This coming Sunday 1. November, IBCB will meet as a church family to consider a variety of business matters including a recommendation regarding our associate pastor position.

Associate Pastor Recommendation:  The leaders council and the Staff Relations Committee in conversation with the deacons and the ministry council recommend that the church increase Jürgen’s hours & pay, rename his position to “Associate Pastor of Outreach and Evangelism” with the goal of expanding his impact in the area of “reaching” (evangelism) and “onboarding” (assimilation) as described in the job description (see separate document).

Why an Associate Pastor of Outreach & Evangelism?  Over the past three years, IBCB has been charting a course toward what we believe to be God’s future for us as a church using the Natural Church Development survey, the ReFresh project, and most recently the Higher ‘n Higher consultation.  In each of these studies, the church has identified two areas of needed growth – reaching people (nonbelievers and believers) and connecting people to our church.  It is our conviction as leaders that these two areas are strategic to our health as a church and to our faithfulness to God’s will for our church.

An Associate Pastor focusing on these areas of need will have an overseers responsibility for recruiting, equipping, and coordinating our energies of reaching, bringing, welcoming, and incorporating people into the life of our church.  The goal is to strengthen our outreach to believers looking for a church home (i.e. web, publications, marketing, etc.) and our non-believing family/friends (i.e. evangelism training and bridging events).  The goal is to improve our ministry to guests and newcomers as they are integrated into small groups.

Why Jürgen?  Currently Jürgen serves as “Pastor/Outreach and Evangelism.”  He was interviewed by a search committee and appointed by church vote to serve in this capacity as a 450€ employee of the church.  He has made many important contributions to our church life.  In addition to the tasks required of him, as a volunteer he has contributed significantly to some of the things more clearly stated in the updated job description.  His talents and abilities are in the stated areas of need:  evangelism, event planning, marketing, connecting people, etc.

What is the role of Associate Pastor?  The Associate Pastor will continue to be a part of the leadership team – currently Scott, Jeff, and Jürgen – to help shape the strategic initiative and spiritual oversight of the church.  The Lead Pastor (Scott) supervises the work of and administrates the review of the Associate Pastor.  Like each staff member the Associate Pastor has an annual review along with recommended personal development growth goals.  The Associate Pastor does not automatically become the Lead Pastor should that position be vacated.

What about other important needs?  In our conversations as a church over the past few months, we’ve identified some additional important unmet needs including:  administration, secretary, communication, caring, age-group ministries, and more.  Some of these important needs can be met by improving some of our existing structures.  For example, we are talking about ways to strengthen our Deacon Council ministry of care and our Ministry Council communication.  Some of these needs can be addressed by a 450 Euro job secretary who will take on some of the administrative/secretarial needs.    Having an associate pastor with more hours and increased responsibility allows Scott to share some of the administrative oversight and gives Scott the opportunity to focus more attention on his leadership, caring, and equipping roles.