For Wilshire Baptist Church
So, it’s no big secret now that our pastor search committee at Wilshire Baptist Church has chosen the person they believe is the best possible candidate to lead our congregation into the future. But the reveal has yet to happen and so we must wait a little longer.
No doubt the feelings of wondering and wishing that many of us have experienced over these past months have intensified. Some will be listening and watching for hints in the words and the body language of committee members in these days before the name is officially announced.
I’ve not been in this situation as an adult church member. Every church I’ve attended since I was 18 has not been through a pastoral transition while I was there. I came to Wilshire a year after George Mason became pastor, and his long tenure has been a blessed anomaly.
The first time I was in this wait-and-see mode, I was just nine years old. My father was on the search committee that brought Dr. James Landes to First Baptist Church of Richardson. I was too young to worry about the choice, but because Dad was on the committee, I got some early information. I was told the new pastor was older than our previous pastor with a grandfatherly presence (he was 55), a great smile and a kind manner. That all proved to be true, and it suited me well when I walked down the aisle to profess my faith and to be baptized by him.
The second time I was in the pastoral waiting mode, I was a teenager and more interested than the previous time but not anxious about it either. That new pastor, Dr. Clyde Fant, was a family man with kids my age and that was something new. He wasn’t as “pastoral” as Landes but he served up strong, meaty preaching that suited my maturing intellect. If he didn’t capture my attention on a particular Sunday, his wife who faced us from the choir loft made sure that my friends and I were at least pretending to pay attention.
So now, here I am, almost five decades later, and I’m playing the waiting game again. This time around, I’m neither worried nor disinterested; neither anxious nor overly excited. I’m mostly just ready to see what the Spirit will do as we enter this new chapter of life and fellowship together.