Senior Pastor Candidate CHAD FRANCIS

Transcription

1 Senior Pastor Candidate CHAD FRANCIS

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3 Dear Hope Family, We are honored and humbled by the trust placed in us by the Hope family during these past several months. We have clearly seen God s faithfulness expressed in the unity of the Search Team and the Elders, as many candidates have been reviewed and evaluated and prayed over during this time. It is with much excitement and anticipation that the Search Team in conjunction with the Elders present to you Pastor Chad Francis as the man we believe God has uniquely identified to become the next Senior Pastor of Hope N.E Heights. The Elders and the Search Team have had extensive interviews with Pastor Francis and have thoroughly reviewed his qualifications. As well, we have spoken with several individuals who have worked with him or are friends of his, and the overwhelming response of everyone has been very positive. Chad currently serves as the Executive Pastor in a medium-size church in Vancouver, Washington, where he leads the staff team and serves as an elder, providing vision and direction for the church as well as preaching times a year. During the past year, he has served as the Interim Lead Preaching Pastor for this same church during a pastoral transition. Pastor Francis has a heart for God and an observable passion for the Word. The Search Team is confident that his ministry experience and love for the Gospel make him an excellent fit for Hope Church. Chad and Karen and their three daughters have visited Albuquerque and have met with both the Search Team and with the Elders. A brief summary of Pastor Francis qualifications and background are included in this packet for your review. Pastor Francis and his family will be coming to Hope N.E. Heights for a visit the weekend of September 23rd. He will be preaching at both services that Sunday. We are planning an open house Sunday afternoon or evening, and everyone will have an opportunity to meet him and his family. As I know you are already aware, Pastor Francis will need congregational approval before he can be called by the Elders to be the next Senior Pastor. This means that your involvement during this final stage of his candidacy is very important. Please look through this packet to familiarize yourself with Chad and his family and make plans to come and meet him in September. As September 23, 2018 is also now the date for our annual congregational meeting, that Sunday will be a busy one. Please mark the date on your calendar and plan to attend this very important meeting of our church. Feel free to direct any questions to either the Search Team or to the Elders. Your fellow servants, The Elders and Search Team 1

4 FAMILY We are a family that s daily learning to enjoy and make known the beauty of Jesus in all of life. Karen and I met while serving together in our last church and have been married for 5 years. Karen has a big faith and a big personality, which Jesus uses in my life in so many good and needed ways. We have three beautiful daughters all two and younger! Maddie is two and a half years old, Brooke is 13 months old, and Jojo is eight months old. We actually get more sleep than you would think. We are also a multi-ethnic family. When we adopted Brooke last July, our birth mom described our family as having all the colors of the rainbow. While we re maybe not quite that diverse, we are seeing that where more of the image of God is present (through different cultures), the better a family is. It s not always easy (my wife s Chinese preferences sometimes rub up with my own Anglo preferences, and we re still trying to figure out how to do Brooke s hair!), but it is so worth it. 2

5 CONVERSION Though I grew up in the church, I didn t truly know, love or follow Jesus until the age of 20. I was raised in the faith, by my grandparents, and received awards in Awana, but I was never moved by the love of God like those around me. For the first years of my life, I tried to find life through obedience to all of the rules. When I found that to be empty (because I could never be good enough), I tried to find life through breaking all of the rules. This explains my life from high school to college. I chased satisfaction in just about anything I could think of, and when I moved away for college, I stopped going to church altogether. Then, during my sophomore year of college, God graciously brought my world crashing down around me and gave me eyes to see the beauty of His love and grace that alone could satisfy me in the long run. That summer, I turned to Jesus in repentance and faith, finding my life and my love in Him, and my life has never been the same. SOME THINGS I ENJOY being outdoors, all sorts of music, good coffee, Crossfit, hockey, reading, and learning new things. 3

6 CALL TO MINISTRY The summer Jesus saved me I had the opportunity to intern at the church in which I grew up. I had no interest in doing ministry with my life, but it seemed like a good opportunity to be discipled by the godly man who offered me the job. As he discipled me, he began to identify gifting in me I hadn t yet seen. He had me preach a sermon, which I thought was the scariest thing ever, but I found that when I opened the Bible and preached, God moved. Students who had been going through the motions their whole lives were waking up to God. God was saving and changing lives. Later that summer, while at Hume Lake Summer Camp, I was sitting by the lake reflecting on all God was doing in our high school group and I heard God, as clearly I ve ever heard Him speak, calling me into ministry. Not knowing at first what to do with this, I kept it to myself. But God was gracious to me even in this. I JUST CAN T IMAGINE DOING ANY- THING ELSE. A couple of days after returning from camp, a pastor on staff at our church spoke a prophetic word over me confirming the word I had heard from the Lord, before I had shared it with anyone. So with a couple of weeks left in summer, I changed my major, my school, my plans and my all to study Christian Leadership and Theology and become a pastor. That was 10 years ago, and with each passing year, that sense of calling has been strengthened and sharpened as I ve come to know and love Jesus more and learn more about who He has made me to be. Charles Spurgeon once said, Don t do ministry if you can do anything else, and I ve found that when I m serious about walking with Jesus, I just can t imagine doing anything else. 4

