CHURCH CHAIR UPDATE
Dear ,
The baptisms on Sunday were just beautiful. God is on the move, and there is a lot to be thankful for at LAC!
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” - Psalm 118:1
First, thank you for all your comments on the current draft of the proposed Bylaw revision document, “The Congregational Leadership Covenant of Lake Avenue Church: How We Have Agreed to Follow Jesus Together.” The Ministry Council is delighted by the high degree of interest and engagement from the congregation. The comments, questions, and suggestions during this first round of consideration and dialogue have resulted in a better understanding of the issues we are working to address, and these contributions will help us improve the proposed document.
Second, I want to let you know how excited we are with news of the progress of the Senior Pastor Search Committee (SPSC). As you read in Ella Lau’s letter, we are moving into a period when we may be asked to consider calling a new Senior Pastor to LAC.
Third, we would like to take more time for prayer, study, consideration, and dialogue on the Congregational Leadership Covenant (new Bylaws). We plan to defer further Bylaw discussion meetings until after Easter, aiming to vote on the proposed Congregational Leadership Covenant later in the Spring. In the meantime, we will continue to receive and respond to comments and questions submitted through the lakeave.org/bylaws page. This will also give time for us to go through the process of discerning God’s call on the potential candidate for Senior Pastor.
Fourth, we believe it is in the best interest of LAC to modify our usual practice of establishing a Nominating Committee at the Winter Congregational Meeting (scheduled for March 6). The current Bylaws call on us to elect the committee now, but we believe this step should be delayed for a few months to allow for discernment around the potential Senior Pastor candidate and Congregational Leadership Covenant. Once those questions are answered, we will be in a much better position to form a Nominating Committee (or a Leadership Development Team under the Covenant) and to chart our path forward for the next season of LAC. We will still have ample time to consider and nominate leaders for approval by the congregation at the August meeting. To be consistent with our current Bylaws, the Ministry Council will bring forward a motion at our March 6 Winter Congregational Meeting to modify the schedule for electing the Nominating Committee this year. This motion will be posted online and in the Worship Center lobby prior to the meeting.
Finally, March 2 is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. This is a time when we as a congregation are especially devoting ourselves to seeking the Lord for our own lives and the life of Lake Avenue Church. During the Lenten season, I invite you to earnestly pray and fast for the Senior Pastor search and for the Bylaw renewal process. There is much to be thankful for, and we want to be especially focused on praying and continually responding to God’s direction for ourselves and LAC. We are looking forward to celebrating the resurrection of our Savior together as a church family in April.
Blessings,
Dan Crichton
Church Chair
SENIOR PASTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE UPDATE
Dear LAC Family,
It has only been two or three weeks since we last communicated with you. However, we do want you to know what has transpired in the last couple weeks. As we told you several months ago, our plan this fall and early winter was to resume our search, starting with names we already had on a short list while also continuing to receive new names. Our review identified a few names we wanted to pursue in November. As we prayed, a name was identified as a strong possibility in December. We sent him a questionnaire and then went on a 3-week break. In January, we reviewed his written responses to a series of our questions and SPSC was very positive about them. We are now engaging in a series of interviews. Please continue to pray with us in this journey. We want to discern God’s will.
We hope to complete the interview process soon. At the end of our vetting process, if we believe God is choosing this person for LAC and the person also discerns God calling him to LAC, we will recommend him to the congregation for a vote. If our process and prayers do not result in a mutually agreed discernment, we will inform you of our next steps. Either way, we will communicate more frequently while we are in this phase.
In my last update, I gave you three areas where we continue to pray each week. They are:
- humility and transformation
- only Your will, not ours
- God’s wisdom
In addition to these areas, we also have two other areas of prayer. They are:
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Trust and unity by the Spirit: We know that we are a diverse group that represents the diversity at LAC. While we may have differing opinions from each other, we desire to be in agreement with each other in our decisions. This cannot happen without asking God to work amongst us and to help us be vulnerable with each other. In Romans 12:4-5, we are reminded that “just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” With God’s help, we can trust one another and be a unified team.
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Protection and experiencing quiet confidence that God is in control: We ask God for protection as we do the work assigned to us in SPSC. There is nothing more that the enemy would like than for us to be distracted. At the same time, this task can be stressful unless we remember that God is in control and we can rest in God’s promises to us through his Word. We are trusting God that he will reveal his choice for Senior Pastor to us individually and as a team.
Please pray for SPSC as we go through this process in the next few weeks. Also, please pray for the LAC family, asking God to prepare all of us for a possible new Senior Pastor.
Blessings,
Ella Lau
Senior Pastor Search Committee Chair
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