Update

April 5, 2024

Happy Friday, Church! 

April 15 will mark half-way into the 90-day Candidate Receipt Phase. Our process’ Candidate Receipt Phase was outlined below in our December 19 update. Again, this is a now-expanded 90-day quiet period when resumes will be accepted. No interviews or communications are expected to take place until after June 1, 2024.

We’d love your referrals! If you would like to share the posting using your social media or email relationships, we would appreciate it. Many of the best applicants historically have come from referrals: https://kingwoodfirst.org/search-posting/ 

Last month, we completed a series of demographic, theological, process, pastoral, and church profile projects, according to the below process schedule. We’ve conducted several additional advice meetings with subject matter experts while continuing our regular times of prayer, Bible study, and Church business.

Again, any regular updates will continue to be made here online, and any major juncture updates will be made during a service. 

We appreciate our church family’s encouragement and continued prayers. Please pray for unity in our church body. Please also continue to pray for our Personnel, Stewardship, and Transition Committees as they diligently work through their various projects for this upcoming fiscal year. 

Update

March 8, 2024

Good news! We expedited our schedule by approximately a month and released the official job posting on March 1.

If you would like to share the posting on social media to help get the word out, you can share this link now: 

https://kingwoodfirst.org/search-posting/ 

As you read the job posting, please note every word was specifically chosen based on surveys, interviews with subject-matter experts, and best practices. We have cross-posted the position on multiple seminary, convention, and association affiliate sites we’ve identified. (If you see a salary posted, please know these sites sometimes infer a potential salary. We are not advertising, or providing, any compensation information.)

Our process’ Candidate Receipt Phase, outlined below in our December 19 update, will be expanded to now entail a 90-day quiet period when resumes will be accepted. We will not be reviewing or discussing resumes during this period (other than an automated email response to candidates). No interviews or communications are expected to take place until after June 1, 2024.

At present, we are wrapping up a series of demographic, theological, process, pastoral, and church profile projects, which we still expect to conclude in March as noted in the below process schedule. We’ve conducted several additional advice meetings with subject matter experts at the Union Baptist Association and other search processes while continuing our regular times of prayer, Bible study, and Church business.

Additionally, several of you have asked whether we would release the survey results. At this time, we are internally utilizing the valuable advice you’ve provided but will not be advertising the results. Some of the results could be interpreted in a mathematically improbable manner, for instance, a 30-year-old pastor with a doctorate and 20 years of ministry experience would have become a senior pastor at age 10. The typed comments also contained a significant treasure trove of data & stories, some of which may not have been provided unless it was kept confidential. We want to set expectations, we won’t be able to appease all appetites, but will certainly let you know if we find that magnificently wise 10-year-old (for those of you interested)!

Again, any regular updates will continue to be made here online, and any major juncture updates will be made during a service.

We appreciate our church family’s encouragement and continued prayers. Please pray for unity in our church body. Give grace and forgiveness, especially when it’s not requested.

Please continue to pray for Kevin and Erin as they move into their next phase. If you have a moment, we’d love it if you’d shoot them a quick message or text!

Update

February 13, 2024

We wish you all a blessed Valentine’s Day today – we feel your love and prayers.

At present, we are still prayerfully working through a series of demographic, theological, process, pastoral, and church profile projects, which we still expect to continue through February and into March as noted in the below process schedule. There is an immense amount of historical data (giving, departments, attendance, etc…) as well, which requires some level of effort. We have also conducted a number of additional advice meetings with subject matter experts at the Union Baptist Association and other search processes.

We are deeply appreciative to the church administration team, namely Penni Jones and Sharon Wood, among others for their help.

As promised, we will be sure to provide you with updates here even if there are no material updates. We will provide some general remarks at the close of the February 18 service, which will not be an official update. Again, any regular updates will continue to be made here online, and any major juncture updates will be made during a service.

We expect to post the position to begin receiving applicants within the next 30-45 days and will alert you at that time here.

We appreciate our church family’s encouragement and continued prayers.

Please pray for Kevin and Erin as they move into their next phase.

Update

January 17, 2024

Following a brief Christmas break, the SPST resumed weekly meetings earlier this month, including supplemental mid-week meetings by smaller task-oriented workgroups as needed.

At present we are prayerfully working through a series of demographic, theological, process, pastoral, and church profile projects which we expect to continue through February.

We requested the church family complete a pastor survey by January 22, which we will utilize in our efforts and in our completion of many of the above projects. We encourage everyone to participate by utilizing (a) the emailed survey, (b) the paper surveys available in service, or (c) the in-app link to the survey. We received over 100 responses in the first week alone!

We appreciate our church family’s encouragements and continued prayers.

Update

December 19, 2023

The SPST completed initial pastor search seminar training through the Union Baptist Association on December 13. As part of this seminar, we were provided general process and best practices for our work.

We have created workgroups from our 11-person SPST, to enable us to work through various tasks and projects simultaneously.

We are targeting the below timeframes for the next two major phases:

Process Building Phase (90 Days)

• We are constructing a survey so that the church membership can provide input for the next senior pastor. We will notify the church family when the survey period begins and ends so that the maximal number of people may participate. We expect this to take place in January.
• In February, we will analyze these survey results from you, and work to create a candidate profile and process which we believe the Lord has for our family.
• In March, we will finalize our process, applicant qualifications, background requirements, demographic research, church historical analysis and be ready to go to market with our search process and receive applicants.

Candidate Receipt Phase (60 Days)

• Once the process, candidate qualifications and requirements, and other profiles are prepared, we expect to make a 60-day resume acceptance window known, tentatively to begin April 1, 2024.
• We will announce the position on a variety of convention, seminary, corporate and other job posting sites as best practices dictate.
• We will announce this opening to you, and seek your help in referring qualified pastors to apply through the proper channels, once they review and determine our church may be for them and that they meet the qualifications.

Candidate Meetings, Questionnaires and Visits (June and Onward)

• We plan to begin evaluations and conversations with candidates during the summer months once all resumes are received and processed.

Update

November 29, 2023

The Senior Pastor Search Team (SPST) met for the first time on Sunday, November 26, 2023. Upon our initial meeting, the team decided:

1. Communication Plan

a. We ask that church members please refrain from asking Search Team members to disclose confidential information about our process, timelines, candidates, and decisions. This will help protect the Church-requested process, team, and pastoral candidates.

b. Updates will be made at this website, generally every month, or more often.

c. Updates during services would be made as major junctures warrant.

d. All committee communications will happen via one of the above methods. No other communication will be made unless made publicly.

e. If there are no updates, we will tell you there are no updates.

2. Process and Resources

a. Generally, we will follow best practice Pastor Search Team processes and guidance as provided by the various agents of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the Union Baptist Associations (UBA), and their affiliates.

b. We will rely primarily on proven search processes over and above the secular executive search processes many of us are accustomed to in our professional work.

3. Meetings

a. The SPST will meet on Sundays at 5:00 PM, except for holidays and when we do not have a quorum. We would appreciate your prayers during this time each week.

4. Training

a. The SPST will host a Pastoral Search expert from the Union Baptist Association in Houston for a deep-dive training session on Wednesday, December 13, 2023.

5. Process

a. We will provide you with an overview of our intended process in December.