Sunday, August 22, 2010

Commissioning of Nathan Brand as Senior Pastor of Berean Community Church

The elders (Bob, Joel, Kelly, Jay, John) and Nathan and Carrie and their girls come to the stage together around the podium.

John Young speaks: "Today is a day that has been prayerfully anticipated by us as a church and by many others both far and near who care in particularly special ways for our local assembly. Today is an exciting day for us as a church family.

A little more than a year ago, God began to move in new ways among us at Berean. As he called families to enter into mission around the globe, he called others to serve in new and challenging ways here in Rochester. And he began the process of bring Nathan Brand to Berean Community Church in Rochester, MN to minister with us by leading among us.

This calling was confirmed in many ways: through the work of the search committee, through the testimony of many brothers and sisters in Christ who have served alongside of Nathan, through Berean's prayerful listening to the Holy Spirit, and through God's own hand at work in the heart and life of Nathan and his family as well as among us at Berean.

Today as elders we are excited to formally welcome and confirm Nathan Brand in the role of senior pastor of Berean Community Church and to prayerfully commission him to the work God has prepared for him and called him to as senior pastor."

Jay Larson reads the letter from Mike Wolfe, our Berean Fellowship District Leader.

Dear Friends at Berean Community Church,

Today is a great day for your church family. I know, interacting with your elders, that both they and many of you have prayed fervently regarding God's provision of your new senior pastor. And God has answered.

As the district leader for the Heartland District of the Berean Fellowship, I am thrilled to know that Nathan Brand and his wife and family are in place, by God's design, to serve and lead you. I am thrilled to know that all of you are in place, by God's design, to serve and lead one another - Pastor Nathan included. 1 Corinthians 12:8 - God has placed each member in the Body just as He designed.

Your brothers and sisters in the Berean Fellowship rejoice with you at this momentous occasion. Even though we may seem far away, we are with you in Spirit and praying for God's continuing blessing on each of you and His use of each of you to build His Kingdom in Rochester and beyond.

God bless you.

Mike Wolfe
Heartland District Leader
Plattsmouth Bible Church
Plattsmouth, Nebraska

Joel Kuhlman speaks: "When Nathan accepted the call to become senior pastor at Berean, he agreed to a covenant which included a commitment to provide spiritual leadership with a clear conscience before God, to maintain the qualifications of a spiritual leader as given in I Timothy 3, to promote a spirit of unity within his church, and to live a life that can serve as a godly example to others.

As a church, Nathan, we desire to also enter into a covenant with you and with your family. As representatives and leaders of Berean Community Church, we commit as a church to obey the teaching of the Apostles Peter and Paul who were filled with the Spirit of Christ:

• To honor you, as you are laboring to preach and teach (as taught by Paul in 1 Timothy 5:17-19).
• To love you and your family, as we do ourselves and each other, as members of the family of believers (as taught by Peter in 1 Peter 2:17).
• To speak good of you and your family, not evil, showing every courtesy and kindness in our words (as taught by Paul in Titus 3:2).
• To serve you and your family with whatever gift each of us has received from the Spirit, as we do all members of our church family (as taught by Peter in 1 Peter 4:7-10).
• In the presence of God we commit ourselves to these things with all the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things and in us as a church, through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:11)."

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Dear Congregation,

Nathan Brand has accepted the call by Berean to come and serve as senior pastor. Nathan plans to be in Rochester by early August to help his family get settled and moved in as well as to ramp up for the coming ministry year. Nathan plans to be in the pulpit beginning August 22 as we head into the fall.

The Elders

Monday, May 24, 2010

The members of Berean voted last night to call Nathan Brand as the next Senior Pastor of Berean Community Church.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dear Berean Family,

Friday, May 7, 2010

Dear Church Family,

After many months of effort and much prayer, the elders are pleased to announce that we have selected Nathan Brand to invite to Berean this month for an official candidating visit for the position of Senior Pastor.

Nathan and his wife Carrie, along with their three young girls, live in North Platte, Nebraska, where Nathan is on staff as Associate Pastor of Worship and Small Groups at Bethel Church.

The Brands will be here the weekend of May 22-23 and Nathan will be preaching that Sunday. There will be a congregational meeting on Sunday evening, May 23, to vote on extending a call to Nathan.

