Despite the length of time and money we have spent on our search for a Minister of Worship, our committees remain encouraged by the people we have met, the quality and caliber of the candidates, and the commitment and passion for following God’s will which has been at the forefront of the minds of each one involved – candidates and committee members alike. We have been deeply touched by God’s hand as He has led us through this process. We are blessed to have a congregation that continues to support our ministry and mission, unperturbed by the length of this temporary need (interim-ship), which has been so beautifully and masterfully filled by Peter Haley and others. Our members have strengthened and encouraged us by their understanding that we are not defined by this one position, but by our One Priority and our faith, hope, and trust in God’s timing in all things to “navigate” and fulfill that promise to him. We are so grateful to our congregation for your continued prayers and positive expectations.
You are familiar with the old, “do you want the good news or the bad news first” question. The good news is that in the past couple of years we’ve been working, we’ve added Beth Tolar, our Childrens Director, who has been doing a wonderful job with them including bible study, VBS, and other related ministries. Emily Bundrick was added to our staff a little over six months ago, as our Communications Director, she has made significant and very positive changes to our website and the format of The Messenger. We have been blessed with Dr. Peter Haley’s leadership of our music ministry and we have rejoiced with the incredible talent of Juyeon Kim as our organist. We will certainly miss Christy Horton, who retired after 22 years. When Christy announced her retirement, we needed to find a new pianist. In less than 24 hours after Christy’s announcement, our own Connie Masterson agreed to accept that position. We have heard Connie play on several occasions so be sure to let her know how excited we are about her becoming a part of our music and worship experience.
The bad news is that we’ve gotten close on a couple of Minister of Worship candidates but couldn’t get them across the finish line for one reason or another. We know that in today’s world, the old ways of doing a lot of things don’t work anymore. That is also true with church search committees. We used to be able to post a position in publications like the Baptist Courier, let a few state conferences know, get word out to a few local church associations like the Metro, call people we knew in church work, and we’d be flooded with resumes. You need to know the Minister of Worship Search Committee contacted and/or advertised in numerous publications, associations, church leaders, experts, and authors in the field, recommendations from many state convention leaders, placement offices in colleges/universities, and recommendations from you, our congregation, which led us to Lee Myers and our association with Dwight Whitworth and Company. Further investigation revealed that working with this type of placement agency is what 90% of all churches seeking ministers are doing, because of their database and the wealth of contacts they provide.
When the Search Committee contacted Lee Myers, in September 2022, they found out he was not a candidate, but that he could help us find the right person because he worked with Dwight Whitworth & Company. He sent us the information on DWC, how they worked with churches and that they had placed over 200 hundred ministers in the past 7 years and only two of them were not with the church’s with which they’d been placed. He also said the length of time for them to place someone was 6 to 8 weeks. With confirmation from our Finance Committee and our Church Council, we signed a contract with DWC.
You may remember the weekend Lee came to SABC in October and led the music during our worship service. He also met with our choir members, our PC, and the Minister of Worship Search Committee, to learn about our church’s wants and needs. Between October 1, 2022, and June 1, 2023, Lee & DWC presented us with two candidates, neither of whom worked out. Both candidates visited our church, met with the committees, and choir members. We knew the first one would not work, but felt the second one we brought from Louisiana, along with his wife was exactly what we needed. After offering him the position, he and his wife decided we were not a good fit for them at this time and decided God wasn’t calling them to SABC. On Friday, June 2, 2023, we sent notice to DWC that we no longer had any contractual obligations to them and that we were ending our contract effectively immediately. We had no idea back in October that we would pay them for 8 months with no results.
We all continued to make contacts and as a result, a candidate from Fort Mill, SC became available. We talked with him and watched videos of him leading music in worship services. Even though I had talked with him a few times on the phone, no one had met him. It was agreed that Dee and I would meet with him, which we did for lunch on Thursday, June 16th. Dee and I both liked him, and we set a time for him to meet with both committees on Tuesday, June 21 st at 5pm. However, he called me Monday morning, June 20 th to let me know he was no longer a candidate because he’d answered the call for a position at a church in Virginia. Both committees met on Tuesday, June 21 st and although we were so disappointed that this candidate did not work out, we knew we and everyone in our church needed to continue to pray and wait patiently for God to reveal the next Minister of Worship to us. We also knew we had to continue to search diligently in every possible way to find that person. We had a time of prayer where several of us opened our hearts to God and prayed for the patience to wait on Him and the insight we needed to continue our search. The twelve of us who were in that meeting left with assignments to complete by our next meeting on Thursday, June 29th .
We ask that you continue to pray earnestly for God’s guidance for our church. Pray for the Minister of Worship who will be coming to our church and that they are also praying for God to lead them to us. God will send us the right person at the right time. Until then, we will continue to worship together and do everything we can to worship and serve God by connecting people with Jesus and each other.
Once you’ve read this, feel free to contact me or anyone on our Personnel or Minster of
Worship Search Committee.
Prayerfully yours,
Al Walker,
Personnel Committee Chair
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