Friday Communication - 24th Mar 2023
The Meeting
The first step in seeking a new senior minister has now been taken. Thanks to all those who turned out for Tuesday night’s meeting and for the many good questions that were asked. I hope that has clarified what the colleague and successor position is, the goal in creating it in maintaining continuity of ministry, some of the risks involved and above all the need for prayer that the Lord would prosper the process and provide a faithful, able and godly senior minister.
Thanks also to the many who stayed on for the ACM, and for the encouragement it is to the BOM to see you take interest in their work. A link to the BOM’s report is provided in this newsletter.
What’s ahead in the process?
John Wilson and Tom Cunneen, the Presbytery representatives, will report to the Presbytery in April and I am confident the Presbytery will appoint one of their number to serve as ‘Interim Moderator’ to convene the meetings required to find someone to fill the vacancy that comes into being when a ‘colleague and successor’ position is created. That interim moderator will call a meeting of the congregation and the subsequent steps are governed by the Code of the PCV.
The Code specifies that at that meeting “the interim moderator must call upon the congregation, duly convened, to decide whether it desires:
a) to proceed to an immediate call; or
b) before taking any further step towards a call, to invite a particular person to lead the congregation in public worship and preach; or
c) to proceed to the immediate appointment of a selection committee.”
If the congregation chooses option (c), appointing a selection committee, it is then only through this selection committee that any names for a call can be considered.
The selection committee is made up of “at least seven communicants of a congregation, at least one being an elder, appointed by the congregation” whose meetings are presided over by the interim moderator.
You will note that the selection committee is appointed at that first meeting, immediately. Its minimum number is seven, but it can be larger. The selection committee should be made up of thoughtful people from a wide cross-section of the congregation, but note they must all be communicant members. At the same time it should not be too big so as to become unwieldy, and those on it will need to be able to work together. It would be good to think about who should be on the selection committee and to talk about it in your groups and also with the elders who will want to ensure that it is composed of a cross section of the church – i.e. people from the three congregations and the various ministries of the church.
The duties of this selection committee are to “consider the eligibility and qualifications of persons whose names are proposed by committee members or who have made formal written application through the interim moderator for consideration.”
The committee must, according to the code, [4.122.3]
a) interview, should it consider it advisable, any of the persons being considered; and
b) decide on one name at a time to recommend to the congregation for call, normally inviting that person to conduct public worship and preach in the charge and meet the congregation; and
c) keep minutes of its proceedings; and
d) report regularly to the session.
Before this, if it is wise, it should reflect on the nature of our church, its strengths and weaknesses, and the kind of person they are looking for – their character, theological convictions, giftedness, capacity. This will greatly help their search for a new minister.
But in all this activity, and it will be work for those on the selection committee, we must not lose sight of what is important, and here I want to emphasize two matters – common mindedness in the gospel and confident dependence on the goodness of God.
But in all this activity, and it will be work for those on the selection committee, we must not lose sight of what is important, and here I want to emphasize two matters – common mindedness in the gospel and confident dependence on the goodness of God.
The priority
At the meeting on Tuesday night John remarked on the common mindedness of those present in committing to this pathway to a new senior minister. This common mindedness is precious and is commended in Scripture, which also teaches us how to preserve it.
In Philippians 2 Paul says “If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.”
Just as the gospel gives us all an experience of hope and love in trusting Christ, a common participation in the Spirit of Christ given to all His people, and an experience of God’s mercy and compassion, so it also commands us to love one another as Christ has loved us, and it gives us a common purpose and goal. Our common purpose is to persevere together as followers of Jesus who live doing all that Jesus has taught us while we look forward to His return, and our common goal is God’s glory through glorifying His Son our Lord Jesus by our faithfulness to the gospel in word and action. These things when lived out are a cause of joy, and should always be present amongst us.
But there are attitudes that promote Christ’s glory and love amongst us, and attitudes that frustrate that unity of love and spirit.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.”
Even in looking for a minister, while we may have definite views on what the church needs or styles of ministry, we have to keep being other person centred – looking to the interests of others, and having a humility that can listen to others and reckon them ‘more important than ourselves’ and exercise patience in the process while a common mind is formed. It is not an opportunity to campaign for our own vision of how the church should be, or promote our own place in it, or side line those who differ. Such humility and unselfish love is the way of Christ, the mindset Christ showed when
Phil. 2: 5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
7 Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
9 For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
11 and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Even the process of looking for a minister together is an opportunity to practice the Christlikeness that should characterise all our life and builds us up as a community.
And we live this way because, like Christ, we are confident in God – that He is in charge, and He blesses the path of obedient faith. And it is important, secondly, that we express that confidence in God in humble, dependent prayer. I don’t know the particular person you will or should call. But I know our heavenly Father knows, and I know He delights to give good things to His people who ask Him for them.
Our Lord has said
Matthew 7: 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.
The holy God is our Father through the grace He has shown us in giving His Son for us. His love for His people is beyond measuring. We can trust Him for good things, trust Him to provide a faithful person to fill this role and teach God’s word faithfully amongst us. So throughout the whole process let’s be asking Him confidently for the person He has prepared.
how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.
