CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACKET - Ryan Fields

CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACKET (CIP)

PASTOR RYAN FIELDS

Faith Evangelical Free Church

CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACKET (CIP) - RYAN FIELDS This information packet is an introduction to Pastor Ryan Fields, the search committee’s candidate to become Faith Evangelical Free Church’s next senior pastor, succeeding Pastor Brad Johnson. Here you will find a description of how the search committee arrived at Pastor Fields as well as lots of material that will help you familiarize yourself with him. Included are his testimony, résumé and personal information, and a Q&A relevant to pastoring FEFC. There are also links to some of Pastor Fields’s online sermons.

Ryan, Amelie, Madeline, Emily, Penelope

Pastor Ryan will be defending his PhD in May 2021 with a target start date to assume the mantle of FEFC’s new senior pastor the end of July 2021 after wrapping up his doctorate.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 How the Search Committee Arrived at its Conclusions

 Pastoral Resume

 Questions and Answers

 Sample Sermons

 Curriculum Vitae

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HOW THE SEARCH COMMITTEE ARRIVED AT ITS CONCLUSIONS

Dear Members of Faith Evangelical Free Church, We are thrilled and humbled by God’s leading to present Ryan Fields as our choice to succeed Pastor Brad Johnson as senior pastor at FEFC. Over the last nine months, our search committee found no other candidate that matched Ryan’s skills as a preacher and pastor. We believe he will bring an energy and excitement for the gospel to Faith for many years to come. On Feb. 5, 2020, Mike Young opened our first search committee meeting with a brief teaching from Ruth 2:3 and Proverbs 3:4 ‐ 5. Trust in the Lord, Mike encouraged, so we may “find favor and good success in the sight of God and man,” just as Ruth, following the advice of Naomi, went to glean in the fields and “ happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz.” Our search committee carefully, with prayer, followed a process used by previous search committees and we came upon Ryan. His name first appeared in early April  ‐ before we were even ready to consider candidates  ‐ as someone who was eager to submit his résumé and was evidently highly regarded by Sam Huggard, the New England District Superintendent of Evangelical Free Churches of America. We put Ryan’s name aside and followed our process. We compiled a church and community information packet that would later go to a leading candidate; we created a congregational survey and then analyzed the results from 152 respondents. We answered a questionnaire for pastor searches, wrote a job description and advertised in about a half ‐ dozen seminaries as well as the Gospel Coalition, and then wrote our own more in ‐ depth questionnaire for leading candidates. By late spring, our weekly, multiple ‐ hour long meetings were solely online due to the pandemic. In June, we received our first batch of résumés, including Ryan’s. As became our routine for every candidate, we each read his submissions and listened to his sermons online and then independently gave him a number grade with our comments. No one ever received a higher grade in this round. His answers to an initial questionnaire were detailed and highly thought out, and we were won by his preaching. “I don’t think we could find a more prepared or skilled man for assuming the mantle for proclaiming the word of God,” one of us wrote at the time. So we sent Ryan our second, more detailed questionnaire. The attached packet shows Ryan’s responses, which we received in early July. This time our grades were even higher. Simultaneously, we were reviewing dozens of other candidates. We rejected the only other candidate who reached the second round of inquiry. A dozen others who had made it through our prescreening process had been rejected and the half ‐ dozen who we invited to answer a further questionnaire were either rejected or lost interest in us. Ryan consistently was our sole top candidate. By August we were crafting our Zoom interview questions for Ryan. We were impressed by Ryan’s preaching and his beeline trajectory to becoming a highly learned pastor. And we were impressed with how his learning played into his thinking both in articles he published and in sermons. His interests are broad  ‐ everything from Flannery O’Connor to a Christian take on the

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movie, “Inception.” But how would he be as a pastor? What about conflict resolution and working with other staff members? How does he relate to people? In late August and into September, we had three interviews with Ryan on Zoom, each more than two hours long. We also briefly interviewed his wife, Emily, and fleetingly met his three young daughters. (Emily’s parents and many members of her family live in New England and it is therefore the region they want most to live in.) Our questions covered doctrinal, pastoral, personal, and relational topics. Ryan, we learned, is quick, attentive, and a natural teacher. Grace and the gospel, he told us, should be the center of everything. As a leader, he said, he strives to lead out of a place of known dependence and need for God. We found him forthright and able to be vulnerable. Ryan more than satisfactorily answered our questions. We liked him and we all wanted to go forward. Ryan listed six references and two or three of us interviewed them all by Zoom. They were all stellar. No one had any reservations about Ryan’s ability to excel as a senior pastor. They all consider him as a wise and gifted servant of Christ who is highly relational and pastoral. We were impressed with the overwhelming love and admiration these pastors, a professor and friends expressed for Ryan. One, a pastor who Ryan worked under as an associate, was moved to tears when describing Ryan’s abilities. Our last step occurred Nov. 5 ‐ 8 when Ryan flew from his Chicago area home to meet us face to face, albeit socially distanced. He spent the long weekend with the Johnsons and answered and asked questions in meetings with our pastors, deacons and many of their wives; our Elder Board; worship leaders; and with us. We have heard positive responses from everyone. Ryan is warm and engaging with people and he is enthusiastic and confident in sharing his beliefs. Now, after the long weekend with us, he is as eager as we are to go forward. The final step is a candidate weekend, set for Dec.4 ‐ 6, when Ryan will lead our worship services and, along with his family, have ample opportunities to meet Faith members in person. A congregational election for Ryan as our new senior pastor will be held in person and via Zoom on Dec. 9. Although we very carefully and lovingly went through this senior pastor search process, we feel that God had our pastor lined up for us at the start. We tried hard to find candidates competitive with Ryan and could not. God made it so we couldn’t miss. We are unanimous and really, super excited to present Ryan to you. Humbly for God’s Glory, The Senior Pastor Search Committee Mike Young Carl Purinton Shawn Seitz Kelvin Wiebe Ruth Merrick Vicki Stevens Jenny Truch

