Staffing - February 9, 2022

What is Going On? Staffing

Let me begin by saying that I think Mountainview has an excellent staff team.  I appreciate how each person works in their own area and I also appreciate how the team as a whole has a healthy feel to it.

One of the challenges for any team is dealing with transitions – people coming and going.  Mountainview staff has been through a fair number of those.  Ruth Ann and I joined early last year, then Pastor Mike left as was planned, Pastor Fred retired at the start of the summer, Peter Kranenburg joined as intern, Christine Winter left at the end of the summer and now, as many of you have likely heard, Brandon Vermeer will be leaving our team at the end of this ministry season.  This is challenging both because we need to find someone to fill the roles Brandon carried, but also because Brandon was part of a team that not only ran ministries, but learned and grew and vented and celebrated together.  Each staff member plays a unique role on the team and Brandon’s gentle, creative and thoughtful presence will be missed.  (I would encourage you to think about how you experienced Brandon and find a way in the next few months to bless him.)

If you were keeping count, you will see that more have left than have come in.  I haven’t even mentioned that Pastor Peter’s internship year also officially ends this spring.  So we are in a position to hire.  The board has approved a proposal to seek out a “discipleship pastor”.  This is a new title and role here but one that will cover other roles that have been vacated.  I will try to describe it to you below.

A discipleship pastor is an ordained person, a seminary graduate, who makes sure that we have opportunities to grow in our faith.  At Mountainview those opportunities include children’s ministry, youth ministry and small group ministry.  Basically, this person would plan, guide, train, deploy and encourage us all to be engaged in ministry with each other that helps us grow in faith.  Clearly this is at least a full time job.  This would be a second ordained staff person for Mountainview and so there would  be some preaching involved which helps connect Sunday worship with other ministries.  And, as with each staff person, the discipleship pastor would benefit from being part of the team that plans and supports all of the ministry at Mountainview.

That is the basic plan.  As with all staff positions, there is some flexibility and adjustment that happens with time.  For example, I am helping with teaching faith instruction on Sunday evenings.  This is not in my job description but is something I enjoy doing.  I foresee that working with a discipleship pastor won’t mean that other staff don’t help in these areas, but that this person will take the lead.  This is true for many areas of our staff work.  We try to avoid silos where each leader only works in their own area.

So pray for God to guide us to the right person.  Pray for the staff as we deal with the gaps left during times of transition.  And pray that Mountainview can continue to thrive as a community of people engaged in ministry that transforms lives.

Pastor Erick Schuringa