The Summer Blog drought is over. I hope.
If you’ve had a good and busy summer like me, you might have missed a few church announcements. One big one that I’m very excited about is the Forestgate Session’s recent decision to form a new search committee to search for not one, but two new positions. Wait, what? Did I just say two new positions? I did. Forestgate has experienced some numeric growth in the past year, so we decided it was time to launch a search for a 3rd Pastor (Assistant/Associate Pastor of Discipleship and Community Life), and we’re grateful that Ruling Elder/Ministry Assistant Chuck Young has helped with the extra workload in the meantime. In addition, Forestgate wants to continue to be active in church planting, as the Lord allows. Having built up our Church Planting Fund for over a year and stated our intentions to plant again when the time is right, we decided now was also the time to announce the opening for a Church Planting Resident (who will serve as an Assistant Pastor at Forestgate at first), trusting that God will lead us to the right men for these positions, in the right time and in right order. While we’re very excited about these opportunities, I would urge you to be in prayer for the church and her leaders at this time. We don’t know how long this process will take, but we trust that God will lead us to good decisions in the uncertain, exciting time ahead. With that, I’d like to share the announcement you’ll hear on Sunday (slightly updated from past weeks) and then attempt to answer a few FAQs.
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Search Committee for Assistant/Associate Pastor and Church Planting Resident: The Session is pleased to announce that we will be forming a new Assistant Pastor Search Committee (APSC) soon. Their task will be searching for a new Assistant/Associate Pastor of Discipleship and Community Life. The same APSC will also be considering candidates for our next Church Planting Resident. Thank you for the interest that many of you have shown so far in potentially serving on this Committee. You still have until Sunday, August 3, to notify the Session of any nominations (yourself or someone else that you’ve prayerfully considered and contacted). The Session plans to select a representative committee from the nominees and appoint the committee soon thereafter. The Committee will consist of Pastor Matt, at least one active Ruling Elder on Session (to serve as Chairman), and members to be named soon, with more than one female member, Lord willing.
Search Committees are a great opportunity for everyone in the Body of Christ to each play a unique role. The APSC will ultimately recommend candidates for each position to the Session, who will then make the hiring decision. The Rocky Mountain Presbytery, of course, would make the decision to ordain candidates or transfer a previously ordained minister, as the case might be. Last but not least, we encourage the congregation to prayerfully support the whole process. In all this, we trust that God will bring us the right men in the right time, in the right order.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
- I don’t want to be on the committee. What should I do?
o The congregation can prayerfully support the whole process. I (Pastor Matt ) recently nominated someone who politely declined and then graciously offered to be in prayer for the process. I was greatly encouraged by that.
- Who long will this process take? How soon will we have a new pastor or church planter?
o As long as it takes and as soon as we can. The quickest search committee process at Forestgate that I can remember narrowed in on a finalist within six months and then took several more months to hire him and move him to the Springs. Another past search committee hoped to be done in six months and ultimately took over a year. If anyone hopes to serve on the search committee, they should be prepared for weekly two-hour meetings (ideally during business hours) with homework in between meetings, all for a period of nine months or more.
- The one job title said “assistant/associate.” Which one will it be?
o An Associate Pastor position would only be for a very qualified, very experienced candidate. If such a candidate arises, he would need to be elected by the congregation in accordance with the PCA’s Book of Church Order (BCO). The Session thought this possibility might attract experienced candidates.
- How much will we know about the candidates?
o Forestgate’s practice has been to keep candidates’ names confidential until the very end of the process, not announcing candidates to the congregation until hiring decisions have been finalized. Even Session members who are not on the Search Committee usually do not know the names of candidates until very late in the process.
- What if I have a question you haven’t answered?
o Please contact a member of the Session. If they don’t have the answer, they can pass your question along to the Session and get back to you. We may need to publish a further FAQ, too, but we should probably cut this one short as it’s now approaching 1,000 words.
- Does Satan want us to plant another church (or hire another pastor or see members grow as disciples or see unbelievers come to Christ)?
o NO. Satan certainly does not want to see any of that. Therefore, we should not be ignorant of his schemes, and we should be in prayer for our church – asking God to reclaim the wandering, to admonish the idle, to help the hurting, to encourage the fainthearted, and to guide this entire search process and all the other actions of His church. For all God’s good blessings, we should give thanks. For all those who need help, we should urge God to send relief. And at all times, we should put on the full armor of God for ourselves and pray God’s protection on our brothers and sisters in Christ.
-Pastor Matt, 7-25-25