The latest word on the search for a permanent replacement for Pastor Ted Haggard is that, well, New Life Church’s metaphorical car is still parked.
More than six months have passed since Haggard was fired, long enough for his outer to get a book published. In April church leaders announced they had whittled their new pastor search – to 12. Keep reading for the latest.
Dear New Lifers & Friends of New Life Church,
The past several weeks have been very full for the members of your Pastoral Selection Committee–we’ve spent upwards of 25 hours per week together! It is our pleasure to report to you that we have completed the first round of interviews with our top four candidates.
Those interviews came after hours of listening to sermon CD’s, reviewing websites, books, resumes and more. Now, we will take some time to process and pray through all of the information we’ve gathered before we determine our next steps, which may include second interviews.
Several of the committee members will be out of town for the next week or two, so we will resume our aggressive pace after everyone returns the first week of July.
As a reminder, here is how the selection process works. The Pastoral Selection Committee is responsible for researching, interviewing, selecting and presenting one and only one candidate to the Board of Overseers of New Life Church.
With their approval, that candidate may speak in every service for up to three weeks. Then, the voting members of the congregation (those with a 2006 giving record) will gather for a meeting where each will be allowed to cast an up or down vote.
A 2/3 majority is required to elect the candidate as the next Sr. Pastor. While we are not endeavoring to expedite this process ahead of God’s timing, nor are we in anyway dragging our feet, we are well ahead of the national average of 18-36 months that churches usually take to go through this transition.
Your prayers are a crucial part of our process–giving us the stamina to do our job well, and the wisdom and discernment to hear from God. Don’t stop praying–it will make the difference!
Sincerely,
NLC Pastoral Selection Committee
Cara DeGette is a senior fellow at Colorado Confidential, and a columnist and contributing editor at the Colorado Springs Independent. E-mail her at cdegette@coloradoconfidential.com
