Sunday, February 17, 2008

164-2

And so ends one of the most bizarre, enlightening, tedious, and personally rewarding processes of my life. Tonight, Clear Lake Baptist Church voted to call Dr. Glenn Young of Devine, Texas, as their new pastor. And with that vote, the commission given to the Pastor Search Committee was completed. We first met back in April of last year. Since then we've met countless times, reviewed 130-some-odd resumes, I've traveled to Europe, Asia, and Canada, my son has gotten glasses, and my wife has born a child. As cliche as it sounds, I've learned far more about myself and how I can relate to God than anything else.

I've learned a lot about how committees should operate - and how they shouldn't. I've learned that the Baptist form of democracy is insanely complex, overly tedious, but strangely enough, it works well. I've learned that God can speak through his Word, through his people, and through an objective process of sitting around a table and scanning resumes.

Most of all, I've learned to my intense amazement that nine people, all of whom have completely different perspectives on life, different relationships with their God, and enormously different personalities, can in fact come to a unanimous agreement on the Will of God. That's something that could only happen when those individuals truly want the Will of God. I guarantee you that I could never get nine people at work to agree on what day of the week it was, but somehow God was able to poke and prod this motley crew of engineers, a hairdresser, a retiree, a principal, and counselors until we all agreed that we'd heard His Voice.

Praise God.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

i'm going to give you a sticker the next time i see you.

Unknown said...

Amen!

And not to lesson the lesson in that lovely diatribe, but you have now been tagged. See my blog for an explanation (and blame Michelle).

Rob said...

You will always have a special relationship with this pastor because you were involved with the process of God calling him. It was one of the good-things-to-do, and not one that just anybody could do well. Congrats!

So, what are you going to do with all your spare time?

Anonymous said...

To maintain that spirit of mission and ministry in a committee can only be with God's hand!!! The transition time for the pastor and his family will need even more of that kind of spirit, love and brotherhood. Even as young as they are, your children are soaking in your witness and service to your Lord through his church!!!