Zach Lamberson was affirmed as our next Lead Pastor by a congregational vote on October 29. Zach and Christy have found a home in McMinnville and will be moving here in early December.

In our morning services on December 3 we will be ordaining and installing Zach as our Lead Pastor. Please join us at either 9 or 11 AM as we celebrate this special day!

Zach Lamberson has been recommended by the Pastoral Selection Team and Board as the candidate for our next Lead Pastor. The final step of our pastoral selection process will be a vote of the congregation to affirm Zach as the new Lead Pastor.

This vote of affirmation will be taken on Sunday, October 29, after each of the 9AM and 11AM services. Zach will be our speaker on the day of the vote.

1. What will we vote on?
The ballot asks for a “Yes” or “No” vote on the following question: “Do you affirm Zach Lamberson as the new Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel of McMinnville?”

2. Who is eligible to vote?
According to our Constitution and Bylaws, all “congregants” of CalvaryMac are eligible to vote. A “congregant” is defined in our bylaws as anyone who:
1. Acknowledges and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
2. Ascribes to the CalvaryMac Statement of Faith
3. Regularly attends services at CalvaryMac AND
4. Supports CalvaryMac financially on a regular basis
It will be up to each of you to decide whether you meet these criteria.

3. How will we vote?
Voting will be done by written ballot. We will keep a record of who participated in the vote, but not how individuals voted.

4. What is the required majority?
According to our Constitution and Bylaws, In order for the new Pastor to be confirmed, a simple majority (more than 50%) of the congregants voting must vote in favor.

5. What comes next?
If Zach is affirmed by a simple majority of the congregation and accepts the position, we will work with on a timeline for his movefrom Kennewick and his transition into the Lead Pastor role.
If Zach is not affirmed or does not accept the position, the Selection Team and Board will work together to decide which step of the selection process to return to.

If you are not able to be here in person on the 29th and would like to make other arrangements to vote, please make other arrangements by emailing search@calvarymac.com or calling the church office at 503-472-4245 ASAP. If you are going to be here on the 29th, please wait until then to vote.

After the voting has been completed on the 29th, we will count the votes and announce the results as soon as they are available. Anyone who would like to is invited to stay after the 11:00 service and hear the results.

We are pleased to announce that after much deliberation and prayer, the pastor selection team has invited Zach Lamberson to be presented to you as our nominee for Lead Pastor.

To recap Zach's ministry experience, Zach has been on staff at Calvary Tri-Cities in Kennewick WA for 18 years in a multitude of roles, and has most recently been leading their Young Adult ministry and their Worship ministry. He has a passion for teaching God's word and equipping and building up the church. We believe that Zach is the Lord’s choice for continuing the legacy of clear Bible teaching and faithful love for the people that which    has been the foundation of the pastorate here at Calvary for decades.

This has been a challenging decision because of the great strengths that we saw in each of our two finalists. We appreciate all of you that gave us input and feedback on both candidates. We reminded ourselves many times in the decision process that, just as it was when the Lord led Samuel to King David, we couldn’t judge only by our personal preferences or opinions, but needed to seek God’s heart in the matter. In the end we felt believe the Lord was leading the team to invite Zach and Christy, and we are excited that they have also felt called to accept the nomination.

Zach and Christy joined us in person at Calvary on Sunday for the announcement. You can watch their comments during the service here:

The team would like to express our deep appreciation to Stuart Smith, our other finalist, for the time, energy, and prayer that he put into this process, and we are praying for the great things we know God has for him and Shaana in the future. Likewise Stuart has asked us to share his thanks and let you know that he will be praying for CalvaryMac as we move forward.

The next and final step in our selection process is for the congregation to express their support for Zach as our lead pastor. We have scheduled the confirmation vote for the formal acceptance of Zach as our new pastor on October 29, which is two weeks from today. We'd like to emphasize that this is not just a formality; it's a binding vote, and to confirm the new pastor, it will require a “yes” vote from over 50 percent of those voting. We'd also like to remind you that this vote is not a choice between two candidates, but a vote to confirm the congregation's support for Zach as our next pastor. If the congregation votes to not confirm Zach, then the selection team will start over with the selection process.

