Pastor Search Team Meeting Update

Acts 10:34-35; 11:19-21

In Acts 10:34–35, Peter says:
“Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.” Peter was learning something that God had been teaching him throughout this chapter: God’s plan was bigger than Peter’s expectations.

Then in Acts 11:19–21, we see believers who had been scattered because of persecution going to new places and sharing the gospel:
“But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”

As we continue searching for our next pastor, perhaps one of our prayers should simply be:
Lord, help us recognize where Your hand is already at work.

We all naturally have ideas about what the next pastor of our church might look like—his background, his experience, where he currently serves, perhaps even the type or size of church he comes from. There is nothing wrong with carefully considering those things, but these passages remind us not to allow our own expectations to become limitations on what God may want to do.

As a committee, we want to be careful that we are not merely looking for the candidate who checks every box we have created. We want to recognize the man upon whom the hand of God is evident.

Our responsibility is not to manufacture God’s will. Our responsibility is to remain close enough to Him that we can recognize it.