As mentioned in an earlier post, the elders will be bringing a recommendation at Sunday’s Members’ Meeting to approve an increase in our annual budget to allow for us to pursue a fourth pastor to serve at Five Points.

Here are four reasons that have informed the elders’ thinking to move this direction.

1. We want to staff for growth. Our mission as a church, in the broadest sense, is to make disciples. This staffing change represents a renewed emphasis and ministry shift towards seeing those who call Five Points home are taught to observe all that Jesus commanded and grow as his disciples. Additionally, our mission as a church, in the more narrow sense, is to see our neighbors pursuing joy in Christ alone, worshiping him with us now and for all eternity. In order to shepherd more people at Five Points, we need to staff accordingly.

2. We as a church have wanted to move this direction. We have previously discussed and approved a part-time position that would permit Pastor JJ to expand his responsibilities to broader discipleship efforts. As we were unable to fill that part-time role, and because of the desire to have elder-level leadership over music after Andy Walker vacated his position, it has seemed wise to combine the two areas of oversight into one, full-time elder-pastor.

3. We want to continue excellence in Student Discipleship. We value the spiritual well being of the next generation and want to see elder-level leadership by a called and qualified pastor continue in that area of our ministry. Pastor JJ has provided great shepherding and an excellent focus on personal discipleship and leadership development to Student Discipleship, and we want to continue to see that ministry vision continue.

4. We want to continue excellence in Music Ministry. We have much to be grateful for in our Music Ministry. Andy Walker provided great leadership in developing volunteers and setting the tone for this aspect of our ministry. Tom Kondrat and Nowell Manus have provided solid leadership in Andy’s absence, but we desire to see advances in this ministry area that go beyond what volunteers have capacity for.

In addition to these reasons, the elders believe moving forward with adding this position is financially feasible. In preparing the 2015 budget, we made changes to ministry budgets to make this addition of about $80,000 possible. After making the addition, our 2015 annual budget would be $1,024,000, which is right in the ballpark of what our budget has been for several years. Furthermore, as we staff for growth, we will see more people being discipled, which entails seeing giving as a component of worship. With this in mind, we can anticipate more people being called and equipped to give out of faith to the ministry efforts of Five Points.

Also, this kind of combined position is not novel. Having a single pastor provide leadership for Students and Music is not a new concept. We know other respected churches who have and are employing this model successfully. Intrinsic to the success of this model is having solid teams of volunteers in both areas of ministry, something that we praise God for already having in place.

For more information about the two pastoral positions mentioned above, you can read job descriptions for both: Pastor for Discipleship; Pastor for Student Discipleship & Music.