The Board of Ministries and Search Committee met to discuss resumes of potential candidates. Next step in the process is to do phone interviews.
At this time those involved are to keep the information to themselves but the congregation should continue to pray for wisdom for them.
At the point the committee has a viable candidate, he will be asked to come and preach for us. The Christian and Missionary Alliance recommends pursuing only one candidate at a time and following through to call or not to call as pastor. If this doesn't work out, then they will return to their pool of candidates to seek another candidate.
 
 
On December 13th, the Board of Elders and Search Committee will again meet with the District Superintendent. This time, Jeff Miller will bring a few recommended resumes for the group to review.
After the last meeting it was determined the current job description needed reworked to better reflect the current membership and vision of our church. This will also be made available to the Superintendent to use in discussion with potential candidates.
We were also reminded that the process could still be months out.
For instance, if a candidate was asked to come preach for us, it could take up to three - four weeks for that candidate to make arrangements to leave his church for one Sunday. Then, we would need to consider if we wanted that candidate and possibly invite him back for another visit. Then, if the Lord calls him to our church, it may take him 4-6 weeks to leave his current position.
Please, continue to pray that God would send the man he wants for our church.
 
 
Next steps are in place as the Church board will meet on November 17th with the district superintendent. Stay posted with updates on this meeting.
 
 
The church survey, the salary package and questionaire are all turned in the Central District office. The next step is for the Central office to send us resumes that align with the desires we expressed in those documents.
At that point, the search committee will review the resumes and make a recommendation for our first candidate.
Keep this process in prayer, especially praying for those on the Search committee and for our new pastor, that his heart would be totally yielded to the calling of tthe Holy Spirit.
 
 
Shelby Alliance believes in small group ministry! We are initiating new groups and now is a great time to get involved and encourage a friend to join you.
Small groups are happening on Sunday morning, Tuesday evening, Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday morning and evening.
What does that mean? Groups of 6-12 people meet together in homes to discuss a book of the Bible or a study book and get to know each other. Sharing their hearts and loving each other.
If you want to join us in one of the groups, contact Cheryl Cronbaugh, 419-571-8657.
 
 
The Baord of Ministries voted Thursday evening to bring in Mike & Liza Gmetro for the end of Ocotber, November and December as pulpit supply and to minister to us in the area of church leadership. We have a desire to build up leadership in our church and this is a gift Mike and Liza are trained in.Board

Ralph Trainer, Beulah Beach Director, will be here for 2 weeks, then we will have our missions conference, one more week with Ralph and then the Gmetros come on board.

The Board also completed the summary of the church surveys and will make that available on the bulletin board in the Information Hallway.

Organizing a financial package and job description is to be completed as well and sent to the District Office. This is almost finished. The district office will then take this information and select some candidates for the Search committee to review.
 
 
Many of us are still in the grieving process, missing Tim and Jewel. Others are asking when the first candidate will appear.

The steps currently are as follows:
1 - Finish compiling all of your surveys where you gave input on the personality of our church and your desires for a new pastor.
2 - Let the district office look over this summary.
3 - We are currently building the search committee that best represents the church family. So far that committee includes all three elders: Greg Friebel, Dick Mott and Brian Cronbaugh. Also agreeing to serve are: Kayrene Mahon and Tony Seibert. There may still be up to 2 additional members invited to serve.
4 - The Search Committee will be trained by district office on what to look for as they begin reviewing applications given to them by district office.

In the meantime, we have some capable leaders coming to our church for pulpit supply.
We have been blessed with a series on Being Light that ends this coming Sunday and then we will have Ralph Trainer, Beulah Beach Director, for a few weeks. Ralph is a dynamic speaker you won't want to miss!

October 5-9 is our misions conference and we have a lot of great fun planned for this event! Put it on your calendar!
 
