Unity in the Pastor Search Team - In the spirit of our recent Unity theme, Pastor Search team was asked to share a little about our transformational journey from a group of individuals to a unified group, without losing ourselves in the process!

During the pastor search process, the Pastor Search Team requested that interested candidates submit a cover letter, resume, and statement of faith. Cover letters and resumes are fairly straight forward in any application process, so they did not much time to write.

I spent most of last week in Kansas City, Missouri, for the last gathering of my CBF Fellows cohort (and no I didn't see Taylor Swift or Travis Kelce, so don't ask). Over the past two years, this cohort of young ministers has met several times in various locations to network, attend workshops and ministry seminars, and brainstorm about how to be new(ish) ministers in today’s ever-changing world.

If you recall, in 2024, we received a $10,000 grant to help with our ongoing vision work. Although the grant can only be received once, there was an initiative called Hearth that reKindle recipients could apply for. While not a monetary grant, Hearth still gave congregations the opportunity for continued coaching, education, and reflection. This past spring, we applied for and were accepted into this year's Hearth cohort.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

For the past two weeks, I began my reflections with this quote from Atomic Habits about how willpower alone isn’t enough for a person to reach their goals. Instead, they will only succeed as much as their systems allow them. I wrote about creating new systems to better help us reach our goals, and how those systems are already addressing our various needs.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

I began last week’s post with this quote from Atomic Habits about how willpower alone isn’t enough for a person to reach their goals. Instead, they will only succeed as much as their systems allow them. I wrote about creating new systems to better help us reach our goals, and how those systems are already addressing our various needs.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

This quote, from the book Atomic Habits has stuck with me since I initially read it. To put it another way, will power alone isn’t enough for a person to reach their goals. Instead, a person will only succeed as much as their systems let them. So unless you have a system for how to attain your specific goals (a specific diet plan for losing weight for example), you most likely will not find the change you hope for. 

Last week, I wrote about how I’ve started to look at family ministry from a different perspective: one where we create more opportunities for parents and children to stay together while participating in our various ministries (you can read it again here). This is an important part of creating a welcoming environment for families with children. But simply creating opportunities is not enough for families to feel included in the life of our congregation. The physical spaces in which we invite families to participate also has to communicate that children belong. So, if we seriously look around our space, does it look like a space where children are encouraged to participate?

As a family minister and a parent to a young child, I’ve been thinking about how our church can better serve families in our community. But revitalizing a children’s ministry is a big task, and something that I don’t have all the solutions for. Believe it or not, pastors don’t have all the answers to life's big questions.