As we shared several weeks ago, while we don't have an official membership roll, the affirmation of a new pastor is the one matter for which our bylaws call for a vote of the congregation. The criteria for being part of that process are laid out in our bylaws as including those who:

• Acknowledge and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
• Ascribe to the CalvaryMac Statement of Faith
• Regularly attend services at CalvaryMac AND
• Support CalvaryMac financially on a regular basis

If you meet all of those criteria then you are invited to be a part of the vote on October 29. It will be up to each of you to decide whether you meet all of these requirements (including deciding what regular financial support means to you). We are going to make one change from the information that was announced back in August. Instead of holding a special meeting after the 11:00 service on the 29th, we will have a time at the end of both services that Sunday where people can cast their vote. This should make it easier for more people to participate. We will make anonymous ballots available, and when the time comes to vote we will ask you to bring your ballot forward, record your name on a list, and drop your ballot in a box. The ballots will ask you to confirm that you meet the criteria for voting, and ask whether you affirm the call of Zach as our pastor.

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out! One way to reach us is by emailing search@calvarymac.com. Thank you all for your patience, prayers, and support as we have worked through this process, and we humbly request your continued prayers and support for the confirmation vote and the rest of the transition process.

You can find Stuart Smith's September 17 guest teaching as one of our Pastoral Candidates here: https://subspla.sh/j7rrr9s
We value your insights about these candidates. Please feel free to send your feedback about Stuart as a candidate to the selection team at search@calvarymac.com.

On September 17 it will be our pleasure to welcome Stuart Smith to teach at CalvaryMac as a Lead Pastor Candidate. Stuart has served in a variety of ministry roles in the last 18 years, and is currently serving as the Executive Director of Love INC of Clackamas County. Love INC is a national organization that helps mobilize and organize churches to work together to better serve their communities. In his two years at the Clackamas County chapter of Love INC, Stuart has been managing their daily operations, helping them re-establish their Mission and Vision after experiencing mission drift caused by the pandemic, and has provided organizational clarity, health, and direction.

From 2005-2015 Stuart served as Youth Pastor at Calvary Chapel Portland, where he discipled and led middle school and high school students, built and shaped a ministry team, and led local and international short-term missions trips. In 2015 he was called to attend Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (in Hungary), where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in theology in 2017. While working on his thesis for his degree, he also ministered in Italy, leading the English services at New Life Church in Verbania and discipling dozens of Nigerian refugees in camps around the area. After graduation, Stuart served for four years as Missions Pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver, WA, where he was responsible for overseeing, developing, and supporting their local and global outreach opportunities and teams, as well as assisting with other pastoral duties.

Stuart and his wife Shaana live in Vancouver with their son Seaver (20) and daughter Sophia (10). Sophia joined the family by adoption during their time in Hungary.

Stuart is passionate about bringing people closer to Jesus through loving them and teaching the Word, developing people’s skills and abilities, raising up and leading teams, and making disciples of all nations.

Check out one of Stuart’s messages at http://tinyurl.com/stuartcrossroads.

You can find Zach Lamberson's September 3 guest teaching as one of our Pastoral Candidates here: https://subspla.sh/2rmx9qn
We value your insights about these candidates. Please feel free to send your feedback about Zach as a candidate to the selection team at search@calvarymac.com.

Pastoral candidates will be teaching at CalvaryMac on September 3 and 17 as part of the interview process. Looking beyond that, the final step of our pastoral selection process will be a vote of the congregation to confirm the one candidate that is chosen by the Selection Team. While this is still several weeks away, we wanted to give some information about what that vote will look like.
1. When will the vote be taken?
The vote will happen at a special meeting of the congregation, probably after the 11:00 service on a selected Sunday. Notice of the meeting will be given at least two Sundays before the meeting takes place.
2. What will we vote on?
The question will be simple. Something like: "Do you affirm the calling of John Doe as the new Lead Pastor of Calvary Chapel of McMinnville?"
3. Who will be eligible to vote?
According to our Constitution and Bylaws, all congregants of CalvaryMac are eligible to vote. A congregant is anyone who:

• Acknowledges and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior 
• Ascribes to the CalvaryMac Statement of Faith
• Regularly attends services at CalvaryMac AND
• Supports CalvaryMac financially on a regular basis

It will be up to each of you to decide whether you meet all of these criteria. Only those attending the meeting in person will be able to vote.
4. How will we vote?
Voting will be done by written ballot. We will keep a record of who participated in the vote, but not how individuals voted.
5. What is the required majority?
According to our Constitution and Bylaws, In order for the new Pastor to be confirmed, a simple majority (more than 50%) of the congregants voting must vote in favor.

For more details on the CalvaryMac Statement of Faith, as well as ways that you can pray for the Pastor Selection Team and the chuch during this transition, click here.

