Great news on the search process! The Leadership Team has offered the Youth Pastor Position to Brandon Crews and he has accepted.
It's been an intense process and to bring you up to speed, here's a a synopsis of how things developed. All together, there were probably over 150 resumes - with an amazing level of qualifications and experiences. Of the 150, questionnaires were sent to 20 or so, and from those responses I conducted almost 20 Skype interviews. Then began a second round which included some face to face meetings and when not possible, further Skype interviews. There were 6-8 candidates that surfaced as top tier possibilities - and of those, three began to emerge as the closest matches and strongest candidates for us. Among that group, it appeared that Brandon and Lauren were the couple that we wanted to bring on site, first. So, that's why they were with us this past weekend.
We exposed Brandon and Lauren to as many people or groups as possible, including the teaching time on Sunday morning with the youth, the Leadership Team and the Disciple Now Team. We, the Leadership Team, began to hear strong comments from the youth and adults. We felt there was something of significance developing. We also learned there time constraints for Brandon and Lauren that prompted us to slightly accelerate our consideration of them. In fact, a church in Texas was actively pursuing them, and they were to visit that Church this weekend in view of a call.
Due to the overwhelming response of the youth and adults, and our own observations and conversations with them, the Leadership Team felt very strong in our direction and confident in moving forward. Thus we offered the position to them and after prayerful consideration, they accepted.
Brandon and Lauren will be with us again this weekend and will be making housing arrangements. It's their hope to move to Murfreesboro the week after Christmas.
They have communicated their excitement to us about beginning this new journey. Be in prayer for them as they begin to make the necessary arrangements and preparations to move here.
