Calling an Associate Pastor of Community Life

On Sunday, July 12, Central will vote on calling Adrienne Osborne as our new Associate Pastor of Community Life. Come for a meet and greet during Coffee Break at 10:30am, then join us for worship as she shares more about herself. Continue reading below for info about how we connected with Adrienne and discovered this unique opportunity.

For a few months now, Central has been seeking a Family Ministry Assistant. After announcing the position, as I checked my email, always on the lookout for applications, I was excited to see an email from Mark Snipes, Coordinator of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, connecting me with Adrienne Osborne. According to Mark, Adrienne was a gifted minister and someone I should talk with, as she was already planning to move to Richmond. Could this be a candidate for this new position?

I contacted Adrienne, and after a few emails back and forth, set up a Zoom meeting. We were only a few minutes into our meeting when she shared that she actually had little interest in being a Family Ministry Assistant. Her passion was pastoral care and ministering to senior adults and she had quite a bit of experience serving her current congregation in those areas.

She was curious why Mark would have connected us, seeing as she had little interest in leading a family ministry. I said that I completely understood, but would like to continue the conversation, just to explore what opportunities may be in front of us. We decided to continue our meeting and continued discussing her specific interests and Central’s various needs. 

I shared about our church, our vision and values, who we are, who we want to be, and everything else that makes us unique. She shared more about her interest, experiences, and accomplishments, and by the end of the hour, we both were brainstorming new ideas and ministries that Adrienne could hypothetically help start and lead here at Central.

This entire conversation had honestly taken me by surprise. While we hadn’t been searching for a Minister of Community Life, and currently have John White serving our Pastoral Care needs, I couldn’t help but feel that Adrienne could be an asset for our church. Not only is she gifted in pastoral care, I could tell that she is creative and an out of the box thinker.

Feeling confident about the possibilities, I contacted the Personnel Team chairs, Virginia Gregory and Nickole Kaufman, and informed them that I had just met with a minister who could possibly be a real asset to our congregation. They decided they wanted to talk with her as well, so we emailed Adrienne indicating our interest. 

At this point, I continued with my planning for Sunday and pushed it to the back of my mind. But the following Sunday, as I stood up to do announcements, I did a double take as I saw Adrienne sitting in the back of the sanctuary with her family. I honestly was so surprised that I ended up fumbling through the last announcement, trying to maintain my composure as I continued to wonder why she was here only three days after our meeting (she was actually here for a house tour).

Nobody knew that I had just had a conversation with her about potentially joining our staff, but after the service, I watched our congregation welcome her with open arms. As I greeted her on her way out, she told me, “Justin, this is one of the most welcoming and warm congregations I’ve been to! Let’s keep talking about the possibilities.”

Adrienne was going to be in town for a few days, so the Personnel chairs and I took the opportunity to grab coffee one afternoon with Adrienne to continue the conversation. After an hour of discussion, Virginia and Nickole shared my sentiment, so we decided to bring in Adrienne for a formal interview with the entire Personnel Team, who are now recommending Adrienne to become our new Associate Pastor for Community Life. 

Later, I’ll give Adrienne the opportunity to introduce herself, both in person during worship on July 12th, as well as here on the website. 

But, what I can tell you is that Adrienne is a warm, inviting, and caring individual who I believe will be a great addition to our staff. Not only that, but after spending some time with her last week at the General Assembly for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I can tell you that she has a great personality and is a lot of fun to be around. If you see Adrienne or her family, please welcome them, introduce yourself, and then come to worship on July 12 to officially affirm her as our new Associate Pastor of Community Life.