Four weeks ago, right before the Bike Trip, we shared that the team was evaluating three candidates that had been through a first round of interviews. After much prayer and consideration, the team has decided to invite two of those candidates to the next step of the selection process. Personally, I am so excited about both of these candidates that I wish we could choose them both. Both of these men have a wealth of ministry and leadership experience, and appear to be ready for a Lead Pastor role. Each of them have visited CalvaryMac with their families for a Sunday service and worshipped with us, and each shared afterward that they loved their time with us.

The next step in the interview process is to have each of these men visit CalvaryMac for an interview weekend that will include being our teacher on a Sunday morning, spending time getting to know the staff, and doing an extended interview with the selection team. One candidate will be teaching on September 3, and the other on September 17.  September 10 will be our final outdoor service of the year, and our two candidates will be here the weekends before and after that, one on the 3rd and one on the 17th. On the Sunday before each candidate comes, we'll share their name and background information with you.

Remember that ultimately the selection team's task is to select one candidate that we believe is the Lord's choice for CalvaryMac, and present that one candidate to the congregation for a confirmation vote.  The upcoming candidate visits are the next step of the team's decision process. These are two candidates that the team feels may be a good fit for CalvaryMac, and that appear to be ready for the Lead Pastor role. But we still need to learn more about them, and they need to learn more about us. Bringing them here to teach and interview is just the next step in the process. Of course we'll be interested to hear what everyone thinks about these men when they come to teach, but to be clear, there will not be a vote of the congregation between two candidates. We also need to remember that teaching is just one of the roles that the new pastor will fill. He also needs to be a leader, a vision-setter, a mentor, a manager, a counselor, a comforter, and an administrator, among many other roles. What you see up front on Sunday is an important part of the picture, but it's not the whole picture. Apart from all of these qualifications, and above all else, our new pastor needs to be the one called by the Lord to this task.

As we walk through this process, our prayer is that the Lord will make His call certain to all of us, and that the choice will be abundantly obvious. None of us want to drag out this process, but we must patiently await God's timing and settle for nothing less than his perfect will. I assure you that everyone on the selection team is taking this duty very seriously and seeking God's will above all else in this process.

So be here! September 3, September 10, September 17...just be here all the Sundays! And keep praying for the selection team, the candidates, and the whole process. Let's continue to seek the Lord together and trust that he will lead us to where he wants us to be!

In the last few weeks the team has interviewed three strong candidates for the Lead Pastor position. We are currently in the process of deciding which candidates to invite to the next stage of the process, which will include having each of the candidates come and speak on a Sunday morning, as well as a more extensive interview with the team.
Once all of the candidates have gone through this process, the team will choose one candidate to present to the congregation for a vote of approval. In making this choice, we will be looking not only at their teaching ability, but also the other aspects of the Lead Pastor's responsibilities including leadership skills, counseling, management, etc. But even more than that, we will be seeking God's will for who He has chosen as our next pastor.
Please continue to pray for wisdom, unity, and direction for the team and for the candidates that are being considered.

Just a quick update this week to let you know that we have received applications from several candidates and are beginning to schedule some interviews. We will likely be scheduling several candidates to come and speak at CalvaryMac in the next couple of months. We will let you know as more details become available.
Please continue to pray for this process, that the Lord will make his selection clear to us as well as to the Pastor that He has selected for us!

At this morning's service we will be introducing and commissioning those that will be serving on our Pastoral Selection Team as we seek God's will for our next shepherd. The team met for the first time this week and kicked off the candidate search. Terry McNabb will now begin the process of reaching out to candidates he is already aware of, as well as pastors and other leaders that might know of possible candidates.
 
Terry will be vetting these candidates and doing preliminary interviews, and will present the top few candidates to the team. The team will then interview these top candidates and decide which ones to bring to CalvaryMac to meet our congregation and teach on a Sunday morning. As we bring candidates in we will be looking to all of you for feedback on each candidate.

Out of this process, we pray that a direction for our next pastor will be clear, and we will present a candidate to the congregation for a confirmation vote.

Those are the mechanics of the process, but more importantly we are trusting that the Lord will lead us to the next shepherd that he has for our body. We know that God has a future for CalvaryMac, and we submit ourselves to Him to bring it to pass.

In selecting individuals to serve on the selection team, our main criteria was to invite  people with godly wisdom who know and love CalvaryMac and who know and love the Lord. Of course, that left us with dozens and dozens of possible members, but as we sought the Lord we arrived at the following team for helping select the next shepherd for CalvaryMac.

