GPC News
Major Milestone in Calling a New Pastor: Our Church Information Form (CIF) is Approved!
On January 30, 2010, we reached a major milestone in our process of searching for and calling a new pastor.
During the Fall of 2009, the session conducted a congregational Mission Study, holding a number of small-group meetings so that all members who wanted to offer input could have opportunities to do so. Based on that input, the session crafted a Mission Study statement and presented it to the congregation for approval. It was approved by the congregation, then submitted to Presbytery's Committee on Ministry, which also approved it.
That paved the way for forming our Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC), which began its work in December, 2009.. The PNC worked through January to craft a Church Information Form (CIF), guided by the Mission Study. Near the end of January the PNC presented the CIF to the session for approval. Session approved it, and it then went to Presbytery's Committee on Ministry (COM) for final approval. COM formally approved it during the Presbytery meeting of January 30, 2010.
The PNC has posted the approved CIF in the Church Leadership Connection of the PC(USA) website. Posting the CIF there is, in effect, an "official" invitation for potentially interested candidates for the GPC Pastor position to contact us to apply for consideration. The formal process for doing this is that candidates study our CIF and, if interested in applying, responds by sending his or her Personal Information Form to our Pastor Nominating Committee.
As of mid-February, we have received over 40 PIFs. The PNC will continue to carefully review them and will communicate with candidates who appear to be a potential good match for our church. Eventually the PNC will narrow the search down to a single candidate, who will be presented to the congregation for approval. This part of the process is expected to take at least 6 to 9 months.