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Rev. Christopher Ryan Fields 731 Hinman Ave., Apt. 3W Evanston, IL 60202 Phone: (904) 707-553 Email: ryanfields84@gmail.com

MY STORY: By God’s grace I was born to parents who loved me and took me to a church which taught me the stories of the Bible from an early age; however, I grew up not having a relationship with God through Christ by the Spirit. In middle school my lost state began to manifest in a lifestyle of rebellion and selfishness. But in ninth grade the Lord powerfully intervened, using the ministry of a new youth pastor to introduce me to Jesus. This pastor made the gospel message clear to me and taught me what the Christian faith was really all about. Under his teaching and through my own reading of the New Testament God graciously revealed himself to me and enabled me to believe that I was a sinner in need of a savior, and that Christ had died and risen so that I might be saved from sin and death; this was my conversion to Christ, brought about by the Spirit to the glory of God alone. Since my conversion God has been at work in my life to conform me more and more into Christ’s likeness. I am learning what it means, slowly but surely, to live as a child of God rather than a slave to sin. MY FAMILY: God has shown himself faithful in my life by providing me with a lovely wife to be in ministry with. Emily is an exceptional woman: beautiful, intelligent, sociable and spiritually mature. She is in complete support of my calling to pastoral ministry and is excited about where the Lord will lead us to serve. She has made an incredible “pastor’s wife” in so many ways, particularly in the love and encouragement she has provided to me in ministry. Emily's background in social work has been an amazing complement to my pastoral training; she loves to minister to church members alongside of me, whether it be for home/hospital visitation or by having people into our home and enabling a wonderful ministry of hospitality. Beyond all these things, my wife does an amazing job cultivating our home into a place of flourishing for us and for our three daughters (Penelope, age 6; Amelie, age 3; Madeline, age 1). MY EDUCATION: ‐ Ph.D. in Theological Studies, concentration in Systematic Theology (Pending), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) ‐ Th.M., concentration in Systematic Theology (2011), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School ‐ M.Div. with Pastor/Teacher and Pastoral Care concentrations (2011), graduated Summa Cum Laude, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School ‐ B.A. in Religion, Minors in History & Philosophy (2006), graduated Summa Cum Laude and Co ‐ Valedictorian, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida (UF)

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MY ORDINATION: I am ordained with the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA)

MY THEOLOGICAL CONVICTIONS: My doctrinal position is well summarized in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds and in the EFCA statement of faith. Additionally, I hold: ‐ A Reformed view of the doctrines of grace and a covenantal reading of Scripture ‐ A credobaptist position that candidates for baptism are limited to those who are able to make a credible profession of faith ‐ A complementarian position on men’s and women’s roles in the home and the church ‐ A belief that the church should be governed by corporate congregational discernment of God’s will led by a team of pastors and elders and served by a team of deacons MY CALLING: My call to pastoral ministry is integrally related to my conversion; for almost as long as I had been a Christian I wanted to be a pastor. I have always loved the church, and ever since working with my youth pastor in high school I have found it very hard to imagine doing anything else. God has since given me abundant opportunities to explore pastoral ministry (getting exposure to its many joys and struggles) and to be in pastoral ministry as an ordained minister with the EFCA. And perhaps most importantly, I have sensed a calling into pastoral ministry within the local church that has been confirmed both subjectively (within my own heart under the Spirit’s guidance) and objectively (through the affirmations and commendations of others). It has not been a “moment of calling” but rather a gradual “confirmation of calling” as I have tried my hand at pastoral ministry and found that I enjoyed it and even thrived in it while others confirmed that I did indeed have the gifts and graces appropriate for a pastoral role. My formal theological education and pastoral preparation, including my MDiv, ThM, and PhD studies at TEDS, have all provided further confirmation that I have been both called to, and gifted for, serving the church as a pastor ‐ theologian. MY PASTOTRAL EXPERIENCE: ‐ Associate Pastor at Creekside Community Church, Gainesville FL (2011 ‐ 2016): This position was one where I shared overall pastoral duties with the lead pastor in a comprehensive manner. Apart from providing point leadership of the elders and staff, I was engaged in every aspect of pastoral ministry alongside the lead. As an example of this, we shared pulpit ministry 50/50. The position provided me abundant opportunities to gain experience in the breadth of pastoral ministry and has thoroughly prepared me to step into a lead pastor position. During this time I was ordained with the Evangelical Free Church of America (2015), oversaw our church’s faith, work & economics initiative which included writing/executing grant proposals & planning/facilitating an EFCA regional conference, completed continuing education programs on “Mission, Networks & Movements” and “Pastoral Ministry and International Missions,” and helped to oversee church mission trips to Baraderes, Haiti and Budapest, Hungary. Responsibilities included planning and facilitating worship services, administering the sacraments, teaching adult education classes, overseeing ministry teams, assisting the lead pastor in leading