Pastoral Selection Team

• Julie Bellows
• Dan Canfield
• Bobby Crowston
• Khalen Dunn
• Laura Johnson
• Gordon McCann
• Terry McNabb
• Daniel McNicholas
• Bruce Owen
• Wess Root
• Pat Tippens
• Doug Shugart
• Brian Van Cleave

We ask you to keep this team and the whole process in your prayers, as well as praying for our next pastor and his family, that the Lord would be preparing them for us!

Input for the team can be sent to search@calvarymac.com

The board has been at work kicking off the process of finding our next pastor. The Pastoral Selection Team is almost fully in place, and good progress is being made toward finishing the prospectus that Terry McNabb will use for finding and vetting candidates. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in this process

Initially we announced that Pastor Brian Van Cleave had agreed to be our teaching pastor for a 3-month interim period. Hawaiian Brian is doing a great job of faithfully bringing us the Word each week, and has agreed to continue in this interim role until our next Pastor is hired and installed. 

As we search for our new pastor, please pray for:

• Our Board and Pastoral Selection Team as we finalize the prospectus document
• Our next Pastor as the Lord prepares him for his future here with us
• Unity among our church body 
• Our staff and volunteers as they continue the work throughout the summer (VBS, Romania Trip, Bike Trip, etc.)

Terry McNabb from Poimen shared a great message this weekend on important characteristics of a healthy church. If you missed it you can find it here: https://calvarymac-1.subspla.sh/n3v7n64
Bulletin and sermon notes for the service can be found here: https://notes.subsplash.com/fill-in/view?page=pog0kmkO3f 

A quick, online-only update this week. We had Pastor Phil Evans from Poimen Ministries here for several days last week to do a ministry assessment, taking a top-to-bottom look at our operations, facilities, and ministries in order to help us chart the best path moving forward. We expect to have his report soon.

We will be meeting with Terry McNabb from Poimen this week to finalize the plan for the pastoral search, and should have details to share on that next week.

We know that the Lord already has a plan for who our next pastor will be. Please be praying for him and his family, and pray for guidance for us as we seek God’s will. We are thankful for each of you that are standing with us in prayer through this process. We invite you all to join us again this Wednesday the 26th at 7 pm for an evening of worship and prayer in the Auditorium.

Just a quick update this week.

• I don't plan to get up next week and do an update on Easter Sunday, so as not to distract from that special day.
• Last week I mentioned that we were planning to have Poimen Ministries come soon and do a ministry assessment here at Calvary. That visit has been scheduled for mid-April.
• Thanks to all of you that attended the night of Worship and Prayer this last Wednesday. We had a good turnout, with about 60 people in attendance, and I think it was a really good time of emotional healing for a lot of people and a great time of prayer for our future. 

We are praying that you all will be blessed as you celebrate our Savior in the coming week, and thank you all for your prayers and support during this time.

As we walk through this transition and seek God’s will for the future of this church, prayer has never been more important than it is now. This Wednesday night we will be bringing back our monthly night of Praise and Prayer. Please come at 7:00 on Wednesday for a time of worship, prayer for the direction of this church, and the opportunity to pray over one another. And of course we have a time of prayer every Thursday night at 6:30 in the Prayer Room.

A few of you have asked about the process for choosing and installing our next pastor. What we know from our bylaws is that we will appoint a search committee consisting of the board plus additional members. The search committee will recommend a candidate who then must be confirmed by the Board, after which he must be confirmed at a meeting of the congregation by a majority vote. That’s what’s called for in the bylaws…of course there will be some more steps in the process such as having candidates come and teach and meet you.

As I mentioned last week we are working with a group called Poimen Ministries to help us through the transition, and one of the things they can do is help us write up a pastoral prospectus which describes the church, the community, and our ideal candidate, and assist us with getting the word out to the Calvary Chapel community about our need for a new pastor.
Another thing we are going to ask Poimen to do in a few weeks is to come in and do a detailed assessment of the ministry here, which will help us identify what to look for in a new pastor, as well as help our new pastor understand the strengths and weaknesses of our church.
Please, if you have questions or concerns about any of this, come talk to me or any of us on the board. You can also send an email to us at board@calvarymac.com.

This weekend Terry McNabb from Poimen is here with us…yesterday afternoon he met the board and the staff, and he’s with us this morning to get to know our church a little better. Terry was the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Portland from 1993 until about 6 years ago, when he joined Poimen to offer support and coaching to Calvary pastors. We are excited to have Terry available to help coach us through this process.

This Sunday we asked Terry to share some words of encouragement with the congregation: https://www.youtube.com/live/mzN0BZqWzHk?feature=share&t=1060