Search Committee Update - October 8, 2021

The search committee has reached a very exciting point in the ministerial search process. The committee met last week and selected a candidate to move forward to the Board and Congregation to be Called as the Senior Minister of First Christian Church of Louisville. The candidate previously visited with the committee over dinner and then participated in a round of interviews the following morning with groups of two committee members per session all in person except one session via Zoom to accommodate committee members who were out of town. The committee has also listened to many of the candidate’s sermons over the past few years.

We were fortunate but challenged to pick from two outstanding finalists. The committee coalesced around our recommendation fairly quickly but not without serious sadness over having to notify the unselected candidate for whom we had come to greatly care. We have now moved to the next phase of the process. We are “in dialog” with this candidate, meaning the candidate agrees to speak to no other churches and we will consider no other candidates while we try to reach agreement on a compensation package. If all proceeds well, we will be prepared to bring the candidate to a board vote, and then to congregational vote, as our nomination for our next installed senior minister.

The negotiation has begun and will conclude, hopefully, no later than the end of next week. With that in mind, we have tentatively set the board meeting for the evening of Tuesday, October 19. The Congregational Meeting to approve the committee nominee is set for Sunday, October 31, immediately following the 10:30 Service. We cannot share a lot of details until we present the candidate as our nominee but know that we have a very well qualified candidate before us and are very excited about their background and promise for the future. Stay tuned for further details.

Let us all keep this process and its participants in our prayers.

Submitted by

Alan Parsons, Committee Chair

On behalf of committee members, Amanda Stratton, Gary Fogle, Gracelyn Jack, Kathy Olliges, Patty Rankin, Scott Lantern, and Tonya Bordy.