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elder and staff meetings, pursuing hospital and home visitation, conducting weddings and funerals, providing individual, premarital, and marital counseling, leading a small group, discipling small group leaders, overseeing our church’s prayer service, and many more. ‐ Pastoral Apprentice at Evanston Bible Fellowship, Evanston IL (2009 ‐ 2011): This was a part ‐ time church staff position during my MDiv studies. It provided me with abundant opportunities to explore the various facets of pastoral ministry and try my hand at multiple aspects of it, allowing me to be in ministry while training for ministry at TEDS. Particularly, I oversaw the college ministry of the church (near Northwestern University), had several preaching and teaching opportunities, facilitated a ministry team, shadowed the pastoral staff, and served the church in various ways that exposed me to the joys and challenges of ministry. ‐ Pastoral Intern & Director of College Ministries at Creekside Community Church (2006 ‐ 2008): As a pastoral intern I was given the opportunity to shadow and learn from the pastoral staff in order to further discern a gifting for and calling to pastoral ministry while getting exposure to the day ‐ to ‐ day life of a pastor and the week ‐ to ‐ week life of a local church. Specifically, I engaged in seminar ‐ style readings and projects (including preaching labs) and directed the college ministry of the church under the direct supervision of the pastoral team. ‐ In addition to these pastoral roles, I have also gained experience relevant to pastoral ministry by serving as co ‐ chair of the Pastoral Search Committee at Evanston Bible Fellowship (2018 ‐ 2019), serving as a research assistant for Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer at TEDS (2016 ‐ 2018), participating in the Ravi Zacharias Fellowship for Cultural Engagement at TEDS (2011), working as a RA for on ‐ campus graduate housing at TEDS (2010 ‐ 2011), working as a ministry intern for the Henry Center at TEDS (2009 ‐ 2011), serving with Pioneers USA as an Edge Team Coordinator for a summer mission trip to Ghana (2007), serving as president of Reformed University Fellowship, UF (2005 ‐ 2006), and working as a Team Member (2002 ‐ 2003) and Middle School Team Leader (2004 ‐ 2006) at WWW United Methodist Summer Camp in Leesburg, FL. MY GIFTING: I believe that I am particularly gifted in areas pertinent to pastoral ministry, especially preaching/teaching (2 Tim. 4:2, Rom. 12:7), leadership (Rom. 12:8), administration (1 Cor. 12:28), encouragement (Rom 12:7) and hospitality (1 Peter 4:9). For me, all of these come under the larger banner of a shepherding gift, and I believe that the Spirit has given these gifts to me primarily for the purpose of serving as a pastor ‐ teacher (Eph. 4:11). My primary strengths as a pastor include a passion for clearly proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, a capacity for intimate and authentic relationships, an ability to counsel people through various life circumstances, a proclivity for facilitating ministry teams and small group discussions, an impulse to enter deeper into people’s lives while inviting them further into my own, a giftedness in encouraging those I work with, and a desire to care for the marginalized and ensure that there are no segments of a church community which are neglected. I see these strengths as all relating to the calling of the pastor ‐ teacher to be a shepherd of the flock, someone who doesn’t just preach or oversee programs or conduct weddings or administer the sacraments, but rather someone who does these things through the lens of caring for and overseeing the precious flock of God entrusted into his pastoral care (Heb. 13:17).