7 CORE COMMITMENTS Gospel-centrality I believe that gospel centrality not only in doctrine, but also in culture is essential to life and ministry. At a deep level, I am convinced that the gospel the good news about God s undeserved love for us in Jesus is the message that has the power to transform all of life. The Mission of Jesus I believe we ve been redeemed to work for the redemption of the world around us, and that the greatest adventure of our lives is found in joining Jesus in His mission. Therefore my ministry always has an eye toward outsiders, making sure we are doing things in a way that might make sense to them, and toward equipping the members of the church to see their neighborhoods, workplaces, etc. as a mission field where Jesus has sent them. Confidence in God s Word Just as the Protestant Reformation was grounded by the belief in Sola Scriptura, so any ministry must be grounded by a confidence in God s Word as the ultimate and unchanging source of truth. Responsibility to my family Aside from my salvation, my family is the sweetest gift Jesus has given me. They are my first ministry, and my wife has been a great partner in church ministry from the day we met. 5

8 EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE William Jessup University BS Christian Leadership, Theology 2010 Current Position Executive Pastor ( )/Interim Senior Pastor (2018) Living Water Church of Vancouver, Washington Present Preaching and Teaching Leads staff team and oversees leadership development. Pastors the church as a member of the elder team Advances and nurtures vision, culture and overall direction Oversees Community Groups and coaches Group Leaders Oversees assimilation, baptism and membership processes Helped lead a season of revitalization for church and staff, writing job descriptions for all staff and creating an employee handbook. Led search process for Worship Director & Children s Ministry Director Wrote study guide for the congregation to accompany a 12- week preaching series through the book of Daniel. 6

9 Previous Positions Pastoral Intern, training for lead pastoral ministry Garden City Church, San Jose, CA, Pioneered and led college ministry Revamped the assimilation process and led the volunteers Identified, discipled and coached key lay leaders Helped shape and implement church s vision at an organizational level Taught relevant seminars and preached 3 to 5 times a year Deacon/Lay Leader Garden City Church, San Jose CA, During a season when I started and owned a coffee shop, I served as a lay leader in a church plant. Hosted services, led and multiplied small groups, served in children s ministry. Pastor of Student Ministries Rhythm Church, Mason City, IA, Pastored the church as member of pastoral team Pioneered a youth ministry from scratch Preached weekly in the youth service and preached once a month in main service Assembled and led a staff of 10 volunteers and three interns High School Ministry Intern/Coordinator South Hills Community Church, San Jose, CA Preached weekly in the youth service Built teams of student leaders to run/drive the ministry Ran events, retreats, and mission trips for people 7

10 8 As part of the search process, members of the search team spoke with a number of individuals including staff members from Living Water Church and friends of Pastor Francis. All of the references recommended Chad with no hesitation and strongly affirmed his giftedness, godly character, sense of calling and heart of a pastor. We thought you might enjoy hearing some of comments they shared.

11 REFERENCES Chad s strength is seeing people comprehend the beauty of who Christ is and what He has done for us. He has a passion that is very bold and direct with people in a compassionate way. -Fellow pastor He s crazy efficient; I m blown away by his creative mind and eye. He s capable in administrative ways, able to think in organizational ways, able to help us grow in fresh ways to present ourselves. He s devoted to his wife and kids, working to protect time at home with them. He s devoted to the cause of the mission of the church. Chad is great to work with. He is intentional, approachable and relational. He cultivated a team culture here at Living Water. He spent time with each staff member to get to know each one and turned us into an organized team. He is very forward-thinking and sets about to equip everyone he leads to work into the vision, then lets people do the work without micromanaging them. -Fellow staff member Chad is a visionary who empowers everyone around him; he is a go-getter who helps people feel valued, and he is approachable. I would be very happy to work with him the rest of my ministry life. Chad is clearly gifted and passionate and was so even in his twenty somethings. He is not a domineering type but he will charge forward. He has a lot of drive and vision; he grows and loves people, shepherding them along the way. -Fellow pastor & friend Chad is a high character guy, a leader! For instance, his heart for children. He and Karen thought about adoption and then found out that Karen was pregnant, but they did not stop the adoption for this reason. For Chad and Karen, the adoption was rooted in the Gospel. 9

12 hopechurchabq.com