A Word from Our Executive Director

The pastor search process is one of the greatest opportunities in the life of a church as it firmly establishes a foundation for God’s future blessings. This is one of the most advantageous times to dream, rethink, pull the fellowship together, and pray for God’s incredible hand on the life and future of the congregation. For this to be one of the greatest times in the life of the congregation, several things must be in place. The congregation, current staff, and search committee must all be equally aware of what is involved in the process. You must realize this is a critical moment of opportunity and calls for great spiritual intensity and preparation. In addition, a congregation must protect and care for its existing staff in a special way during the interim process. The Pastor Search Committee must fully understand and embrace that they have been given one of the greatest roles of trust from the congregation. The search committee must accurately and fairly represent the wishes, desires, and DNA of the church. The search committee has no right or authority to set a new vision or try to establish new DNA for the church. They are only given the right to represent the wishes and desires of the church body. When search committees work with a hidden agenda of establishing new DNA for the church, it almost always results in serious conflict within the congregation. It can also result in the new pastor’s ministry dreams being dashed and the new pastor’s family being wounded. The church and the search committee must trust that God’s timing is perfect! If the search process goes quickly or it takes a long time—God’s timing is still perfect. The Pastor Search Committee must understand that the church must go through a “grieving process” for the past pastor before the congregation can embrace a new pastor, especially if the previous pastor was deeply loved or long-term. This process usually takes 6 to 12 months. To call a pastor during the interim transition time usually results in the new pastor being the “unintentional interim” and his difficult departure within two years. The ABSC welcomes hearing from your church as you enter the pastor search process. We want to pray for you, and we can assist with finding an interim pastor. My prayer is that God will help Arkansas Baptists—the greatest folks in the world—have highly effective pastor search processes.

Dr. J.D. “Sonny” Tucker stucker@absc.org