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MY PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY: I believe that the gospel, the good news that God graciously saves hopeless sinners in Christ by the Spirt for our good, his glory, and the renewal of all creation, is the precious trust given to the church (1 Thess. 2:4) and to be guarded by the church’s leadership (2 Tim. 1:14), along with all sound doctrine and right living that is in keeping with the gospel (Tit. 1:9). This message of grace is both the doorway and the pathway of the Christian life; far from “graduating from the gospel” once one has believed, the whole of the Christian life involves pressing deeper and deeper into the gospel and seeking to increasingly live out its implications for all of life. We will never fail to be in desperate need of God’s grace in Christ and will never exhaust its unfathomable riches and transformative power. This means that the gospel should serve as the very center of the church’s life. A church’s health and maturity is largely based on how much the gospel of grace informs every element of its priorities and culture. For instance, a healthy church is increasingly marked by relationships where the gospel informs how congregants regard one another, being gracious and patient with one another as both parties seek to outdo each other in taking on the mindset of Christ by regarding the other as of more importance than themselves (Phil. 2:3 ‐ 5). In other words, the gospel should prompt a culture of grace in every element of congregational life. Truth can be spoken in love because we all acknowledge our mutual need and celebrate that God has wonderfully met that need in Christ and so freed us to be vulnerable with one another and to step toward one another in love. The ways that the gospel should impact a church’s community are virtually endless; it is the vital lynchpin of any flourishing congregation. The mission of the church flows from this reality. That mission might be summarized as worshiping God aright through the Son by the power of the Spirit, and that by being a grace ‐ filled and holy people who love God and others (Great Commandments), grow in Christ and community (Great Calling), and reach our neighbors and the nations (Great Commission) to the glory of God alone. This mission is further accomplished as we grow in the gospel, exhibiting fuller maturity in Christ (Eph. 4:15 ‐ 16) and manifesting in lives increasingly laid down for others as we call them to be reconciled to God through Christ by the Spirit that they, too, might become disciples who worship God aright and find their ultimate, eternal satisfaction in Him. MY PASSION: My passion is to serve the church of Jesus Christ as a pastor ‐ theologian, holding that one of the things God’s people need most today is faithful shepherds who strive to feed the flock from the riches of God’s Word. Amidst an array of visions for what the pastor ought to be and do (CEO, therapist, shopkeeper, etc.), I am convinced that what we vitally need today is more pastors teaching the people of God how to understand, believe, and live in light of the Word of God, helping them to see the sufficiency of Scripture for all of life and for every pressing issue of our cultural moment. In other words, the pastor is called to serve God’s people by helping them to press deeper into the gospel of God that they might come to know and love in deeper and deeper ways the God of the gospel.

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MY ASPIRATION: I believe that pastoral leadership is best provided by a team of pastors and elders caring for and overseeing the flock together. Such leadership, shaped by the gospel, might be best described as “leadership from below,” following Jesus’s teaching (Matt. 20:24 ‐ 28) and example (John 13:1 ‐ 17) that in the kingdom leadership and greatness means service and humility. I thus strive by God’s grace and the Spirit’s empowerment to practice servant leadership that seeks to know others, love others, and lead them toward greater maturity and flourishing in Christ. This is ultimately so that the congregation I serve can better be about the work of ministry set before them. Indeed, I believe that the biblical vision is that the elders give vision and oversight to a church’s ministry, the deacons and church staff facilitate that ministry, and the congregation as a whole does the ministry (Rom. 12:4 ‐ 6, 1 Cor. 12:4 ‐ 6, Eph. 4:11 ‐ 16). I thus aspire to help the church better grasp and live out this biblical vision as part of the wisdom found in Christ. Toward that end I watch that my life and doctrine increasingly conform to the gospel (1 Tim. 4:16), for the life of the world, the good of God’s people, and glory of God. How do you view your involvement with various age groups within the church? A pastor is a shepherd for the entire flock of God, not just for a portion of it. While of course there will be various areas of responsibility that the pastors of a church will distribute based on gifting and job description, I believe it is very important that pastors feel a responsibility for the entire congregation and that every segment of the congregation feels known and cared for by its pastors (not just one particular pastor). In that way I think the senior pastor should interface with ministry to the various age groups of the church. This could mean dropping in on a children's Sunday school class, shooting hoops with the youth before or after their Sunday evening gathering, showing up at an on-campus event where there will be college students from the church, hosting a dinner for young married couples, teaching a class on the joys and challenges of parenting little ones, visiting a small group that has a good amount of "empty nesters," being very intentional to greet retirees on Sunday morning, going to visit the elderly in their homes or in the hospital as needed. I believe strongly in inter-generational ministry. When the various generations share the wealth of what they have and are experiencing with other generations, there is often growth in Christ and a building of relationships that goes beyond merely peer relationships. It is partly the responsibility of the senior pastor to see that this is happening within the church community. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Describe your expectations and philosophy of team relationships within a multiple-staff environment? The senior pastor must be an evident shepherd leader skilled in mentoring others and equipping God’s people for gospel ministry. Doing this well means being a "team player" who loves working with people and is able to delegate and coach in accomplishing goals. The "teams" of the elders and the staff are absolutely critical in this regard, and the senior pastor's professional and relational responsibilities should center around these two teams

