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Update on the Elders

On July 1st, Calvary Grace church brought me on full-time as a pastor. For almost four years I have been working at a shop that rebuilds gas turbine engines. I am very thankful that God provided this work so that we could be a part of Calvary Grace (we came to Calvary Grace in September, 2011). I realize that working as a pastor full-time is a privilege. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you about how the elder leadership at Calvary Grace works.

If you look at the back of a weekly bulletin, you will see that the elders each have a description beside their name. I am the Care Pastor at Calvary Grace, but all five of us are your pastors, and all five of us care for the congregation. We each do what the others do. We preach, pray, teach, counsel, administer and equip disciples to be disciple makers. We do many other things as well, but the point is, we have a lot of overlap in our work because we are pastors. We are not so specialized that you have to refer to the back of the bulletin every time you want to talk to an elder. Please, talk to any of us about any aspect of the ministry around here. We are here to serve you, for the glory of God and the good of the church.

I am looking forward to having more time to spend with church people. I am more available now than when I was working outside. I do have office hours at the St. John building, Tuesday to Friday, about 9:00 to 3:00. The door will be locked, so send me a text or give me a call if you want to drop in. I’m quite keen on stepping out for a cup of coffee, too. I am also available outside these hours – evenings and weekends included. I’m not that busy yet, but I know that may change as time goes on.

This news of my increased availability does not mean that the other pastors are not available. We are all available. All of our emails are printed on the back of the bulletin, and it is not hard to get our phone numbers. All of the other elders are very active in meeting with people in the church.

We are a team of elders with different gifts, personalities and specialties. For instance, Pastor Clint is our Lead Pastor. This is not just because Clint was the first pastor. The elders recognize particular gifts of leadership, teaching and vision in Clint. It is important to have a leader in an elder team, and the church needs to know who is the Lead Pastor. Having said that, Pastor Clint is one of your pastors, just as Jeff, Paul, Gavin and I are your pastors.

Because we are a team, one of us may hand off certain ministry matters to one of the other elders. I know that in my areas of specialization as an elder, I’m not working alone. We collaborate with each other and seek advice from each other regularly. We do make decisions individually at times. We trust each other. However, there are times that we deal with issues all together in a regular or special elders meeting. I marvel at the unity and diversity of this group and I am very thankful for these men.

If you have questions about how our area of specialization works, or how we are all also “just pastors,” please talk to any of us. We know that our model of leadership is not that common in our part of the world, but we see it in God’s Word – that’s why we have embraced this structure.

Please pray for us as your pastors at Calvary Grace Church. This is supernatural work. We seek to model evangelism, worship and lives of faithful holiness in our homes, before the church family, before a watching world and, most importantly, before God (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16).