New Job and Home

Liz and i just got back from a whirlwind trip to Little Rock. This was the last of the official hoops for us to jump through before our move to Little Rock, July 1st. We met with both the personnel committee and missions committee and they are both excited about us coming. Liz met with UAMS where she will work on her FNP degree (assuming she gets in, but I'm not worried about that).


Matt (the pastor), created a rather long and ambitious job description for me. Here it is, it's long so you might want to skim,:

1. Plan, coordinate, or direct all church wide local mission efforts in conjunction with the Missions Committee.
2. Plan, coordinate, or direct all church wide distance mission efforts in conjunction with the Mission Committee.
3. Serve as staff liaison to the Missions Committee.
4. Coordinate and resource all individual and small group local mission efforts
5. Work alongside the youth ministry team mission coordinators to create mission opportunities for students at 2bc.
6. Develop, maintain, and communicate to the congregation a comprehensive partnership list for individual and group mission efforts in Little Rock.
7. Develop, maintain, and communicate to the congregation a detailed mission opportunities catalog for individual and group distance mission efforts.
8. Select, develop, and execute an ongoing church wide effort to help individual church members discover and utilize their spiritual giftedness inside and outside the Church.
9. Work with the rest of the pastoral staff to share giftedness profiles for involvement in arenas outside of mission and outreach.
10. In conjunction with the Minister of Senior Adults help maintain and streamline all day to day benevolence efforts at 2bc.
11. Alongside the Pastor, be the lead visionary and source of responsibility/accountability for the church’s calling to join in God’s mission for the world.
12. Serve as staff liaison to Willing Hands and help coordinate their involvement in mission efforts
13. Serve as staff liaison in 2bc’s ongoing disaster relief efforts
14. Work closely with CBF of Arkansas staff as needed to help expand our mission involvement with that organization, and help that organization multiply its mission efforts.

Outreach

15. Plan and coordinate the outreach efforts of the church
1. Coordinate staff efforts in outreach
2. Plan, implement and maintain lay leadership development in the area of community/outreach, etc.
3. Design, implement and manage a comprehensive follow up process for guests
4. Coordinate staff efforts in brainstorming and implementing various outreach events, efforts, etc. throughout the course of each year.
16. Lead staff in the utilization of appropriate software tools for outreach logistics
17. Design, implement, and maintain a new member orientation process
18. Coordinate use of Second Baptist Church facilities as a point of outreach with the Greater Little Rock community
19. Direct a staff team that gives special attention to outreach/ministry targeted at young adults at Second including college, singles, and people in their 20-30’s.
20. Work alongside the coordinator of Second Place Café to utilize this monthly event to promote outreach with a special emphasis upon outreach to the downtown community and the Arts community of Greater Little Rock.
21. Alongside the rest of the Pastoral Staff, be a visionary and source of responsibility/accountability for the church’s calling to provide opportunities for people to connect with God in a faith relationship.

Other

22. Serve in appropriate teaching/discipleship capacities
23. As a member of the pastoral staff, and under the leadership of the pastor, provide general leadership in the three callings of the church not directly under your supervision: worship, discipleship, community.
24. Other duties as assigned by the pastor.

I'm most excited about getting the church involved with what God is doing in the world, in both the local and international contexts, and creating an outreach program for those who are loosely connected with Second. This job is going to stretch me; I'm assuming that if God has called us there, he is going to equip us.

Liz and i are also moving into the downtown community to live with the people we will be ministering among, which includes a relatively diverse socioeconomic population including the very poor and the very rich. The area is in the process of being gentrified, so in order to live there we are having to build (we can't afford an existing home) a home that meets all the physical characteristics of the downtown community . Here's two pictures of what ours will look like