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before all others so that they can more effectively care for the flock and serve the church. My approach to leading teams like these might be best described as “leadership from below,” following Jesus’ teaching (Matt. 20:24-28) and example (John 13:1-17) that in the kingdom leadership and greatness means service and humility. Strong, effective leadership isn’t hard- nosed and doesn’t run roughshod over others; rather it is convictionally soft-hearted, doing the difficult but important work of hearing from others, and building consensus rather than ram-rodding or abdicating. Perhaps one of my strongest convictions about leadership is that it is relational to the core. God has created us as relational beings in his image (Gen. 1:26), and thus relationship is vitally necessary for the senior pastor to lead the elders, staff, and congregation in God’s transformative purposes. In the midst of executing vision, implementing systems, and cultivating leadership development , I must never forget that the foundation of success on these fronts is building personal relationships where trust is at a premium. This conviction stems from my own life experience, for the people who have had the greatest impact on me had that impact because I knew that they cared about me, that they longed to see my transformation and not simply acquire another notch on their belt. I thus strive by God’s grace and the Spirit’s empowerment to practice servant leadership that seeks to know others, love others, and lead them toward greater maturity and flourishing in Christ. What do you believe is your greatest personal strength? My primary strengths as a pastor include a passion for clearly proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, a capacity for intimate and authentic relationships, an ability to counsel people through various life circumstances, a proclivity for facilitating ministry teams and small group discussions, an impulse to enter deeper into people’s lives while inviting them further into my own, a giftedness in encouraging those I work with and providing them the needed administrative support to further our ministry goals, and a desire to care for the marginalized and ensure that there are no segments of a church community which are neglected or ostracized. I see these strengths as all relating to the calling of the pastor- teacher to be a shepherd of the flock, someone who doesn’t just preach and teach or administer programs or conduct weddings and funerals or visit the sick or administer the sacraments, but rather someone who does these things through the lens of caring for and overseeing the precious flock of God that has been entrusted into his pastoral care (Heb. 13:17). My wife would say that I remain calm and composed amidst conflict and that, when given the opportunity, I facilitate conflict resolution with wisdom and diplomacy. She would also say that my empathetic capacities help me to relate to "both sides" of the conflict and to help each party better understand the other. I also think my wife would say that I am gifted in working toward consensus; it is my default mode (vs. strong-arming or abdicating) and I have been blessed not only with excellent training in this area (e.g. I was blessed to take an excellent counseling class at TEDS on conflict mediation and have been exposed to the wonderful work of Peacemaker ministries) but also with numerous experiences resolving conflict and building consensus on staff and with ministry teams of the local church. How might your wife characterize your conflict resolution skills, and abilities at building consensus?

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How might ministry colleagues characterize your conflict resolution skills, and abilities at building consensus? I think my colleagues would say they have witnessed my strong intuitions about when and how leadership needs to be provided amidst conflict and my default to consensus building as a leadership style. I think they would also commend my tendency to lean into the wisdom and resources of other leaders (especially elders) rather than “going it alone” amidst conflict situations. I think they would characterize me as having a proclivity toward delegation and being a team player, which helps in building consensus. They would say that they have seen my conviction that true leadership is always servant leadership play out in coming alongside of others and patiently working with them until we come to a common vision about how to proceed. What are your special interests and hobbies? Besides pastoral ministry and theology, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, camping, outdoor adventures (e.g. my wife and I aspire to seeing all of America's national parks over the course of our marriage, Lord willing), planning date nights for my wife and me, staying fit (running with my girls is often what you will catch me doing at the end of the work day or on weekends), watching a good movie that I can discuss with my wife and good friends, and learning the particular history of the place in which I live (among other things). My desire is to serve the church in two ways. Primarily I seek to serve the local church that I'm a pastor of, making sure that my priority is always feeding that flock with the Word of God, praying for it to become more like Christ, and caring for it in all the tangible ways that pastors should. Secondarily, I aspire to serve the broader church through occasional opportunities to preach/teach at other churches or ministry conferences and to publish things that will build up the whole Body of Christ. I particularly hope that I could invest in the next generation of pastors by teaching them (in the local church and perhaps also occasionally in a seminary context) about the joys and challenges of pastoral ministry and sharing with them a theological vision for ministry. I do hope in the future to be involved with groups like the Center for Pastor Theologians (they have cohorts of pastor-theologians that meet annually), and perhaps also to serve the EFCA in a more specific way. But I do not have any current commitments to speak of (beyond completing my PhD dissertation), and I would always put my own local church first, consulting with the elders and gaining their approval before taking on any additional ministry opportunities. Describe the place that worship should have in the church service? Worship is one way to summarize the entire purpose of the entire Christian life and even the cosmos (Psalm 19:1-6, Matt. 4:10, Rom. 11:33-36, 1 Cor. 15:28, Phil 2:9-11, 1 Tim. 1:17, Rev. 4:11). Worship is the proper response to the glory of God exhibited most clearly in the gospel of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 4:23-24, Rom. 1:16-17, 2 Cor. 4:6, Heb. 12:28). A Christian’s life of worship should consist of both individual and corporate expressions, exhibiting a constant tandem of worship “gathered” (Acts 2:42-47, 1 Cor. 11:33, Would you need special considerations because of involvement with other organizations or because of writing or speaking commitments? If so, please describe:

