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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Pastor of Spiritual Formation


I shared in recent blog entries that the Elder Board here at Grace Church has approved the hiring of a new pastoral position here at Grace Church. This position will be called our Pastor of Spiritual Formation. Before I introduce you to this pastoral candidate let me refresh your memory on what this pastoral position entails.

The primary area of this position is that of pastoral counseling. Due to my time constraints and the large task I have to fulfill as the Senior Pastor of our ministry, I will no longer be doing this area of ministry. I will still continue to do the pre-marital counseling for those whose weddings I am officiating. However, this new pastoral position would be the one to meet with those who are requesting to meet with a pastor. He would listen to them, empathize with them, pray with them, give them Biblical guidance, recommend resources to them, make referrals for them if necessary and follow-up with these individuals.

Under this area of ministry, this position would also identify and train lay people to be able to be mentors to those who are struggling in certain areas (i.e. marital issues, parental issues, financial issues, etc.). This would also entail conducting proactive classes and seminars to help prevent issues that often grow into counseling situations (i.e. marriage seminars, parenting classes, etc.). This area of the job description would also include overseeing the Sunday morning decision counseling including the training and scheduling of counselors and follow-up of decisions made on Sunday mornings.

The second primary area of this position is to provide pastoral care to our staff ministry-wide. Between our church, MorningStar Daycare, and Lititz Christian School, we have well over 100 employees. This position would make it a priority to walk through our ministry on a regular basis, getting to know each employee, praying with each employee, encouraging each employee in their ministry and their walk with the Lord, and following up with employees regarding personal needs. I am convinced that this will greatly increase morale and productivity ministry wide.

This position would also assist Pastor Willard, our Care Pastor, in hospital visitation as needed. We are getting to a size in which there are times when we have multiple surgeries at the same time but at different locations. This position would also take care of hospital visitation on Pastor Willard’s day off. Because this is a pastoral position, it would also include being part of the Elder Board, teaching as needed, conducting funerals as needed, and officiating weddings as requested.

I am excited to introduce you to Rev Tim Auld who the Elder Board has unanimously approved as the pastoral candidate for this new position that we will be presenting for congregational approval with the goal of Pastor Tim beginning his ministry with us here at Grace Church July 1, 2007. If the name sounds familiar it should. Tim is husband to our Children’s Director, Susan Auld. In tomorrow’s blog I will tell you more about Tim.

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