Thank you for all of your prayers for the Senior Pastor Search Team and for our church over the last eight months. While this period has been challenging for many reasons it has also been a time where we have learned to wholeheartedly rely on God’s wisdom and guidance because we know that our own wisdom falls short.
As you may recall from my last update I mentioned we were done with first round interviews and had three second round candidates. Over the last month we continued interviewing these three individuals. We loved the energy and enthusiasm for evangelism that the first candidate showed but when we dug into his background further we realized he lacked some organizational skills and ability to manage many projects and staff at one time. We decided he would not be the right fit for Cross of Glory at this time.
Next we interviewed our second candidate who was Pastor Mark Ostlie. He had been in the search process from the beginning and was now a finalist candidate. We had a great discussion around his hopes for COG and how he could help drive an updated vision to reach our community while also working to engage with those who have been distanced from our church due to COVID. He wanted to find ways to meet their current spiritual needs while being ready to welcome them back to church when the time is right. We could see the passion and love he displayed for all of us that he interacts with on a daily basis at our church. After this interview the Search Team again met and prayed for God’s will to be done, for clear direction, unity, and clarity on who God was calling to this role.
Our final candidate was another strong pastor who we had enjoyed hearing from and getting to know in the first round. We were excited to hear from him again and dive deeper into his background and explore his ministry potential at Cross of Glory, but ultimately God had other plans.
The weekend before our interview, this pastor contacted us and let us know he and his wife had been seeking God’s will for their ministry and had decided God was calling them to withdraw from consideration for this role. The search team proceeded to meet anyway during the time we intended to interview this candidate. All of us were feeling God had clearly and unequivocally answered our prayers. We voted and unanimously agreed to present Pastor Mark as our recommendation to become the next Senior Pastor at Cross of Glory.
Thank you again for all of your prayers throughout this process. We greatly appreciated your thoughts and words of encouragement. Now we need to continue to pray God will work His will through our church and look for ways that each of us can be open to His calling.
Timeline of future events for you to be aware of and participate in as you are able.
• Week of 2/22/2021 - Ballots are mailed to Church Members’ homes. They should be arriving early in the week so please complete and return them to our church office as soon as possible
• Saturday 2/27/2021 – All church zoom meeting at 10am to get to know Pastor Mark and Family and ask questions of the Search Team. Please follow this link to access the call https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83521629732
• Friday 3/5/2021 – Ballots are due back to Church to be counted
• Sunday 3/14/2021 – We will have a Celebration Sunday announcing the results of the vote and presumably confirming Pastor Mark as our next Senior Pastor