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Heb. 10:19-25) and “scattered” (Rom. 12:1-2, 1 Cor. 10:31, Rev. 1:6). In corporate worship settings we must not equate singing with worship; every activity of the worship service should be done as an act of worship unto God, including corporate singing (Col. 3:12-17, Eph. 5:15- 20, James 5:13-16). In this sense the entire church service is an act of worship, and the pastor plays a vitally important role in planning and overseeing this service for the glory of God, the building up of the body, and the furthering of the church's mission. What are your spiritual gifts? I believe that I am particularly gifted in areas pertinent to pastoral ministry, especially preaching/teaching (2 Tim. 4:2, Rom. 12:7), leadership (Rom. 12:8), administration (1 Cor. 12:28), encouragement (Rom 12:7) and hospitality (1 Peter 4:9). For me, all of these come under the larger banner of a shepherding gift, and indeed I believe that the Spirit has given these gifts to me primarily for the purpose of serving as a pastor-teacher (Eph. 4:11). What role do contemporary theological and ethical issues play in your ministry? Effective pastoral ministry doesn't just need to engage in biblical hermeneutics (proper interpretation of the Bible); it also has to engage in cultural hermeneutics (proper interpretation of our own cultural moment). God's people do not live in a vacuum; they live in a particular time and place and cultural context that is facing particularly pressing issues which the church is called to engage and speak biblical truth into. In this sense contemporary theological and ethical issues play an important role in my ministry. Theological issues are important because the church is called to articulate what doctrine is in keeping with the gospel (and what is not); ethical issues are important because the church is called to demonstrate what practices are in keeping with the gospel (and which are not). The pastor is someone the church rightly looks to for guidance on both of these fronts. The church would not be faithful to the particular cultural moment in which the Lord sovereignly placed it if it ignored these pressing social and ethical issues. Therefore, it is vitally important that the pastor teach God's people a biblical worldview that helps them understand and respond to these complex issues from a biblical vantage point and preach the Word of God in such a way that shows God's people how the Bible really does speak to these things. In my mind this is best done by having these issues "in mind" in preparing sermons on particular biblical texts rather than preaching topical sermons that take on one issue at a time. I believe that such topical emphasis is better done in a Sunday school context where there can be more nuance and dialogue than a sermon allows. I also hold that it is very important that preaching never becomes beholden to the particular cultural issues of the day; we will always be confronted with various ethical and social issues, but the best way to prepare the church to engage them well is to see that the church is growing into the full maturity of Christ, able to respond to any issue in a way that is faithful, wise, and winsome. To what extent would these ethical and social issues occupy your preaching and teaching?

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What place does world evangelism have in your overall pulpit ministry? I believe the church’s role in global missions, in sum, is to think globally while being present locally. The Great Commission, a call to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19) with the guarantee that members from every tribe, tongue, people and nation will be among the redeemed (Rev. 5:9), means that all Christians must to some degree be globally minded, and therefore that the local churches in which they gather must be globally engaged. This will differ based on giftings and resources, but minimally it should involve a commitment to praying, giving and going as the Lord calls. Local churches might seek to raise up homegrown missionaries which can then be sent and supported in locations all over the world. They might seek to dedicate a portion of their annual budget to global mission endeavors. They might seek to partner with parachurch organizations that have a strategic focus in relationship to the broader mission (e.g. Bible translation, theological/pastoral training for impoverished segments of the globe, child sponsorship, famine relief efforts, etc.). But all the while these churches will recognize that they are called to be on mission in the particular locale in which they are placed: they think beyond themselves globally but they do not neglect the mission they have been given locally. In an increasingly globalizing world, global and local mission intersect more than they ever have before; by befriending and sharing the gospel with an international student in the US, for example, local mission turns out to be global mission at the same time. World evangelism is just one emphasis that the senior pastor should give, but it is an important one, and therefore it should certainly show up in pulpit ministry, especially because part of what the preached Word should do is to train God's people in righteousness so that they are thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). How would you plan to deal with church growth and the formation of daughter churches? I tend to think of church growth in terms of "depth" rather than "breadth," meaning that I believe church growth has more to do with growth in Christ than growth in numbers. This is not to say that numerical growth should be ignored; it should be strived for because this means that more folks who were lost have come to saving faith in Christ and more folks who were without faithful church community now have it. But whether 10 or 10,000 folks are entrusted into our care, our priority is to see that they are growing in Christ, which will inevitably mean that they are more likely to share the gospel with their neighbors, co- workers, etc., and then numerical growth will likely happen as a consequence. When God grants the blessing of numerical growth, I believe the best model for channeling this growth is church planting (rather than multi-site or mega-church models). Tim Keller among others has written very convincingly that this is best way to both reach an area for the gospel and rejuvenate currently existing churches in an area. I have been blessed to be a part of two EFCA churches that have been very engaged in church planting (one has planted four churches in the course of twelve years), and I would want to make it a priority to help the church prayerfully consider how often we can raise up church planters and assist them in planting churches. I believe that the network of these daughter churches is something to cultivate and that it is a best practice to keep the mother church in contact with them and supporting them through prayer (and continued financial support as appropriate).

