Pastoral Transition Weekly Update
Most of you are aware that Pastor Brian's resignation as Lead Pastor of CalvaryMac was announced on March 19. This resignation was fully supported by the church board and staff. We are sad that this has happened, but it did happen. While Brian will no longer be our pastor, we hope to see him return to another teaching ministry after a period of rest and restoration. To assist with this, we will be providing Brian with several months of severance pay and pastoral coaching sessions, as well as a marriage retreat focused on couples in ministry.
Please understand that the board has done our best over the last few weeks to balance the interests and needs of all of the parties involved, but we acknowledge that there are things that we could have done better along the way, and we apologize for anything that has caused unnecessary grief or hardship. Throughout the coming months we will be working hard to rebuild any trust that has been shaken.
For the near future, Pastor Brian Van Cleave will be our primary teacher on Sunday mornings. This week Brian V is taking a Sunday off to recover from carpal tunnel surgery, so Gordon McCann will be our teacher this morning.
We want to make sure to keep you as up-to-date as possible on the pastoral transition process. We have added a page to the website specifically for updates on the process, and will be making regular announcements about our activities and progress.
This week we have had several meetings with a representative from a group called Poimen Ministries. Poimen (which is the New Testament Greek word for Shepherds) is a group of retired Calvary pastors who serve churches in many ways, including helping churches walk through transitions like this. Because all Calvary Chapels are independent, there is not a denominational organization to "send us a new pastor". But Poimen Ministries has a lot of resources to help us during this time, and we are so excited to have their help. The particular representative we're working with is Terry McNabb, who was the Lead Pastor of Calvary Chapel Portland for 25 years, and for the last 6 years has been helping strengthen pastors and churches as part of Poimen Ministries. He has been a friend of Dan Bellows and of our former Lead Pastor Ron Smith. He is also related by marriage to our own Christa Jackson! Terry is well acquainted with walking with churches through pastoral transitions, and is ready to assist us in whatever ways we need him. We're very excited to have Terry as an experienced Calvary Chapel resource to assist us through this transition and will be having more discussions in the next week about how exactly he can help us.
Please understand that the board has done our best over the last few weeks to balance the interests and needs of all of the parties involved, but we acknowledge that there are things that we could have done better along the way, and we apologize for anything that has caused unnecessary grief or hardship. Throughout the coming months we will be working hard to rebuild any trust that has been shaken.
For the near future, Pastor Brian Van Cleave will be our primary teacher on Sunday mornings. This week Brian V is taking a Sunday off to recover from carpal tunnel surgery, so Gordon McCann will be our teacher this morning.
We want to make sure to keep you as up-to-date as possible on the pastoral transition process. We have added a page to the website specifically for updates on the process, and will be making regular announcements about our activities and progress.
This week we have had several meetings with a representative from a group called Poimen Ministries. Poimen (which is the New Testament Greek word for Shepherds) is a group of retired Calvary pastors who serve churches in many ways, including helping churches walk through transitions like this. Because all Calvary Chapels are independent, there is not a denominational organization to "send us a new pastor". But Poimen Ministries has a lot of resources to help us during this time, and we are so excited to have their help. The particular representative we're working with is Terry McNabb, who was the Lead Pastor of Calvary Chapel Portland for 25 years, and for the last 6 years has been helping strengthen pastors and churches as part of Poimen Ministries. He has been a friend of Dan Bellows and of our former Lead Pastor Ron Smith. He is also related by marriage to our own Christa Jackson! Terry is well acquainted with walking with churches through pastoral transitions, and is ready to assist us in whatever ways we need him. We're very excited to have Terry as an experienced Calvary Chapel resource to assist us through this transition and will be having more discussions in the next week about how exactly he can help us.