Worship Leader Search Update

For the past six months our church has been accepting and working through resumes for the worship leader position left vacant when Jeff left to plant a church. We believed it was of first importance to let the church decide on new pastors before hiring a new worship leader, mainly because it is the responsibility of the pastors to bring potential candidates for the job before the church. We wanted to wait for the collective wisdom of all the pastors we now have. We knew that would mean a longer search process, but we believed, and still believe, that the wait would be worth it, as it’s always wise for a church to establish it’s leadership before hiring staff members. Now that we have made Ed and Harlen pastors we are putting our full focus on filling the worship leader position. Here’s where we are currently at with the search:TaylorLet me start by answering questions about Taylor. Taylor has done an excellent job as our interim worship leader. In fact, he’s one of the reasons we felt comfortable bringing on new pastors before hiring a worship leader. We are incredibly thankful for Taylor’s willingness to serve our church as the interim worship leader.Taylor has diligently sought the will of God and has concluded that now is not the right time for him to take a permanent worship leader position. As your pastors, we have prayed over this with Taylor and believe he is following God’s leadership and making a wise decision. There are three things we want to emphasize here. First, there is complete harmony between Taylor and our pastors regarding this decision. Second, Taylor is not leaving Union View. He loves our church and is looking forward to transitioning back to a drummer / musician and aiding our new worship leader in any way possible. Third, Taylor will continue as our interim worship leader until we have filled the position. I want to stress that there is harmony and unity of mind here. Everyone who’s a part of this process deeply loves Jesus and each other, and we are listening to and following God together.Where we are at with the searchOver the past six months we have received several resumes for the worship leader position. Unfortunately, for various reasons none of the applicants have worked out. I’m not the most patient person (James’ teaching on patience last week was convicting and challenging to me), and I’ve been frustrated that things aren’t going faster. However, I believe that God knows exactly what he’s doing. I trust his timing more than my impatience. Over the past few weeks we’ve redoubled our efforts to collect new resumes and are trusting God to lead us when and where we need to go.As a church, we are asking that you pray with us for God’s wise leading. Specifically pray for three things. First, pray for the man who will take the job. Pray that God would prepare his heart to lead worship at Union View. Pray that God would sovereignly lead him to send us his resume. Second, pray for your pastors as we work through resumes and seek God’s leading. Pray that God would give us wisdom to recognize the calling and giftedness of the men applying. Pray that God would give us great sensitivity to the qualities and abilities Union View needs in its next worship leader. Finally, pray that we will patiently wait on the Lord. Pray that your pastors (at least me!) will patiently wait on the Lord. Pray that our church as a collective body will patiently wait for the Lord to work. The work that God does in infinitely better than the work men can do, so while it may be difficult to be patient, I’m greatly anticipating seeing God work! If you have any questions about please feel free to ask one of your pastors and we’ll answer as best we can.