Dear UBC members and attendees,
On February 2, members of University Baptist Church met in person and via Zoom to talk about searching for our next pastor. This followed Brett Harris’s January 27 notice to the church family of his intent to resign. The meeting was very well attended, and there was good discussion.
The intent of this letter is to inform any members who could not attend the question-and-answer session or struggled to hear via Zoom and to remind those who did attend.
First up was a clarification of what the Constitution and Bylaws (C&BL) say about pastor and employee searches. You may not be aware that the Policy & Procedures Committee forwarded a revised C&BL to the Deacons in December 2021, and this document had a first reading at the January 26 business meeting. I suggested, and it was accepted, I believe, that we will operate under the assumption that the new version will be approved by the membership and that we can and should use it for our guidelines. There is a portion that will directly impact how we select our Pastor Search Committee in that when the General Nominating Committee presents its proposed slate to the membership, we will vote the proposed slate up or down. We will not vote for individual slate members. The General Nominating Committee will offer seven Search members and the church membership may propose up to three more for a possible maximum of ten members on the Pastor Search Committee. More information to follow.
We discussed that we are searching for a Senior Pastor, not an Associate Pastor as had been the plan until Brett’s announcement that he was leaving as Pastor. (There will be a meeting of the deacons on Thursday, February 10, to charge the General Nominating Committee accordingly.)
The conversation quickly turned to the need to hire a Church Administrator to:
- Support Brett as long as he remains here.
- Make the position of Senior Pastor more attractive to possible candidates.
- Provide continuity of our operation when a new Senior Pastor arrives.
UBC has not had a church administrator since Russell Lott resigned; administrative duties had been split between our two co-pastors. Since Kat Kimmel’s resignation in summer 2021, all these duties have fallen to Brett. We briefly covered that there is no budget line to provide for an administrator. There will need to be more discussion on this.
There was a lot of discussion about who we needed first, the Senior Pastor or the Administrator. (For a point of information, Russell Lott has clarified that he cannot fill the administrator position as an interim but appreciates that we thought he did a good job when he was there.) We agreed to look to fill both slots concurrently, with the Personnel Committee conducting the search for the church administrator. Due to the nature of the searches, the administrator position will probably be easier and quicker to fill.
According to some media articles, there are a lot of pastors looking for new church homes; however, there are also many churches looking for new pastors. UBC has some advantages in this respect. We are NOT a church in crisis. We recently spent time in a series of discussions envisioning our future. The membership is not “squabbling”—to say it nicely. We do not have any debt and have, so far, come through COVID financially sound. Also, we have several excellent ministries and missions that are well supported and say a lot about our commitment to Christian beliefs.
The Q and A ended with a reading of UBC’s Church Covenant from our Constitution. That text describes an excellent means for us to remain a community NOT in crisis.
ARTICLE Iv. Church Covenant
Having surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ, we unite in our walks of faith for mutual strength and growth that others might come to know God. We observe the ordinance of baptism as a testimony of faith, and we accept the baptisms of other faith traditions. We observe the ordinance of communion as an act of worship, and we welcome all people to the Lord’s table. We agree to respect our differences as we discuss and live out our Christian faith. We commit to worship the living God both publicly and privately, and to help those with spiritual and material needs within our church fellowship, our community, and all the world. We dedicate ourselves to be meaningful witnesses to our relationship with God and to the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayerfully studying the Bible as the inspired record of God’s revelation. We recognize that the church is the people of God involved in the mission and ministries of Christ, and we pledge to be faithful stewards of our time, talents, and possessions through this church. We promise to translate our beliefs into beneficial action, be honest with each other, care for each other, pray for and with each other, appreciate differences in personalities, and proclaim the love of God in Jesus Christ.
The Deacons, General Nominating Committee, and Personnel Committee have already or will meet within the next few weeks and keep the ball moving. We will keep the membership informed as well as possible, and we welcome your questions and concerns.
Dallas
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