Questions for the lead pastor transition
Hey Church,
It has been an incredible privilege, over this last month, to serve as lead pastor at Freshwater.
My family and I continue to be grateful for your love and care as I make this transition. There has been much to learn, but God has been gracious already – and I’m certain He will continue to be.
As I have begun my transition into this new role, you have likely noticed some transitions in other areas of the church, particularly in the worship ministry.
And with those changes, you may have had a few questions about what you can expect on Sunday mornings and beyond.
In this blog post, I wanted to cover a few of those common questions.
How will your new role (Jake) affect Pastor Len and Pastor Sean?
Pastor Len and Pastor Sean will continue to lead in many of the facets that they already have.
While this new role necessitates some changes in the staff leadership structure, it will not affect the practical implementation of their ministries.
Will you still lead worship?
I will still lead worship sometimes, but not as often.
With my new duties, I will give more of my time to teaching and speaking in our Sunday morning gatherings. In order to keep me spiritually fresh, the elders and I have made the decision that I should not lead worship every week – as I have these last six years. However, I will still lead worship on a semi-regular basis, especially on certain Sunday mornings when I am not speaking.
In my heart, I am still a worshiper, and I’m looking forward to still being a part of that ministry.
Who will lead worship?
In our current setup, Jamie McMaster, who has been a part of our worship team for more than a decade as a drummer and vocalist, will lead worship on many Sundays.
As I started making plans for my transition, Jamie and I both felt that God was calling him to a greater leadership role, and he agreed to step out from behind the drums and lead our worship team during this transition period. Jamie has already led worship the past two Sundays, and he and the team are doing a great job.
On Sundays when Jamie is not leading, we will utilize other leaders from inside our church (i.e. me, Pastor Sean, and a few others) as well as from outside our church (i.e. guest worship leaders) to guide us in worship.
How many times will you speak throughout the year?
In conversations with the elders, we have agreed that I will teach approximately 30 times per year on Sunday mornings.
You may ask: Why 30?
There are a number of goals built into this rhythm:
- Spiritual Health and Margin: The elders wanted to create a healthy rhythm where I could have the margin to hear from God regularly. Sometimes, under the grind of preparing a message each week, a pastor can become burned out. As a leadership, we believe that this number will allow for a healthier rhythm to hear from God and provide depth in the teaching.
- Plurality of Leaders: We also want to create space for others to teach (including Pastor Sean, Pastor Len, Jamey Codding, the elders, and other trusted voices). Over the last three years, we have had a variety of teachers during our Sunday morning experience. On the whole, we believe this has been a positive thing for our church. Different teachers speak to different people, and this brings a balance and health to the church that is vital to a New Testament body.
- Replication: A good leader replaces him or herself. With that in mind, we want to continue to cultivate a culture where we are raising up people who have the spiritual gift of teaching, and then, we want to give them a space to use that to strengthen the body. When we do that, God is honored as we obey His command to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. (Eph. 4:11-14)
- Worship Leading: Since I will not be teaching every Sunday, this will also free me to lead worship on some of those Sundays (as I mentioned above). Worship is such an integral part of our church community, and I’m so grateful that the elders have given me the opportunity to continue to participate in that ministry.
Will we hire a new Worship Pastor?
As a leadership team, we have discussed that possibility, and we are certainly open to it, but we want to move intentionally into this next season. That means we don’t want to rush.
When a leader steps away from a role in a church, if they have obeyed God in their decision, then we can be confident that God also has a plan for the vacancy that the leader left behind in their old role.
So, over the next months, we will be praying for discernment on big questions:
What does God want our staff team to look like?
Who is He raising up to become new leaders of the faith in our church community?
Are those leaders already here or is he bringing someone in from elsewhere?
God knows, and He will lead us – as He always has.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of our elders. We are always happy to spend time with you.
God is faithful, and because of that, I am incredibly excited for all that He has ahead for us.
Freshwater, something good is coming.
I love you all!
Jake