10/23/2022

Hello Church,

We are working through some education about the selection process for a new pastor. All of the team is new to this so we have sought out the experts in the IBSA to help us move forward. We are doing online education that was developed by people who have been helping churches and pastors to find the place/person that God has chosen for them. As a part of that education, we were advised to develop roles and divide the work. I, Pat Baker, am serving as the chairman and will be updating you about our progress. The LT has a member on our team to be sure we are all communicating well. Other roles include prayer and communication with church committees and the candidates. We also have a secretary keeping track of our meetings. One of the steps we are starting on is to assess our church. We want to be sure we understand us-our strengths and areas in need of improvement, as well as the community that we are in. The state has several tools to be able to help us do this objectively. This will help us in finding the candidate that matches us best. Through all of this, we hold prayer up to be our number one tool and most critical step. Your prayers for us to be vigilant in seeking the will of God for the future leader of our church makes you an important part of the pastor search team.

11/6/2022

Hello Church,

We are meeting this evening with our IBSA guide, Dr. Mark Emerson. We are enlisting his help for our church/community assessment. He can also help us with a realistic timeline for our search. We are researching guidelines in our constitution and are working closely with the LT to prepare information for posting the job. Spring serves as our prayer champion on the pastor search team and is encouraging everyone to be in prayer with us. Be praying for the LT and for the pastor search team in their decisions coming up. We are all praying that God's will be done. 

11/20/2022

Hello Church,

The pastor search team has met with our guide Mark Emerson from the IBSA. He was able to share valuable advice with us about doing our church assessment. We are working on that now by reviewing all the documents that represent our church-like the Vision, Mission, What we Believe, and the Membership Covenant. We are also trying to prepare a written Church Profile that describes the church from its start to now including present ministries, statistics, and physical structure of the church. Our media team has been asked to create a video describing our church and community. These things will all be shared with our candidates that are receiving serious consideration. We are also going to spend some time in the Bible researching what the Word says about pastors and their qualifications and duties.

These are some facts that we discovered in our pastor search modules:

• 10% of Illinois Baptist Churches are currently searching for a pastor
• 10% of current pastors have been in their church less than a year and 30% have been at their church less than 3 years
• The length of pastoral ministry in Illinois Baptist churches has decreased by 25% in the last 10 years-from 12 years to 9 years.
• The pastoral pool is shrinking- the number of people entering seminary is declining.
• 1 in 7 pastors are younger than 40
• ½ of all pastors are older than 55
• Illinois has experience movement from full-time pastors to bi-vocational pastors

12/4/2022

The pastor search team continues to work on our church assessment and church profile . The church profile includes:
1. introduction and history of our church,
2. the lighthouse statements including our vision, mission, and what we believe;
3. organizational structure and facility,
4. budget and attendance,
5. the LT and ministry teams roles in the church,
6. and a summary including some information about Nashville.

We are also going to be looking at the job posting for our pastor. We are all anxious for this step and we are working on what to include in the listing and where we post it.

1/15/2023

We are excited to share that we have posted the job for our pastor. We have also started to receive resumes. During the next weeks, we will be preparing for the interviewing process by selecting the questions that can reveal the qualities and skills that match our needs in this church and community. We are using prayer as our #1 tool to seek the will of God for each step in getting the man God is preparing for us.

Day of Prayer
Happening now thru February. Sign up to dedicate a day to interceding for our church body.
Call or text 618-314-5048 to sign up.
We are encouraging participants to be in prayer (and fasting if you choose) during this day to our God for unity and wisdom in the selection of our next lead Pastor.

• Thanksgiving and Praise to God
• Unity in the Holy Spirit
• Wisdom of God to know His desire

2/5/2023

1. Please checkout the LCC website and go to the pastor search tab. It has the job posting, job description, a document with information about our church and a video about the church and community. We are directing candidates to look here to learn about us. It is interesting for members and visitors as well.
2. We are looking through pages of questions to decide which are best to ask in person or in writing.
3. We still want to focus on prayer in the month of February. We believe prayer is the most important part of the work we are doing on the pastor search team. We ask all of you to join us in prayer/ fasting. If you have not signed up for a day to spend in prayer for our church and the pastor search team, please contact Spring Stovall or the church office. You will be sent a reminder in the morning on the day that you have signed up for.