We will be making more detailed information available in the coming days, including a web page where you can learn more about Nathan and his family and listen to a few of his messages. But we at least wanted to let you all know of this significant milestone as we continue to follow the Lord's direction in seeking a new Senior Pastor.

In Christ,

The Berean Elders

Sunday, April 25, 2010

It has been a month since we last brought an elder update to the congregation, so this morning we wanted to just briefly share how things have been progressing with the senior pastor search process.

At the end of March we shared our excitement about having 4 applicants presented to the elders by the search committee. We decided to pursue 2 of those applicants as possible candidates for senior pastor here at Berean. While the process shifted to being elder-led, we continued to rely on the search committee for help with some tasks and with evaluating the potential candidates by being present in some of the interviews.

Since the end of March we have completed multiple phone interviews and an extensive in-person interview with each man. We have interviewed numerous references and listened to a lot of sermons! Through all of this, we have developed a strong sense of who each man is and how they have been uniquely gifted and shaped by God.

We are now quickly moving towards deciding on the 1 man we will call to candidate for the senior pastor position here at Berean. Our desire is to have this decision finalized and the person brought before you, the congregation, in late May or June. More announcements in the weeks ahead will be forthcoming as we firm up those dates.

The elders want to express our deep gratitude to the search committee for their tremendous work; sacrificing many, many hours; and prayerfully giving the entire process over to God. It wasn’t until just last month that I learned that they actually had a whole separate team of people they had asked to be devoted to praying for them and the search – a team made up of many of you. So thank you Scott and Leah, Becky, Tom, Patti, and Joel. Scott and Leah and Becky, after tomorrow night, you can finally tell your kiddos that “no, there is no meeting Monday night”.

We also want to thank all of you, for your many words of encouragement and support and for standing with us in prayer. As we enter this final phase, please continue to do so and even more, in the weeks ahead, as we come to a final decision and call one of these men to come and candidate.

Be in prayer for each of these candidates as well. While both are strong in faith, solid in doctrine, and demonstrate many of the skills we believe are important, they each clearly would bring their own style and approach to ministry. As leaders we are excited by the changes that God will bring about through each man’s uniqueness, and encourage everyone to be open to the new possibilities that a new pastor will bring.

Thank you again for your patience and prayers during this interim period. I must admit that I am not one to quickly recognize God’s hand leading in circumstances. I think many of us, me included, are constantly tempted to view our lives from a perspective that believes that the only forces at play are our own ability to reason and act. But during the last 9 months, I have sensed God’s presence and leadership at work among us elders, the search committee, the directors, and the congregation in a way that I haven’t sensed before at Berean. We are very excited for the days ahead of Berean and covet your continued prayer. We encourage you to speak to any one of us regarding any specific questions you might have.

John Young for the Elders

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dear Congregation,

During the last several months, the search committee has been diligently working towards developing a list of recommended applicants for the position of senior pastor to deliver to the elders. Originally they had planned to finalize this list in June, but in early March they presented four applicants to the elders. Since that time the search committee and the elders have decided to further pursue two of the men recommended.

Current Status of Search Process

We are very excited to be at this stage in the process and we wish to express our deep gratitude to the search committee for their tremendous effort in prayerfully and diligently working towards presenting these men to the elders.

The search committee has now transitioned the process to the elders to take the lead in further evaluating the men they have recommended to us. While they will continue to provide support to the elders during the continued process, the next steps will be elder-led.

Next Steps

In-Person Interviews

The elders have invited both men and their families to visit us for additional in-person interviews. These interviews will be taking place over the next several weeks.

We will not be formally introducing these men nor will they be speaking at Berean on the weekends they visit. These visits are in-person interviews, not formal candidating trips. However, we wanted to let you know that these visits were occurring.

Calling a Single Person to Candidate

Candidate status signifies that we are considering an applicant for the role of senior pastor. We will only have one man candidating at a time, and we will ask that man to also singularly candidate with us rather than with multiple churches at the same time. If we do not decide to call the man to be the senior pastor, or they decide not to accept a call to be senior pastor, then they will be free to pursue other ministries and we will be free to candidate another applicant.

While we do not yet know if we will invite one of these men to eventually come and candidate at Berean, if that were to occur, a formal announcement would be made to the congregation. At that time we would publicly announce the candidate and begin the process of introducing them to the congregation. A candidating trip would occur in which the candidate and their family would return for a second visit during which time they would be publicly announced and would preach on a Sunday morning at Berean.

