Call Committee News

Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

Call Is Extended!

September 19, 2024

The Congregational Assembly approved a call for the Lead Pastor – Mission Campus to Pastor Mark Wood on Sunday, September 15. The called pastor has received the call documents and will be announcing it to his congregation Sunday, September 22. Please be sure to include the called pastor, Trinity and his current congregation in your prayers. Pray that the Holy Spirit leads him to a decision that will enable him to continue his ministry where God has plans for him in the future. 

If you know members of his congregation, we ask that you not contact them to tell them he has received a call until after he can announce the call to his current church.

Congregational Assembly to Extend a Call

August 29, 2024

September 15, 1pm
Mission Campus Sanctuary

The Mission Call Committee has completed the site interview process and has recommended a candidate to the Executive Committee for a divine call to Trinity as the Lead Pastor – Mission Campus. A voter’s meeting has been scheduled for September 15 at 1pm at the Mission campus to consider the call committee’s recommendation and vote on issuing a call to the pastoral candidate recommended. Please continue to pray for God’s guidance throughout this process.

In-Person Interviews in Process: Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

August 15, 2024

The first pastor candidate for the Lead Pastor – Mission Campus will be visiting Trinity Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, August 17-19. He will be meeting with the Call Committee on Saturday morning and the Executive Committee on Saturday afternoon. He will be meeting with staff members on Monday afternoon.

He will be attending our first two services on Sunday morning at the Mission Campus. He will attend the late service at Shawnee. You will have the opportunity to meet him and his wife between services. Please continue to pray for God’s guidance for our call committee and for the pastors who are seeking His direction about where they should continue their ministry.

Online Interviews Concluding: Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

August 1, 2024

The Mission Call Committee will complete the last of our planned zoom call interviews this week. The committee will meet after the interviews to determine which candidate(s) should be invited to an onsite visit. The candidate(s) invited will meet with the committee, the Senior Pastor, and the Executive Committee.

List Narrows to Four: Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

July 11, 2024

The call committee has been busy and has completed their reviews of the pastor information forms (PIF) and self-evaluation tools (SET). We met this week and selected the pastors to be initially interviewed on zoom. Dates for those interviews are being set up with these pastors.  The first interview is next week. Two more are being scheduled and the last one has been set up for the end of this month. Please continue to pray for the call committee and the pastors who will be interviewed. Your prayers asking for God’s direction in this process is greatly appreciated by the members.

Finalizing Interview Questions: Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

June 27, 2024
The call team members have been working on finalizing questions for initial phone or video interviews. This task will be completed by the time you read this update.
We have received the final listing of candidates that the District President has approved. There are ten pastors on our listing, of which five of them are also on the Shawnee list. We have received the Personal Information Form (PIF) and the Pastor’s Self-Evaluation Tool (SET) for each candidate as well as comments from their respective District President. We have begun to read through the PIF’s and SET’s. Our next meeting is after the holiday and our objective will be to identify which candidates the call committee wants to schedule for an initial interview.
For lead pastor at the Mission campus we are looking for experience in teaching, care ministries, and counseling. Personal attributes that we are seeking include preaching skills, leadership, and people skills.
If you have any questions, please contact Denny Hixson at dennymhixson@gmail.com or 913-481-4815. Please keep the Call Committee in your prayers that the Holy Spirit will guide us to the best candidate for Trinity.

Call List Sent to the District: Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

June 6, 2024

Progress is happening in the call processes!

Both of the Call Committees for Lead Pastors have met this week to review the nominations received from the congregation. Of the nominations, there are now two nominations for Lead Pastor at the Mission Campus, three nominations for Lead Pastor at the Shawnee Campus, and six joint nominations for consideration for both positions. Since we are in the unique position of working through two call processes at once, the call committees will be consulting with each other throughout the selection process to make the selection process more efficient with the joint candidates.
These nominations, along with the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool (CSET) and the results of the Pastoral Characteristics Survey from last summer with input from the two new call committees, have now been submitted to President Panzer at the Kansas District. President Panzer will be reviewing the list of candidates to verify their eligibility and will be adding other candidates recommended by the district.
In the meantime, the Call Committees will continue contemplating how to organize that information to allow us to select the candidates who will go further in our selection process. We will also consider our interview strategy and questions.
As always, should you have questions or input for the Committees, please contact any of the committee members. Please continue praying for our call process and President Panzer, that we may receive our list of candidates as expeditiously as possible and that we quickly recognize the person God has chosen to lead us.

Request for Nominations: Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

May 2, 2024
As Trinity searches for our new lead pastor for the Mission campus there are two sources from which we consider potential candidates. One is a list of names compiled by Kansas District President Panzer. The other is you, the congregation.
This is your chance to nominate someone for possible inclusion in our list of names for call consideration. Perhaps you have visited other LCMS churches, or are a former member of another LCMS church, at which you observed a pastor that you think is committed to the written Word, and possesses the compassion, prayerfulness, temperament, interpersonal skills, and presence in the pulpit that will serve us well.
Nominations will be accepted through Friday, May 24.
If so, there are three avenues for you to access the form:

1

Hardcopies are available in the entry to both worship locations. After completing the form, you may drop it into the drop box, also in the entry to both locations or mail it to the Mission church office to the attention of Gretchen Hollman.

2

An electronic, fillable form is available on our website. You may click the link below to access the Pastor Nomination Form. It will then be submitted electronically.

3

A PDF form is available below. You may click the link below to access the Pastor Nomination Form after which you have three options in completing the form:
  • Complete the form online, save it to your computer and send it as an email attachment to gretchen@tlcms.org; or,
  • Complete the form on your computer, print it out and place it in one of the drop boxes or mail it to the Mission church office to the attention of Gretchen Hollman; or
  • Print the form, complete it by hand, drop it into the drop box or mail it to the Mission church office for the attention of Gretchen Hollman.
Whether you nominate someone or not, thank you for your prayerful consideration in our call process, asking God to reveal to us quickly the person he has chosen for us. Should you have questions, please feel free to contact Denny Hixson at dennymhixson@gmail.com.

Meet Your New Call Committee!

April 25, 2024

The newly formed call committee for the Lead Pastor at the Mission Campus will meet for the first time this coming weekend. Please pray for the committee as we get to know each other and become familiar with the call process. We have begun work on a document which will allow you to submit names of pastors for call consideration. We anticipate this document, as well as an electronic version, will be available next week.

Below are the members of the committee:

Denny Hixson, Chairman

Karen Jaime

Scott Kaphingst

Justin Lutz

Lisa Miles

Lydia Rocha

Pastor Luke Jacob, Advisor

Call Committee Formed

April 18, 2024
One of the biggest takeaways from the listening sessions that took place in March was a desire to change the structure of leadership at Trinity, with the idea of the three pastors’ roles being organized as:

Senior Pastor

Lead Pastor – Mission Campus

Lead Pastor – Shawnee Campus

The Executive Committee President Patti Hare, has appointed a call committee to fill the role of Lead Pastor at the Mission campus. The call committee members who have graciously agreed to serve are: 
 

Denny Hixson (chairman) 
Karen Jaime 
Scott Kaphingst 
Justin Lutz 
Lisa Miles 
Lydia Rocha 
Rev. Luke Jacob 

Please keep the call committee in your prayers as they begin their work in calling the next lead pastor at Mission. We look forward to this next step in ministry as we work together as a Community Following Jesus.