Call to The Reverend Jeffrey L. Smith

When we began this process, the idea of a blog seemed like a good one but over the last few month it has had its challenges… Like maintaining confidentiality while candidates were being interviewed and coming up with appropriate praise for one candidate while not diminishing the giftedness of all our applicants.

I can now say officially that this will be the last post of this blog. As of Wednesday December 9th, the call to The Rev. Jeffrey L. Smith of Waterford United Church had been approved by both the Presbytery of Waterloo-Wellington and Paris. The congregational support for the call was 95.5%. Rev. Smith will start at Knox, Crieff on March 1st and will be inducted on Sunday March 7th at 3pm. His first Sunday will be the morning worship of March 7th.

Now to thanks… thanks to all our applicants. We appreciated getting to know some of you and reviewing your profiles. We wish you well in your future endeavours.

My personal thanks to the Search Committee and Session of Knox. It has been a great experience working together. The commitment and leadership that you have demonstrated throughout this process has been greatly appreciated.

I wish The Rev. Jeff Smith all the best in his new adventure in ministry among the fine folk of Knox. May God bless your mutual ministry.

Yours in Christ,
The Rev. John Borthwick
Interim Moderator

October Update

The Search Committee has been making some great progress towards discerning who will be the next minister of Knox. They have spent the past month reviewing and short listing candidates. They have committed to visiting a number of our candidates current congregational contexts. This has required some serious early Sunday morning drives on the part of the committee members. Being a part of a search committee means spending a lot of time away from family and other responsibilities. I’m very thankful to the Search Committee members and to their families for the sacrifice they are making on behalf of the congregation.

It is our hope that by the end of this month that we will have further shortened our list and conducted some initial interviews with our candidates.

I had the opportunity to share communion with the congregation today. It was a busy service with a window dedication in memory of the McDonald family, one of the historic families of Knox and the Crieff community. The McDonald clan certainly added to the numbers in church today and also to the celebration of worship. I sensed this was a very special day in the life of Knox.

Our next Search Committee meeting is this Wednesday evening. Expecting lots of reports from the members’ road trips. Looking forward to seeing where we will be led on that night.

Yours in Christ,
John

Long overdue Update

Finally, I’m getting to updating this page.

Our Search continues.  The Search Committee has met a few times over the summer.  We did however take July off.  We have received several profiles in that time.  We also requested those that matched our congregational profile from Wynford Drive.  The Committee has had one chance to review these profiles as a group and are doing so again tonight.

At the close of our meeting tonight we hope to be able to begin contacting individuals for either personal interviews/visits to their churches/videos of their leading worship and preaching.

I continue to be thankful for the members of the Search Committee as they take their work very seriously and demonstrate a great passion for their Church and the furtherance of the gospel in their community.

I’ll try to do better and update more regularly.  Peace.  John.

Congregational Profile Complete

The Session approved the congregational profile on Wednesday June 3rd, 2009.  It is now available by clicking on the tab above called “Congregational Profile”.

We look forward to receiving personal profiles and applications for the vacancy and discerning who will be the next minister of Knox, Crieff.

Profile Awaiting Session Approval

Through hard work and focused determination, the Search Committee has completed the congregational profile.  They are tremendously thankful to the congregation for their responses to the Congregational Self-Analysis.  The comments and feedback from that process certainly made the task of finishing the profile a much easier one.  Much of the information from the surveys will also feed into our discernment process with our future candidates.  So thanks again to the members of the congregation who participated in that vital part of the process.

At the moment, members of the Search Committee are dotting ‘i’s and crossing ‘t’s and putting the final touches on the profile so that it can be presented to the Session on Wednesday for its approval.  Once approved, we will be sending out a package of material including the profile to those persons who have already indicated an interest in our vacancy.  The profile will also be posted on this site so that anyone can access it at their convenience.  If you are a candidate and you are interested in the supporting material, please email me and we will send you out a package with information about the area, a recent annual report and congregational newsletter and a copy of the local newspaper.

Again, I must thank the members of the Search Committee for their hard work.  They are a great group to work with and make the process fun.

Search Committee Meeting – May 10

Well the survey results are in.  50 surveys returned out of 130 sent out.  Not a bad result from a survey perspective.

The Search Team spent the majority of their time on this Mother’s Day afternoon trying to understand what the congregation were saying by their responses.  The intention is to use this data to shape the ‘kind of minister we are looking for’ part of the congregational profile.  An added plus to the survey data was how it might be filtered back to the Session, Board of Managers, and Church Growth Committees.

Our next steps are to fine tune the ‘kind of minister’ inventory and list out the qualities that members of the congregation indicated as preferred for their next minister.  We have another meeting booked for May 20th and hope to have a draft congregational profile prepared after that meeting.

Congregational Self Analysis Begins

This Sunday (April 12th), the Search Committee will distribute a congregational survey to help in developing their congregational profile.  They are requesting that members return their completed surveys by April 26th.

It is hoped that after the surveys are returned that the Committee will be able to put the finishing touches on their profile by sometime in May.

First Search Committee Meeting – March 29

The Search Committee gathered on Sunday afternoon to begin its work.

Our first step was to determine the remuneration for the future minister that we would recommend to the Board and Session for their approval.  Final numbers were approved by the committee.  The committee members were confident in Knox’s financial position and spoke of the congregation’s determination to continue growing as a full time single point charge.

We then turned our attention to developing the congregational profile and the congregational self-analysis piece.  The committee strongly desired to get congregational input into this process and are looking to developing a survey for distribution on Easter Sunday (April 12th).  It is hoped that following the return of the congregational surveys that we will have a congregational profile ready to send to potential candidates as of early May.

I am really impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment of the search committee members.  They are an excellent group of people to work with and I am confident that we will have a fun and productive working relationship as this process continues.

The Process Begins…

On Sunday March 8th, the charge of Knox Presbyterian Church, Crieff was officially declared vacant by the interim moderator, The Rev. John Borthwick.  The congregation was most recently served by The Rev. Cathy Kay who has become the minister of a two point charge in the Presbytery of Hamilton.

The Session met with the interim moderator on March 4th to discuss the steps involved in a search process for a new minister.  At that meeting, several names were put forward as potential members of the Search Committee.  Members of Session contacted those mentioned and on Sunday March 8th the interim moderator met with four of the five/six member Search Committee briefly to set a first meeting date.

It is hoped that the Search Committee will meet after March Break with the following foci:

1. to determine the recommended compensation package for their future minister that they will present to the Board and Session,
2. to plan the steps involved in conducting the congregational self-analysis,
3. and reviewing their previous profile from a few years ago.

The congregation and its leadership are motivated and enthusiastic to see a new minister called to Knox by the end of this year.  They have many hopes and dreams for their congregation and are excited about joining their passion with a new leader, teacher, and preacher.

John Borthwick, Interim Moderator