Last February, I shared a vision for the church at the congregational meeting (02/21/10). This vision was thoroughly discussed with the leadership beforehand and a timetable for implementation was discussed. Within that vision I shared our projected goal of hiring someone to help with our youth and children’s program by September of this year. Shortly thereafter, at the beginning of March, I invited the entire church to a children’s and youth ministry dream meeting where there was a great sharing of ideas and concerns for the youth at KCC. Shortly after this meeting a children’s and youth ministry team was formed to seek ways to implement the vision and ideas shared from this meeting. The entire leadership is grateful to these people and to everyone else who has helped with this ministry because they love our kids and want to encourage them to be deeply rooted in Christ. While great things have happened as a result of their time and energy, none of those who volunteered to help with this ministry have a great deal of time to plan, organize, and implement everything that we know should be done. And we know that this ministry must be done excellently. After this March meeting with you, we received a great deal of positive feedback and continued to receive constructive ideas for our kids.
Last summer the leadership re-evaluated the course of this vision and determined that the goal of hiring another staff member by the September deadline might still be possible, but was not likely due to time constraints, but we prayerfully asked God for His own time-frame. As a next step, the leadership found it wise and necessary to discuss several plans with the church and chose to discuss those plans by means of a survey.
At the end of July we took a survey by e-mail and by means of a bulletin insert (the results of which are still available to anyone who would like to request a hard copy from the office and they are likewise posted on the church’s web site: koutschristianchurch.org). One of the questions on the survey concerned the hiring of staff to help with our youth. Of those who answered the survey, the majority expressed a need to hire someone to help us with our children’s and youth programs. We were grateful for all of the input that we received, we considered all of it and chose at that time to proceed with the process of hiring someone to help with children’s and youth ministry and chose to arrange an initial meeting with a candidate, Zach Korff, in mid August. At that meeting, a representative of the eldership, a member of the ministry team and I met with Zach to evaluate his potential for the position but no commitments were made at that time. After this evaluation was shared with the leadership, we decided to invite Zach and his family for an entire weekend (10/03/10) to be evaluated by the whole ministry team with elders present and to also allow the congregation to interact with this family. When that decision was made in mid September, a special, mid-week announcement was sent via e-mail to thank the church for taking part in the survey and explain that the leadership was going to continue to pursue the process of hiring someone for the children’s and youth programs. In the course of the leadership’s discussions, it was decided to call this position “Family Life Minister” with the intent of ministering to entire families with a special emphasis on children and youth.
Zach Korff, together with his wife, Jessica, and son, Torren, visited our church on the weekend of 10/02 – 10/03. The goals of interviewing and interacting with this family were completed at that time.
Please pray for us as we continue to seek God’s guidance and will in this process. As always, we value your input. If you have anything you would like to share with us or if you would like to know more about this situation, you are welcome to meet with us –please request a meeting. The leadership is now bringing the interviewing and evaluating process closer to a final decision and especially desires your prayers at this time. Our heart’s desire is to do God’s will and advance His Kingdom as we remain open to His leading.
Love in Jesus,
George