Calling a Senior Pastor

Upon an affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of the elder board (according to our constitution), the candidate will be presented to the congregation for a vote.

Upon an affirmative three-fourths vote of the members of Berean, a call shall be extended to the candidate to come and serve as senior pastor.

Conclusion

We are excited to be at this stage of the process. We do not know what God has in store yet, but we are excited to be crossing the threshold into these next steps with these two men.

Please be in continued prayer for the search committee, the elders, and these two men and their families. Ask that God would confirm in all of our hearts his desires for us as his church and his people.

On behalf of the elders,

John Young

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday, January 10, the elders shared the following elder update.

Ministry Updates

Pastoral Ministry

Last month we shared that we would be concluding the interim pastor role that Mark Struck has filled the last 5 months. We again want to express our thanks and gratitude to Mark for serving as interim pastor this past year.

The elders and Kelly have completed the transition to overseeing the three key areas we have been focusing on from an elder perspective: staff leadership, preaching ministry, and pastoral care and oversight.

During the week you can continue to call the office or you can contact Kelly directly to get in touch with him regarding pastoral matters. The elders also continue to be available as well.

Our preaching schedule in the months ahead will include Kelly as one of our primary speakers. Kevin Block will be speaking on a Sunday in February as he and Pam and Micah preparing to leave for Mongolia. We will also have Steve Dawson from Camp Victory speaking for 4 weeks during February and March, before Kelly steps back into the pulpit to preach taking us into April. Throughout the months ahead on occasional weeks when Kelly has other commitments on a Sunday morning, we will also hear from a couple men from the congregation. We are already in dialog with each of these men, and we are excited to see how God will encourage and bless us through their preaching.

Office Staff

We also wanted to let you know that Marcia Gehrt has taken on Pam Block’s role as the Office Manager as of the first of the year. Marcia has been working part-time in the office for the last couple years. We are very excited about Marcia stepping in to this role.

Elder Terms and Nominations

At the end of this year the elder board terms of Bob Bandy, Dave Alderman, and Ryan Miller came to an end. Please join us in thanking them for their service and sacrifice these last 3 years. They have each brought spiritual insight and valuable perspectives to the elder board. As we approach the end of our ministry year this summer, we will be looking to add 1 more, at most 2, elders to the elder board. Our desire is to stagger the terms a little more, so we have fewer elders going off and coming on at any given time. Please be praying for us as elders as we prayerfully consider future elders, and for those men themselves. Jay Larson, Joel Kuhlmann, Bob Scott, and John Young will continue to serve as elders during 2010.

Search Committee

Finally, continue to be in prayer for the search committee. They have received about 20 resumes now. A couple members of the team have expressed being encouraged and excited by the quality of the candidates they are seeing. Pray that they will be able to communicate effectively and graciously with the candidates as the search committee works to better know the candidates and as the candidates come to better know us and what we are looking for. Pray for spiritual wisdom, discernment, and unity as the team works through the volume of information they get back from candidates.

Upcoming Events

There are two upcoming events we wanted to briefly highlight.

Block Celebration

On Friday, February 5 at 6:30 PM here at Berean, we will be having an evening to say goodbye to the Blocks before they leave for Mongolia. We will have dinner and a program following. Don’t forget to pick up your free tickets available in the foyer to help the team planning the food. We invite everyone to attend to say goodbye and bless the Blocks as they prepare to leave.

Semi-Annual Meeting

Finally, we wanted to remind everyone of our semi-annual meeting Sunday evening, January 31. We will be looking at the past 6 months of this ministry year, we will be looking forward to the future and the exciting things we believe God has in store, and we will be having some time to openly share and dialog as a church family. Please come and join us for this important meeting. We are planning to have childcare available for infants and toddlers.

Conclusion

Thank you for your continued prayer, not just for us as elders, but also for the staff, the directors, and the search team. It is encouraging to hear, as I have several times these past several weeks, that people ARE praying and hoping and growing excited. God is faithful and he will continue to see us through to the other side of this period in the life of our church family. He is faithful to us every day: in prayers prayed for another, in words of encouragement, in tears of empathy, in hugs of care, and in smiles of joy and hope shared among brothers and sisters here at Berean.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday, December 13, the elders shared the following elder update.

Senior Pastor Search Process

- The search process is underway.

- We formed the Search Committee in October.

- They have been meeting and preparing to publicly post the senior pastor position soon.

