pastor Search Committee bring greetings to the faithful members and attenders of Champion Forest Baptist Church. We have been diligently meeting as a full committee at least one or two times per week since January, and we have also been operating with as many as four separate subcommittees that have been meeting twice and sometimes three times per week. We all know each other’s hearts; we are working in harmony, testing each other as we go; and bathing our processes in prayer as we collectively seek God’s wisdom. We are all totally dedicated to finding the man that God has already selected to become our Senior Pastor. This is the latest update from the 9 of us.
During the month of January beginning on the 9th, the PSC team met each week for focused prayer. We prayed for each other, the needs of the church and most of all for God to use us in any way He saw fit to find the man of God’s choosing as our new pastor. The overarching theme of our prayers was for God to lead, guide and direct us in this monumental task ahead. We all felt the weight of the task that laid before us.
We chose many scriptures and prayed those scriptures over you (the congregation), over leadership and over us as we began this journey.
We knew the job ahead of us was impossible on our own…. but over and over God reminded us, “Nothing is impossible with God”.
To present candidates an accurate view of our church we needed an updated profile on who we are as a church. We established several subcommittees within the PSC as an effective way to divide up the many tasks before us. While one subcommittee was gathering information about various ministries and life groups, another was working on a written communication to be released, and yet another was assessing metrics about our church’s growth and outreach. Knowing who we are as a church we will be better equipped to recognize the right person to lead our growing multigenerational, multisite, multicultural church. All of this groundwork is important to prepare us for the next steps in finding our senior pastor.
One of our early plans was for a five-week visitation schedule to each campus going to the Life groups and the worship services. Two Sundays were needed for the Champions campus. Each member had been assigned Life Groups to visit. The first campus was to be Conroe on March 13th. We wanted personal contacts as much as possible with the congregations. Needless to say, those plans didn’t work due to COVID-19 lockdown. The plans all had to be redirected with a lot of thinking outside the box.
One of our recent activities has been the development of some of the components in a church profile. The profile is targeted to be shared with potential candidates so they can understand our church. A core part of that is the development of a ‘Ministry Health Assessment’. The team has been working with church staff members to compile by-campus both English and Spanish ministry statistics and trends over the last few years; examples include:
- Worship and Life Group attendance (Adult, Youth and Children)
- Number of baptisms
- Number of First Time Visitors
- Annual Membership additions
But a key part of the health assessment lies in the ministries of our church. The ministry assessment has been a major focus of our work.
As part of our process to assess the health of our church in fulfilling our mission to reach the lost, both as a church and as a member, one of our tasks was to determine all ministries involved and supported at each of our four campuses. Due to the volume of ministries across the CFBC campuses, it would have been a daunting task without the assistance of various staff members who lead the ministries at each campus. For example, ministries related to Worship, Life Group, Missions, Students, Children, Deacons, Choir and more.
Once we defined all the ministries, we wanted to link each of the ministries by CFBC’s Statement of Mission categories. These include
- Worshipping /exalting Jesus
- Edifying the Body of Christ
- Equipping the Body of Christ
- Evangelizing the lost in our community
- Evangelizing the lost in all nations.
As we walked through this task, we found the same ministries at each campus, some similar, some crossover ministries (i.e. Christmas Spectacular) and some unique to a specific campus. Overall CFBC has over 78 different ministry programs that support the mission of our church.
Studying our church’s Bylaws and our Statement of Mission at the beginning of the year gave us real insight into the reasons we exist as a church. We have recently focused on the amazing ways that you—the congregation—devote yourselves to the principles set forth in our Mission: to glorify God and share his word with people in our community and throughout the world.
Now we want to hear directly from YOU. The PSC has been working hard on a survey that will help us understand the heartbeat of our church—the ways you serve people and share the good news. In the next few weeks, we’ll be asking you to help us in our search process by taking this survey. Your answers will help us understand how our church body is fulfilling our Mission through involvement within CFBC ministries, non-CFBC organizations, and personal activities. Additionally, this will be an opportunity for you to share your opinions.
From the early days of our meeting as a committee, we studied the roles of pastor search committees and discerned the possibility of utilizing a search firm that specializes in helping churches, big and small, in their search for a senior pastor. As we near completion of some critical milestones and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we have contracted the “Vanderbloemen Group” to come along beside us and help us manage each phase of the process. For over a decade, the “Vanderbloemen Group” has assisted in over a thousand searches for churches throughout the country. That includes senior pastor searches for Mega churches like ours and many in the Southern Baptist Convention.
To be clear, The Vanderbloemen Group will be helping us identify and review potential candidates. They will not be selecting our new senior pastor candidate. That responsibility lies with this group of 9 people. Then you will have the final vote to approve God’s man to lead us into the future.
So, what happens next? We will continue to covet your prayers as we build an extensive profile of our new Senior Pastor. Over the next several weeks, we will work on and complete the survey. Please help us with the job ahead…. by taking the survey when it is released. This information is so important for us…. as we seek to understand the congregation’s sense of what’s needed in a new pastor.
You can expect a prayer calendar to help you pray for the process and follow where we are in our journey, as periodic updates are given.
It is an honor to serve each of you and an honor to serve the Lord in this pivotal assignment for our congregation. We look forward along with YOU, in seeing what the Lord has for the future of CFBC.
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