We are thankful for all your prayers and encouragement throughout the process of our Senior Pastor Search.
We are pleased to share that the Board of Elders is prepared to nominate a Senior Pastor candidate based on the recommendation from the Senior Pastor Search Committee! From the beginning, we have relied on God’s guidance as we’ve discerned the person God is calling to serve as our next Senior Pastor. In partnership with search firm Vanderbloemen, and through a candidacy process guided by a set of Senior Pastor Criteria that our search committee developed with input from across our congregation in the Vital Church survey, we are excited to arrive at the nomination of this final candidate.
We thank our church family for all your nominations for the search committee, as well as the many candidate nominations we received. We are grateful for your patience as we strived to move according to God’s timing and in accordance with His desires for Grace Chapel.
What’s Next?
The candidating process is defined in our church bylaws. It’s important that we allow adequate time for our final candidate to notify their family, friends, and current workplace of their candidacy before proceeding with the next steps:
- We will announce the candidate’s name and information about them next Wednesday, July 22, on our website, via email, in our app, and through eNews. The communications will also include additional details about the timeline and process.
- The candidate will preach the sermon on Sunday, July 26 at our Lexington campus, and it will be live-streamed to our other campuses as usual. The Online service will be a live stream instead of a pre-recorded service and will begin at our regular time of 9am.
- After the 11:00 am service in Lexington concludes, we will have a Q&A session with the congregation hosted in Lexington, also recorded and streamed online. Due to time constraints, we will use questions that have been submitted prior to the Q&A session. If you have questions you would like to submit for consideration, please email and indicate “Q&A” in your email.
- Voting to approve the Senior Pastor candidate will open Sunday, July 26 and close Friday, August 7.
- We will announce the results of voting on Sunday, August 9.
How’d We Get Here?
Our Senior Pastor Search Committee recommended a candidate whose experience, character, and approach to ministry aligns with our mission, vision, and values. This includes a strong foundation of biblical teaching, a vibrant spiritual life, and the ability to welcome theological discourse. This candidate also fosters diversity of different cultures and backgrounds and has a passion for outreach and evangelism near and far.
Our search committee reviewed many candidates, conducted hours of interviews across multiple rounds, and spent hundreds of hours watching sermon footage and praying earnestly for God’s direction throughout this process. After extensive commitment to every step, the search committee and our Board of Elders are recommending the person we believe God has appointed to lead Grace Chapel as our next Senior Pastor.
Questions?
If you have questions, you can submit them at .
