Last week we reported that we reduced the field to four for whom invitations would be extended for in-person interviews. Since then, one of the four candidates has been removed from further consideration.

For the three remaining candidates, we hope to schedule the onsite interviews with the intent to complete them by November 12. In the meantime, the Call Committee, along with the Executive Committee, continues contemplating the logistics of, and questions for, those onsite visits.

We continue to feel the guidance of your prayers at work. Please keep them coming.

The committee completed the interviews last week of the five remaining candidates. The result of the interviews was reducing the field to four. We are now contemplating the logistics of, and questions for, in-person interviews for those four.

Please continue your prayers for the Committee and the church as we continue through our call process.

As of this writing, the Call Committee has interviewed two of the five senior pastor candidates, with the remaining three scheduled to conclude by Thursday evening (September 28).  Our questions surround the pastors’ current call and role, worship services they currently offer/prefer/support, communion policy, worship service planning, the role of women in their church, team ministry and administration.

The purpose of this round of questions is to, perhaps, further filter the group down to those whom we will invite to visit us for deeper in-person interviews and meet with church leaders.  With input from that step, the Call Committee will make a recommendation to the Executive Committee as to whom a call is recommended.  Of course, that selection will be discussed at a congregation meeting before making an actual call.      

The Call Committee thanks you for your continued prayers for both the Call Committee and Trinity, which we firmly believe and feel are working.  Please continue those prayers as we enter the home stretch of our process.  

The Call Committee developed a set of questions to pose to our remaining candidates in our initial interviews. In scheduling the interviews, one of the six remaining candidates asked to drop out of the process due to health issues within his family. The interviews of the remaining five candidates are scheduled for the week of September 25. Those initial interviews will be via phone or video conferencing depending on the technology available to the candidate.

Please continue praying for the committee and the church as they are obviously working. Those prayers will help lead us to the person God has already chosen for us.

At its September 7 meeting, the Call Committee developed a set of questions to pose to our remaining candidates in our initial interviews. Hopefully, those interviews will be scheduled and completed during the remainder of September. Those initial interviews will be via phone or video conferencing depending on the technology available to the candidate.

It is evident that your prayers are working for us. So far, the process has gone smoothly with the committee proceeding in an efficient and productive manner. The group works very well together. We will appreciate your continued prayers that we quickly recognize the person God has chosen to lead us.

Due to the late update last week, there isn’t much news to report this week. The Call Committee meets on Thursday, September 7 to discuss interview questions for the six remaining candidates and potential interview dates. Those initial interviews will be via phone or video conferencing depending on the technology available to the candidate.

The Call Committee members appreciate your continued prayers that we quickly recognize the person God has chosen to lead us.

The news this week is that a limited amount of information about the candidates on our call list is available for members to view by appointment (see below for details). It turns out that it is District policy to divulge this information.

The personal information files we were provided on the pastors may not be viewed as they contain personal information, divulging of which could raise privacy issues.

If you are interested in seeing the information that IS available, there are some protocols to follow:

• The documents may only be viewed in hardcopy.

• The documents may not be removed from the viewing room.

• They are only available for viewing at the Mission campus office during normal office hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9-4.

• No reproduction of any kind is allowed of the documents, including photos taken via cell phone. Nor may written notes be taken.

• Please call the Mission church office to arrange a time that is mutually beneficial to you and the staff in which the documents may be viewed.

• One of the staff will accompany you during the viewing.

Beyond that, the Call Committee reduced the field of consideration to seven candidates. The committee was unanimous in the elimination of the others as they were clearly not a good fit for us based on those pastors’ responses to questions in their self-evaluation documents furnished to us by the District.

Contact with those seven candidates was made this week to ask if the candidates were open to being considered and participating in our call process. Six of the seven responded positively. The committee is now developing questions for the initial interviews of the six. Interviews will be scheduled in the next week or so.

The Call Committee members appreciate your continued prayers that we quickly recognize the person God has chosen to lead us.

The big news from last week is that the Call Committee received a list of candidates, also known as the call list, from Kansas District President Panzer for us to consider in our search for a senior pastor. The list contains 13 names for which we were provided voluminous biographical information and self-evaluations. Over the coming weeks, the Call Committee will be filtering through that information to decide which candidates to move forward in our process.

In the meantime, the Call Committee members will appreciate your respect for the confidentiality of the list and not ask us who is on it. One reason for that is that the candidates’ respective churches probably don’t know that their pastor is on such a list and possibly hearing about this via word of mouth could be very damaging.

Please continue praying for, and trusting in, our call process that we quickly recognize the person God has chosen to lead us.

The Call Committee remains in a holding pattern as we await a call list from Kansas District President Panzer. As you saw last week, Pastor Phil is contemplating senior pastor calls from two other churches, both in Texas. While he is in his prayerful contemplation about those, he remains under consideration in our call process, which we have to trust and let play out, along with the other the names we’ll receive from President Panzer.

As always, should you have questions or input for the committee, 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.

The Congregation Self Evaluation Tool, your pastor nominations and other supporting documents were submitted to Kansas District President Panzer last week. Now we wait for him to review that information in order to formulate a list of candidates that might meet our needs. Due to his schedule, his review probably won’t begin for a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, the Call Committee 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 committee, 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.

Call Committee Chairman Steve Henslee met with the Executive Committee this past Monday, July 24. The Executive Committee reviewed the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool (CSET) with its input captured and the document finalized. The next step is to forward the CSET and your pastor nominations to Kansas District President Panzer, which will occur yet this week.

Then the waiting game begins, waiting for President Panzer to review our information and formulate a list of candidates that might meet our needs. That’s when the Call Committee’s heavy lifting will begin, reviewing each candidate’s personal information and doing other due diligence as we seek to recognize the person God has already chosen to be our senior pastor.