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How do you view your role as senior pastor in the following areas (Christian education, youth ministry, evangelism, missions, counseling, visitation, music, financial stewardship, pastoral and intern staff, and administration)? Perhaps I could respond to this question in a broader way, in that I believe that senior pastor should be interfacing with each of these because they all play a role in helping the church to properly make disciples and see that those disciples become fully mature in Christ. The senior pastor's responsibility isn't to implement various programs that now run on their own; it is to see that these various programs, job responsibilities and staff positions serve the end of making and maturing disciples, whatever that might look like and whatever particular priorities it might mean for that day, week, month, season, or year. In other words, the senior pastor needs to be flexible to give due attention to any one part of the church's life and ministry as it is required. He is to ensure by God's grace that the making and maturing of disciples is something that is deeply rooted in every element of the church's culture. So, the senior pastor would be constantly asking: how can we cultivate this kind of maturity? How can we help our people to grow in grace; to deepen their relationship with God through Scripture and prayer; to cultivate greater relationships with their family, their church community, and with believing and unbelieving neighbors; to grow in a biblical understanding of the world and in a biblically informed engagement with the world; to enlarge their understanding of how their work is done unto God; to seek to serve others, especially the poor and marginalized, through hospitality and incarnation; and to become increasingly faithful stewards of their time, talent and treasure? He would also be asking: how is such maturity in Christ best cultivated? What aspects do we need to weave into our church culture so that this sort of maturity is the natural outcome? Of course ultimately I believe that the making and maturing of disciples is completely reliant upon the grace of God (John 15:4-5) even as we are called to cooperate with that grace (Phil 2:12-13). I also believe that the life of discipleship must be modeled by the pastoral leadership of the church, who should desire that believers continually mature in their relationship with Christ while they model what it looks like to grow as disciples of Jesus, increasingly imitating Him in all of life. Regarding non-essential doctrines which are not specified in the EFCA Statement of Faith, how would you deal those who disagree with you regarding an important, yet non-essential doctrine? The beauty of the EFCA statement of faith marking out what we understand as the essentials is that it frees us to recognize that disagreements about other matters are "disagreements within the family," things that God's people have a difference of opinion about but always with the recognition that the other position is a legitimate evangelical position to hold. This doesn't mean that these doctrines "don't matter"; these doctrines are quite important for articulating the proper implications of the gospel for what God's people should think and how they should live. Rather, it means that we respect our brothers and sisters who come to different conclusions on these matters even though those different conclusions may manifest in important differences between our church communities. This is especially the case when these brothers and sisters come to those different conclusions because they are convinced from the Word of God that they are so. We must continue to seek the truth of God's Word by really listening to each other while ultimately being willing to "agree to disagree" on these as non-essentials. The church should also seek to partner in gospel ministry to the fullest extent possible amidst these disagreements, knowing that

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everyone will stand before God to give account for their position and that we are united in the most essential aspects of the faith. Christ calls his people to exhibit a unity before a watching world to the fullest extent possible (John 17:20-23).

Briefly explain your views on the inerrancy of Scripture and how those views impact your preaching? To say that the Scriptures are "inerrant” means that they do not err in any matters upon which they speak, be they matters of faith and practice or history and science (2 Pet. 1:20- 21). This derives from the fact that everything said in Scripture is ultimately said by God Himself, who cannot err or deceive (Num. 23:19, 1 Sam. 15:29, Tit. 1:2). Inerrancy is important because it reinforces our confidence in the full authority of God’s Word, which our Lord affirmed again and again in his ministry (Matt. 5:17, 15:1-6, John 10:34-35). We affirm that “the Bible is without error in the original writings” in that it is the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts which can be said to be inerrant; modern translations of the Bible are reliable only to the degree that they are faithful in communicating the message of these original writings. Thankfully the work of gifted and competent Bible translators gives us great confidence that when we exercise Word ministry from our English Bibles we are indeed hearing from the Word of God. This directly impacts preaching because we can be confident that as God's Word is proclaimed, inerrant truth is being proclaimed, and this truth goes forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of transformation for which it was intended (Isa. 55:10- 13). Our confidence in preaching comes not from the giftedness of the preacher nor the readiness of the congregation, but from the fact that God promises to use preaching to bring his inerrant Word home to the hearts of his people. Are there any doctrinal positions you hold which might be regarded as outside the mainstream of the EFCA? If yes, please explain. No. In your pulpit ministry, how do you apply Scripture to life needs? Applying Scripture to life needs means helping God's people to see how the thrust of the passage preached bears on their lives. Effective preaching doesn't just present information; it seeks to demonstrate how the content of God's Word ought to impact every arena of life. This is ultimately because we can never exhaust the implications of the gospel; the entire Christian life is spent attempting to press deeper and deeper into the import of the gospel for how we should live, with no portion of our lives held back to remain unchanged. Effective preaching can thus be described as "bridge building": the task of the preacher is to build the bridge between the biblical world and the world of his hearers. If Scripture is not ultimately applied to the life needs of the congregation, then that bridge has not been sufficiently built. It is important that the preacher help God's people to envision what impact God's Word might have (by indicating possible avenues of application), but ultimately he must trust the Holy Spirit to drive home the Word in 1,000 particular ways that he could never have fully envisioned. Part of how I do this involves sharing from personal experience, being vulnerable with areas where the Word is both challenging to me (showing me my insufficiency and need) and also comforting to me (meeting that insufficiency and need).

