For the past 16 months, I have served on our church’s Pastor Nominating Committee. Yesterday, the work of the PNC culminated with the nomination of our future pastor and a successful congregational vote to call Matthew R. Nieman as the next pastor of Farragut Presbyterian Church.
I haven’t written much about this topic for a few reasons:
- There wasn’t much to report
- We did much of our work was behind the scenes
- Our work was marked by a necessary aire of confidentiality
Also, the process is deliberate. We have been working as a committee for 16 months. In fact, it will be two years this fall since I got a call from a representative of our nominating committee asking me to consider service on the PNC.
For the most part, since Feb. 2013, we have met every Monday evening as a committee to do the work necessary to advance this process forward. Also, we have seen each other through many milestones in our personal lives: graduations, family visits, vacations, births of grandchildren. For myself, alone, this PNC prayed for me during two kidney stones as well as last year’s job search.
It was nice to have this group together from that standpoint alone. It was a support group. Also, it was nice to lean on each other as we surveyed the congregation, wrote our church’s mission study and sifted through a large pile of pastor applications.
In other words, our work was crucial but it didn’t produce a lot of writing material! We Presbyterians do thing ‘decently and in good order.’ That doesn’t mean we produce juicy blog topics.
But, this past weekend is a weekend worth writing about.
Matt, his wife Jenni, and their two boys arrived on Friday and our committee hosted a dinner for them at the home of one of our committee members. Then, on Saturday evening, our church hosted a picnic. This was an opportunity for congregants to meet the Niemans and to officially welcome them to Farragut.
On Sunday, the apex of the weekend, our church hosted the Nieman family for worship. Then, we had the congregational vote to call him as our next pastor. It was a slam dunk. After the vote, many members of our church congregation came up to me – and my fellow PNC members – to express their thanks for our service and to tell us how strongly they support our nomination of Matt.
I’ll confess: the work on this committee was tough service. It was a long commitment and the task was arduous.
But, I’ll say this, too: It was a labor of love. I know my fellow PNC members feel the same way. And seeing all the smiles and feeling the energy yesterday at FPC made all the late nights and weekly meetings well worth it.
The place was packed on Saturday night and, again, on Sunday and the members of the congregation were filled with excitement.
I don’t know that I will ever serve on a PNC again but I am happy to have done so at this important time in our church’s history. The feelings we experienced this weekend validate the importance of our service.
Now, the Niemans will be doing the things necessary to relocate. Later this summer, they will arrive in back in East Tennessee. Then, in not much time at all, our new pastor will be in the pulpit.
It’s an exciting time for Farragut Presbyterian Church. What a wonderful place to be!
JG
Originally posted 6/2/2014
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