Monday, August 24, 2009

Welcome to Bro. Brad and Elicia Walker!

When Bro. Jeff Phillips came to me (I believe within my first week here) and shared with me that his heart and passion was for Vancouver, Canada, I knew there would be a day very soon I would have to look for a Student Pastor. This staff position is really no different than any other staff position today - it is very difficult to find the right men to fill any staff positions. However, when I came to Trinity and spoke with our staff members I knew some of them were already making plans to serve in other areas. So I began to pray and ask God for wisdom as I searched to fill these different vacancies. I touched on this when Bro. Jon Rushing came, but I have discovered (after much trial and error, and then more error) that the best way to call a staff member is not to really look for a specific “specialized” staff person at all… Now of course it was important the Bro. Jon could sing better than me or we would all be in trouble but as I stated on a scale of 1 to 10, the importance of musical talent for our Music Minister was about a “5”. That is very high considering for every other Pastor it would be a zero or less! Now, it just so happened that Bro. Jon is the most talented Worship Pastor I have ever seen at any church, but that was just as they say in the south - “gravy.” Too often Pastors first look for someone who has increased numbers in their last couple of student ministries, or men who have a lot of talent, or men who are great organizers. Now certainly all of these things can be looked at, but I submit to you they are not and should not be determining factors in hiring any type of Pastor. So where do we start? Well, I know this is a revolutionary idea, certainly not the norm, and in many circles “waaay out there” but why don’t we begin in 1st Timothy 3:1-7? So I began to look for men who were blameless (this doesn’t mean that no one could say anything bad about them, in fact I am very leery of any minister who has not had to take a biblical stand that someone didn’t get upset or angry)… but an individual who had even more than integrity, but also had a boldness in their testimony. I just walked through each area in this passage. I won’t go through all of them here, but I certainly only wanted men who were consistent in their life, their loyalty, their love and their doctrine. They have to be able to teach, this means they know doctrine and can articulate the truth of the Word of God to other believers.

All of this to say that Trinity needs men who understand the Gospel (I know this seems like a no-brainer but it certainly can’t be assumed in churches today), who understands what it means to be part of a church, who will serve her, give to her, minister to her, and who believes that arrogance is not proclaiming truth clearly, but arrogance is bending to my way of doing things rather than God’s way. I guess in short I knew we needed MEN of God who would hold to the Word of God in their life, in their ministry, in their stand, and could teach this by their words and actions. The result is a Children’s Minister who gives our children and parents Biblical truths, a Worship Pastor who comes in and explains the theology the choir is singing and both handle the Word of God accurately and completely. This seems so simple but so often the names we are given are men who may be fine men, who may have integrity but too often they are not dedicated to the Word. All that to say, the same thing that knitted my heart with our new Student Pastor wasn’t how nice he was, the numbers in his last youth group… but rather, his dedication and love for the Word of God! I am flabbergasted at the idea that we, as a Church, actually believe we can have staff that loves doctrine and desires to teach it (sarcasm)! Funny, but excitedly this is exactly what we have and this is what we are getting in Bro. Brad Walker!!! I am thrilled and anxiously anticipating YEARS of wonderful service alongside these men of God!