General Presbyter, Grace Presbytery - Irving, TX
Listed 05-21-2021
Employer: Grace Presbytery, 6100 Colwell Blvd, Ste 100, Irving, TX 75039-3148 | 214-630-4502 | www.gracepresbytery.org
Location: Irving, TX
Start Date: 08-01-2021
Type: Full Time
Please check out their MIF # 72495.AB0 for additional information and self-referral details on the Church Leadership Connection.
Grace Presbytery comprises 140 congregations with over 27,000 members scattered across 53 counties in North and Central Texas. We are the largest Presbytery in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Our size and diversity presents a unique opportunity for a visionary leader experienced in managing change, leveraging resources, and equipping others to lead in bold, new directions.
Throughout the Presbytery, there is a vision of a Church that is filled up in worship and education so that we may be poured out into the world. That is, the Church is not just a building, with targeted programming meant to make us feel good. Instead the Church exists for the sake of Jesus Christ, who commands us to go into the world to spread His Gospel in word and deed.
We are praying for a leader who can help us more thoroughly discover God’s vision for our Presbytery, articulate it in a compelling way, and lead us forward into that vision together. For now, we live into this vision by encouraging creative and contextual responses in this time of great change. We live out this vision of life together through Presbytery-wide mission study trips, resource center, programs, committees, education, worship, and gatherings. With the plentiful financial and personnel resources within the Presbytery, we build each other up and bridge the geographical and theological diversity through the gift of relationships, so that more and more might be drawn in by the love of Christ.
To respond to the needs of our community, Grace Presbytery has built a strong central support system, with reliable staff, financial opportunities, and programmatic options. Whether it’s the quarterly gathering of Christian educators for support and inspiration, or the recently created Social Justice Task Force to support our congregations as they take on systemic justice issues, or Disaster Assistance Task Force from the Congregational Support Committee to walk alongside congregations in times of hardship, Grace Presbytery seeks to partner with congregations to address their emerging needs.
We also recognize that our Presbytery was designed as a twentieth-century corporation. While that structure has served us well in the past, we are also open to the movement of the Spirit and the call from God to bring in something new – new ways of doing ministry, new ways of being connected, new ways of reaching out. Grace Presbytery is in a remarkable place for something new to be born, and we’re looking for a General Presbyter to be our midwife for that new vision.
The next General Presbyter will help our churches find their path forward, through our committees, commissions, staff, teaching elders, ruling elders, commissioned lay pastors, and members. We want our churches to thrive, meaning that our Presbytery is changing lives, churches, and communities for the sake of the Gospel. That may look different in different places at different times, but we rely on the one Spirit that unites us together. Our new leader should bring ideas for twenty-first century ministries and how our institution can shift to be more responsive and nimble to the mission needs around us. We are not expecting our new Presbyter to have all the answers, but instead to have the pastoral presence and discerning leadership qualities to guide us where the Spirit leads, to understand the need for adaptive change in this season of church life, and to equip us for the work of ministry.
We do recognize the challenge present in creating meaningful space and relationships in the reach of our Presbytery: for new ministries to be birthed while others close with dignity; for churches with three and 3000 members and those in-between to feel like they belong; for the rural churches and the urban churches to appreciate each other’s gifts; for unhealed wounds that need tender care and are easily overlooked in the everyday business demands. But we also believe that God is not done yet working through Grace Presbytery, and that the right leadership can help us reach our vision and mission goals.
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