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Briefly describe the role of the senior pastor as part of the elder board: The senior pastor is "first among equals" on the elder board, in the sense that all of the elders of the church are shepherds, called to keep watch over the flock (Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 5:2). I believe that healthy pastoral leadership recognizes both the significant role of the senior pastor as well as the constraints of what the senior pastor can do by himself. An effective senior pastor will thus work closely with the other shepherds, seeing that they are doing well spiritually and helping them to grow in their shepherding abilities. The senior pastor is called to cultivate a culture of gospel vulnerability among this group of men, leading in this by being transparent with them about areas of struggle and any need of prayer. The elders are the men that the senior pastor has the primary calling to come alongside and mentor, so that the church would have an increase of mature shepherds who can share the shepherding responsibility. This also means being proactive in developing leaders who could potentially serve as elders one day. The senior pastor (in conjunction with the chair of the elder board) is ultimately to provide leadership for this group of men, maintaining the priorities of word and prayer (Acts 6:2) and facilitating their care for the flock and oversight of its life and ministries in accordance with the Word of God. Briefly describe the role and relationship of the associate pastors to the senior pastor: The senior pastor and the associate pastors are, first and foremost, brothers in Christ and colleagues in the vital ministry of being vocational shepherds of the flock. The senior pastor labors alongside of the associate pastors as equals in the sense that they are all pastors, all charged with the high calling of pastoral ministry. The senior pastor is ultimately responsible for overseeing the staff on behalf of the elders, and so he is responsible for seeing that the associate pastors are faithful to their pastoral duties and mentored so that they grow in their capacity to shepherd the flock well. While senior and associate pastors would have distinct areas of responsibility, I would desire that they work extremely closely together, collaborating on various ministry efforts and praying for one another frequently. I would also desire that there would be a sharing of general pastoral duties in a way that is appropriate to their job descriptions (sharing preaching responsibilities, visitation, conducting weddings and funerals, presiding over baptism and the Lord's Supper, overseeing various ministry teams, etc.) The challenges for growing the body and reaching more lost people for Christ amidst Covid- 19 center around the fact that Christians cannot be physically present for fellowship and corporate worship together, and they cannot be physically present in their various spheres of influence to be salt and light and available for gospel witness as the Spirit opens a door for this. This includes limitations on the frequency and size of gatherings for corporate worship, where the believer is ministered to in a powerful way and where the lost can not only hear the gospel proclaimed but behold the gospel visualized in the sacraments and see the gospel lived out by the community. Yet, there may very well be more opportunities to grow the body and reach the lost for Christ amidst Covid-19. Consider that believers who might have become stagnant in their faith might be awakened by this global pandemic to how much they (and the world) need Jesus. Consider that Christians may have had more time for In your opinion, what ministry challenges and opportunities have been created by Covid- 19 for growing the body and reaching more of the lost for Christ?

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dedicated study of the Word and prayer amidst much slower social calendars. Consider that many folks who would no longer darken the doors of a church might be willing to tune in to a web-broadcast worship service. Consider that Covid-19 has created instances of greater need within our communities which the church can step up to meet and so witness to Christ's love which compels us. Consider that the social isolation may very well have brought people to realize how lonely and unsatisfied they really are with the life that they have built...and be open to how Christ might meet them in that place of brokenness and hopelessness. What are your thoughts of social media use for reaching the next generation for Christ in New England? There is no question that social media plays a huge role in the lives of the younger generations; this is simply a fact we have to face. In this sense I think we should continue to think about social media as a tool to be able to reach people we might not otherwise reach, and we need to be wise about the way that we use this tool. To me what is vitally important is that social media is the hallway and not the living room for God's people, meaning that it is best as an invitation to community and not a replacement for it. Ultimately people are longing for real community, and we have that to offer them in the church. I also think that pastors need to help God's people think about their habits and behavior on social media and whether they are in keeping with their identity as adopted children of God. For instance, do their posts reveal more of an allegiance to a political party or a particular social platform than an allegiance to Christ and the gospel? We need to help God's people think through the gospel's implications for life on social media, as with every arena of life. Statistically, New England ranks near the bottom on the religious index of areas to live in the country. Please describe your calling to this area and your vision and thoughts for ministering in this challenging environment. New England's "post-Christian" ethos is largely what attracts me to the area, actually. I grew up in the South and have ministered primarily in an environment where there are (relatively speaking) a lot of Christians and a plethora of churches to choose from. There are many good things that come in that kind of environment. But as I have looked at our country's religious demographics, it is clear to me that there is a much larger need for gospel ministers in places like New England. This is not only because of the relative lack of Christians and gospel-proclaiming churches, but also because of the inordinate influence of this region. As one example, New England has some of the most influential educational institutions in the world, and the Boston area particularly attracts folks from all over the country and from around the world who will come for a time and then head off somewhere else, often becoming leaders in their various fields and institutions. This is a strategic place to do gospel ministry, even though it is a tough place to do gospel ministry. I should also say that part of my calling to New England has come through visiting it time and again in coming to see my wife's family (she grew up in Guilford, CT, her brother's family lives in Watertown, MA, her parents live is southern Vermont, her grandparents live on Cape Cod, and her extended family is all over the region). I have come to enjoy the beauty of the area, and as I have looked in on the culture of ministry there I have often seen a "band of brothers" mentality that is very attractive. We are hoping to move to New England so we can 1. raise our children in the culture and climate that my wife grew up in, 2. be near to parents,

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