As you all know, we are in the process of discernment regarding our next pastor at Marshall Presbyterian. This process is uniquely Presbyterian and prayerful. To that end, we requested our transitional pastor, Rev. Merriam Alexander, to write some words to help us all better understand this process. Currently, we are at the very beginning stages: we will shortly be appointing the Mission Study Team, which is the very first tangible step in the process of embarking upon our Search. Merri wrote the following letter to our congregation, shared with you all below.
As you will read, the primary action we are asking for at this time is "to be diligent in prayer for the work of the Session, the Mission Study Team, and the Pastor Nominating Committee members." Prayer is an action step, and one that we must not minimize or skip over. "Nothing to do but pray," is often what we say when we feel powerless to take any action. But prayer is an action, a very powerful one indeed. Please join us as we continue to pray for God to lead us in discernment. We promise to keep you all updated as we move through this journey together.
July 25, 2024
Dear Friends in Christ,
Thank you for your gracious and warm welcome as your part-time transitional pastor at Marshall Presbyterian Church. It has been a joy for me to get to know you a bit as a congregation, to work with your outstanding Session, and to enjoy learning about the ministry here through our Sandwich Session Sundays we’ve enjoyed so far.
One of the burning questions on everybody’s mind is about finding your next pastor. As Presbyterians, we have a process which we follow in our pastoral search that does take some time but is well worth it in the long run. In fact, these “Sandwich Sessions” Sunday conversations have been our first step in that direction. The information gathered as people answered the questions when we met will be valuable to the Mission Study Team when they begin to write the church’s Mission Study Report (MSR). That document describes Marshall Presbyterian Church’s ministry as you look to the future and begin to discern God’s call to this congregation for the coming decades of ministry. Once the Mission Study Report is written and approved by the Session, it goes to the Presbytery of Western North Carolina for approval.
Our next step will be for the congregation to elect a Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC). It is the PNC that carries out the actual search for the pastor on behalf of the congregation. Their first task is to develop what is called the church’s Ministry Discernment Profile (MDP), which when completed and approved by the Session goes to the Presbytery of WNC for approval. When approved, the MDP is submitted to our PCUSA office in Louisville, KY where it is matched by computer with the personal discernment profiles of ministers who are active call seekers. The PNC will carefully review all the forms it receives, and the members will discern together the candidates they wish to talk with by zoom or in-person and will set aside those they believe are not a good fit for MPC. That process will continue until the PNC finds the right person God is calling to be the next pastor for the Marshall Presbyterian congregation. At that point the PNC notifies the Presbytery of WNC of this find. The Presbytery does its work of due diligence, background checks, and examining the candidate on their journey of faith, faith statement, theology, polity, bible, etc. Once the Marshall PNC receives the go-ahead from the Presbytery of WNC, the Session will call a congregational meeting to recommend to the congregation the candidate the PNC believes is the person God has called to serve the Marshall Presbyterian congregation as you move forward in your ministry here. The congregation will vote on the recommendation of the PNC to call the candidate. Assuming the vote is affirmative (and hopefully unanimous), the call is officially extended to the pastor, who is installed as your new pastor.
The steps of our search process. We are only beginning the first step!
As you might imagine, this process can take a bit of time! Generally, it takes at least a year and can sometimes take longer. It really depends on how quickly the Mission Study Team does its work and how quickly the Pastor Nominating Committee does its work.
The most important thing the congregation can do during this process is to be diligent in prayer for the work of the Session, the Mission Study Team, and the Pastor Nominating Committee members. The work they do is vital to the life and future of this congregation’s ministry in Marshall and Madison County.
I hope this is a helpful description for the work that is ahead. I am delighted to talk with you at any time about the process and answer questions you may have. In the meantime, we will still worship together, study together, pray together, sing together, and serve God together!
Grace and peace,
Merri