2/26/2023

We are still accepting resumes. We added a Facebook post on our church website and would appreciate you sharing it. We are also practicing our interviewing skills. Our first interviews with candidates will be virtual. 

We appreciate all of you who have helped us with the days of prayer in February. We want to continue this through March as prayer is our number one tool in seeking God's will and bringing unity to our team and church. Please stop by the prayer table or contact Spring to pick a day in March to pray. 

3/19/2023

We are deep into reviewing resumes. This means we are looking at qualifications and we are watching sermons given by the candidates. We realize there is more to a pastor than preaching so we are also looking at their experience with the different skills that a pastor needs for all the roles he has in the church and community.
Please pray for each team member to have uninterrupted time to go over each candidate and to pray over them. Please pray that each of us is led by the Holy Spirit to consider each candidate and how they would fit into our church with their strengths and weaknesses. Please pray for unity as we come together to discuss our individual study of each person who applied. Please pray for the man ( and his family) who is being prepared to serve here. May he also hear the Holy Spirit speak clearly to him during the rest of the interview process.

There are still 11days left this month that we would like to have you volunteer to commit to prayer for our team. Please see Spring or the table in the welcome area to sing up.


4/16/2023

Hello church-
The pastor search team is busy reviewing resumes and have started interviews with candidates. There has been excitement and disappointment in this process already. We know that God continues to refine us while He sustains us in this important work. We are relying on God to help keep us unified as a committee and church. We ask for your prayers - there is an April prayer focus for this phase of our search. Please pick one up and pray with us.

5/21/2023

Hello Church, we wanted to give an update on the pastor search team. We continue to receive resumes and review candidates. We are doing zoom interviews with candidates as well. We are working on next step procedures for getting to know the candidates better. We have a new May prayer Focus so please see the weekly email for that and pray with us for our future pastor and for our team.

7/2/2023

We have received resumes from nearby to as far away as foreign countries. Each candidate has been considered using the job qualifications and their resume. Time was spent reviewing preaching and social media for each candidate. The team has spent time praying individually and together to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit about each man. We continue to plead for the church body to pray with us and for us and to pray for the man God is preparing for Lighthouse Community Church. We wait expectantly as we continue to work to discover God’s choice for us!! To God be all the glory!!

8/13/2023

We are interviewing and researching candidates for the pastor position.

While this sounds the same as other updates, it reflects hours of work that the team spends in our quest to find God’s man for this church. We consider this work to be a high calling that each of us committed to a year or so ago and we are faithfully working toward a goal that we are all looking forward to. We need a full-time pastor here for so many reasons. The LT is doing a great job in the many jobs they are doing that really don’t fall under their responsibilities.

This year has been filled with many emotional ups and downs. We start out researching a candidate and when he looks like a fit, we do an introductory zoom meeting. At this point, we have had the no or yes answer-either from the team or the candidate. We have been told that our process is thorough as we proceed through a large number of questions about theology, vision, pastoring, etc. The farther we get in the process, excitement builds for us. We pray fervently for God’s leading. Recently we spent 7 weeks interviewing a candidate. We asked questions on paper and in person on zoom as well as meeting his wife. After feeling that he was a good match for LCC, we spent 3 weeks fasting and praying as the candidate considered coming to LCC, but God led him to a different church. While it feels like a disappointment, we are learning to celebrate the leading of the Holy Spirit whether the answer is no or wait. When you pray, you get 1 of 3 answers-yes, no, or wait. We have not gotten a final yes yet but we are continuing in our search and in prayer for God’s choice of our future pastor and his family. We are currently researching and interviewing other candidates. We need your support in prayer. We need for you to be patient with us as we wait on God knowing that he will provide in his time and the result will be a man that God has chosen to be the perfect leader for LCC.

9/24/2023

We are actively pursuing a Pastor to match Lighthouse Community Church. We have reached out to some news sources and some paid, as well as posting our job at seminaries. We are involved in a second round interview with a candidate now. We will continue meeting with him and praying over him as we seek God‘s will. We reach out to you for prayer as we continue our search. We need your support as we are all anxious to find God’s man for our pastor as this team has been working for around a year now. We are doing all we can, including meeting sometimes four times a week and sometimes less depending on applicants. We desire your prayers for the team as we seek God‘s timing in waiting and in acting as he leads. Also, please pray for unity on our team and in our church.

If you have any questions you can email the search team at pastorsearchteam@lcc-nashville.com