- The search committee held a very profitable forum Sunday night, December 6. We wish to express our thanks to the Search Committee for doing such a great job with the forum.

- The Search Committee, led by Scott Bancroft, is very interested in your questions and feedback, so please don’t hesitate to contact them (at staffing@bereancc.org).

Interim Pastor Role

- We also wanted to update you on the interim pastor role.

- We created a temporary interim pastor role in August to aid the elders in the areas of staff leadership, preaching, and pastoral care. We had planned to begin to ramp the position down in October, but with Mark Struck’s agreement, we extended the role past the end of this year to continue to assist the elders in these areas.

- I think I speak for not just the elders but the entire congregation by expressing our thanks and gratitude for the preaching and leadership Mark has provided in this role. We have been greatly benefited and blessed these last several months.

- In mid-January, we will be bringing the interim pastor role to a close instead of extending it even further. With the search process well underway, the elders taking on more aspects of staff leadership, and a small group of qualified men able to preach being formed, this will allow Mark to be able to step back into the congregation and continue his pursuit of working with an international mission organization.

Financial Update

- From a financial perspective, we also believe it is necessary to proceed with our plan to wrap up the interim pastor role in January in order to help ensure the long term sustainability of Berean.

- The elders sent out a letter to the congregation in November regarding our financial status. We rejoice that so many who call Berean their church family continue to give generously and faithfully.

- As we move into next year, we anticipate being able to begin to close the gap between our expenses and giving, but it will admittedly take some time to shore up our overall finances. Our desire is to continue to faithfully and carefully steward the funds that are given for use in ministry here at Berean. Thank you for continuing to consider how God is leading you to give not just of your resources, but also of your time and yourself, to minister to others in our church family as well as in our neighborhoods, our places of work, and our communities.

Please continue to pray not just for the elders, but also the pastors, the ministry directors, and the search committee. As always, the elders are open and available to answer questions you may have, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and God’s peace and joy this time of year.

On behalf of the elders,

John Young

Berean Community Church

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Dear Church Family,

I had hoped to give this update in church this past Sunday, but sickness hit our family this past weekend and kept me from being able to share this elder update in person.

Search Committee

The elders are excited to report that the Search Committee membership has been finalized and we held our first meeting with the team on October 5 to kick off the search process.

The search committee is comprised of the following individuals. We are grateful for the sacrifice of time and energy they have made to be a part of this team and this process. Please join us in saying thank you and in praying for them and their families in the months ahead.

Scott Bancroft - Chair
Joel Kuhlmann - Elder Representative
Becky Atwood
Leah Bancroft
Patti Rogers
Tom Thacher

In our meeting with the search committee we shared some basic guidelines and expectations, we discussed what we are looking for in our next senior pastor (see attachment), and we spent time praying together.

Interim Pastor

We also wanted to share that we have asked Mark Struck, and he has agreed, to serve on a full-time basis through January 15. Originally we planned to have Mark drop down to more of a part-time role after October 15, but we believe that there is benefit from having Mark serve as interim pastor full-time for the next several months.

Beyond January 15, we will be preparing for the possibility that it could be into late 2010 before we would be able to have a senior pastor begin work. While Mark may be able and willing to serve in some capacity beyond January 15, his availability will not continue on indefinitely as he is ultimately seeking a position with an international ministry organization. Such a change for Mark may occur in 2010.

We will continue to evaluate things as we move forward, and we will also begin preparing for the possibility of a longer period of not having a senior pastor.

Prayer

We covet your prayers and ask that you would continue to join with our hearts and spirits as we come before God and ask him to grant us spiritual wisdom and the boundless strength that belongs to Christ as we seek to Treasure Christ and Love People here in Rochester and around the world.


On behalf of the elders,
John Young

Click here to see the Senior Pastor Gifts and Skills Statement that was attached to the original email.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Click here to view the full text of the elder update message.

Sunday, July 19, 2009 - No Update

While no formal update was given Sunday morning, we encourage you to be praying for the following.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any elder. Our contact information is on the Leadership page.

Sunday, July 12, 2009 - Next Steps in Pastoral Transition

The elders provided a detailed update on the next steps in the pastoral transition process. You can listen to the elder update by going to minute 28:20 in the July 12, 2009 sermon posted online. You can also view the Power Point slides and notes from the presentation by clicking here or by clicking the "Elder Update from John Young" link on the message page.