 
It has been almost a month since we left Shelby, OH.  Our journey has taken us through Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and finally to Washington.  Along the way we caught up with friends from seminary who currently live in Indiana.  We also visited the Mall of America, Mount Rushmore, and spent a day at Yellowstone National Park.  We attended an Alliance in church in Cody, Wyoming that Sunday.  Everyone traveled so well through our long days and late nights of travel.  We all agreed it was a great adventure...but we were all definitely glad to finally be in Washington!

We arrived at our apartment to find the church had already moved most of our stuff in.  Beds were made, tables and furniture were in place.  It was a great head start on moving in.  It felt like a major blessing.  The kids each discovered they had a Washington t-shirt waiting for them as well.  They thought that was pretty cool.

The weather here has been beautiful.  The temperature ranges between 70 and 80 degrees, but cools to 60 degrees or below every evening.  The sun has been shining pretty much every day since we have been here.  More than a few people have informed us that we should not go falling in love with the sunshine and that the rain will come.  They have jokingly referred to this time as their "2 weeks of summer".

We went hiking in the mountains on Labor Day.  The kids were not sure exactly what to expect.  Hiking in Shelby and hiking in Washington are a little bit different.  Turns out the mountains in Washington are a little bit bigger!  We had a lot of fun and the kids all agreed that they loved it. 

The kids started school on September 7th.  They have done so well in this adjustment.  Jewel and I have been amazed at how they have handled this whole transition.  One adjustment they are really liking is getting out of school every Friday 2 hours early!

We are still looking for a house.  We currently have an offer on a house that is pending bank approval.  We probably won't hear anything more until sometime in October.  It is located in a neighborhood right across the street from the church.  It seems to be a great house in a very good location for life and ministry.

Next Sunday will be my first Sunday preaching at Mountain View.  It seems like its been a while since I have preached, and I feel very ready.  I am looking forward to Sunday.

There is so much more we could tell.  God has continued to show His faithfulness in some big ways and some small ways.  We have continued to see his hand of provision and blessing and we continue to be amazed at his faithfulness and more.

We love you and continue to pray for you in your transition as you search for a new pastor.

Love,
Tim, Jewel and the family.
 
 
Dan Scarrow, from the Central District office, led the church through the evaluation form where we had a chance to give input on our church, its strengths and weaknesses and things we'd like to see in our next pastor. He also gave opportunity to ask questions. One thing he wanted us to be prepared for was a potential 8-12 months before we have a new pastor. Reasons for the time delay included: 1) time for us to heal from losing a man we loved, 2) time to go through the search process carefully, and 3) time for whomever we call to prepare their current church for departure like we had with Tim.
Later, Dan shared with us from Isaiah 58 focusing on our need to please the Lord and not ourselves. The passage also taught us to to not serve in the church out of a false sense of duty or religion but to serve, again, in an effort to please the Lord. There are things we should be doing to serve the Lord and the rewards that will come from following  Check it out in the New Living Translation that he used. www.BibleGateway.com 
Next week we hear from one of our pulpit supply pastors, a friend of Pastor Tim and highly recommended by him.
Don't forget we meet on Wednesdays at 7 pm to pray for our church family and future pastor.
If you have ever thought about joining us for Sunday School this is a great time to start. We meet at 9 am and the assignment for this week is to look at the book of I John and find the instances where the author says, "I write to you because" and the times he says, " by this we know" or similiar wording if your version doesn't use these exact words. Even if you can't make Sunday School this might be a good exercise for you to do on your own.
 
 
Pastor Tim, Jewel and the kids will spend their last Sunday with us on August 7th. We cried through the last prayer meeting with Tim, even then knowing God is working and moving both in the life of the Young's and Shelby Alliance Church.
While we will celebrate our time with the family on Sunday, the 7th, after church, we also mourn the loss of our pastor and friend being with us daily.
The lovely thing about technology is they will only be a phone, email or Skype call away. As we look to the future, we will be filling our pulpit with some great speakers who love the Lord and will encourage us to continue in our growth with the Lord.
Next Sunday, the 14th, a representative from our Alliance district will be with us to talk about the transition process and what we can expect.
Plan to be at church for both of these important Sundays.