In the meantime, the Call Committee will contemplate 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 committee, please contact any of the committee members. Please continue praying that God continue to cloak us in his guiding hands, guiding the person to us whom he has already chosen to lead us in our effort to expand His kingdom, and guiding us to recognize that person when we see them.

As mentioned last week, the Call Committee forwarded the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool (CSET) to the Executive Committee for its review and input. Call Committee Chairman Steve Henslee will meet with the Executive Committee at their July 24 meeting to discuss that document. While that review and discussion are pending, the Call Committee will not meet during the week of July 17, picking up our efforts again after the aforementioned Executive Committee meeting.

As you’ll recall from earlier in our process, we requested senior pastor nominations from you. You provided 12 names that we will forward to the District President when we send him the CSET. Please keep in mind that not all those names may come back to us with his list of names for us to consider. There is a preliminary filtering process that determines if people on the list are open to a call at this point in their career and if they meet our needs and requirements according to the CSET.

Should you have questions or input for the committee, please feel free to contact any of the committee members. Your continued prayers for our church will be appreciated, praying that God continue to cloak us in his guiding hands, guiding the person to us whom he has already chosen to lead us in our effort to expand His kingdom, and guiding us to recognize that person when we see them.

The Call Committee forwarded the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool (CSET) to the Executive this week for its review and input. As soon as this document is finalized, it will be forwarded to the District President, who will use our responses in selecting names of potential call candidates for us to consider in addition to the names you provided us. As the Executive Committee reviews the CSET, the Call Committee will continue meeting, discussing our interview strategy and questions we will ask the candidates, among other things.

Regarding the Call Committee vacancy mentioned in last week’s update, I am pleased to announce that Amy Theiss has agreed to join us as we inch closer to the filtering process of candidates, interviews and selection. As also mentioned last week, having a full complement of committee members is very important to the selection process for our next senior pastor and Amy brings prior call experience to the table for us.

As always, should you have questions or input for the committee, please feel free to engage any of the committee members. Your continued prayers for our church will be greatly appreciated, praying that God continue to cloak us in his guiding hands, guiding the person to us whom he has already chosen to lead us in our effort to expand His kingdom, and guiding us to recognize that person when we see them.

The Call Committee is finishing up its work on the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool (CSET). We hope to turn it over to the Executive Committee within the coming week for their input. As mentioned last week, the committee has a vacancy for which we hope to have a replacement shortly. While the committee’s work surrounding the CSET is largely done, having a full complement of committee members is very important to the selection process for our next senior pastor.

Regarding the committee, by the way, I (Steve Henslee, Chairman) am pleased to report how well the committee members are working together. We are moving along in a very cooperative, efficient, and professional manner. There are, of course, disagreements along the way, but everyone is respectful, listening to others, voicing their opinions in a frank manner, but arriving at a consensus rather quickly.

As always, should you have questions or input for the committee, please feel free to engage any of the committee members. Your continued prayers for our church will be greatly appreciated, praying that we quickly recognize the person God has already chosen to lead us in our effort to expand His kingdom.

Unfortunately, the biggest news is that one of our committee members, Carisa Marovec, has stepped away from the committee due to personal circumstances. That is disappointing because of her experience and because in the short time we worked with her, she was clearly a significant contributor. Her participation will be sorely missed. We are now in process of identifying a replacement for her.

Other than that, not much has changed from the last update, with the Call Committee continuing its work on the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool. We hope to have that completed soon, at least with the information the committee can provide, before we mete it out for the input of others, like the Executive Committee.

As always, should you have questions or input for the committee, please feel free to engage with any of the committee members. Your continued prayers for our church will be greatly appreciated, praying that we quickly recognize the person God has already chosen to lead us in our effort to expand His kingdom.

As you’ve seen from recent emails and eNews articles, the Senior Pastor Call Committee is in full swing. There is still time for you to nominate potential candidates via the Pastor Nomination Form. And we have also asked you for the characteristics you think we want and need in a senior pastor. The characteristics will feed into the Congregational Self-Evaluation Tool (C-SET) that we provide to the District President.

The C-SET helps the District President cull names from his database that he feels will possibly meet our needs. At some point, your input will be sought for the C-SET.

In the meantime, the Call Committee continues working on the C-SET, inputting information we have at hand and forwarding questions to others in the church, such as the Executive Committee, for their input.

While this process is going on, please pray for us. By “us” I mean not just the Call Committee, but our church. Pray that we quickly recognize the person God has already chosen to lead our church so that we can carry on with the business of expanding His kingdom. Should you have any questions about the call process or our proceedings, please engage with any of the Call Committee members.

The Call Committee

Amy Holsapple

DCE Rhonda Synovec

The call committee convened for the first time on Wednesday, June 7. After getting acquainted with each other, we planned next steps for developing the information we are to submit to the District regarding the call, as outlined by President Panzer at the May 24 Pre-Call Meeting.

You should have already seen one of those steps, the request for senior pastor nominations from you. Such nominations may be submitted as described in last week’s eNews.

Another step is to request of you the characteristics in a senior pastor that you think are most important as we consider our candidates. A checklist for this will be broadcast to you in similar fashion as the pastor nomination form, if not within this eNews then next week.

A final piece of information is the Congregational Self Evaluation Tool (C-SET), on which the call committee is currently working. Be on the lookout for opportunities to provide your input on this in the weeks ahead. The pastoral characteristics and the C-SET are what inform the District as to potential candidate names they might provide us.

As questions arise about the call process, please contact or approach any of the call committee members. Pictures of each member are provided below. About half attend services at the Shawnee site with the other half, obviously, at the Mission site. Chairman Steve Henslee is rotating his worship attendance among all the services to increase his accessibility during this time.