Reorganizing To Serve You
As Grace City Denver continues to grow, God has given us the vision and opportunity to transition to a new pastoral leadership structure that’ll allow us to better meet the needs of our growing congregation and city.
A little background.
A couple years ago, Jeremy Conrad was hired as our full-time executive pastor. His role included the usual financial and organizational responsibilities that go along with being an X-pastor, but he also had some oversight of outreach, hospitality, gospel communities, and a hodgepodge of other ministries.
Over these two years, Jeremy has proven to be a trustworthy and gifted pastor. In addition to his integrity and transparency with budgets and such, we’ve all benefitted from his heart for discipleship – and we’ve seen that he’s really, really good at building relationships and mentoring others in their walk with Christ.
So when the Denver Rescue Mission reached out to Jeremy and asked him to be a chaplain – mentoring guys – we weren’t surprised. And we support Jeremy in pursuing this passion full-time.
Transition.
With Jeremy transitioning from full-time to part-time work with Grace City, this put a number of responsibilities – and the accompanying salary – back on the table. So the leadership team has been praying and seeking the Lord’s direction concerning both this need and opportunity.
At the same time, the Lord has brought other servants to join our church who have a wealth of experience in some of the very aspects of pastoral ministry that Jeremy is having to let go of. And we’ve discovered through months of conversation that we share a common vision of proclaiming and practicing a Jesus-shaped Gospel in Denver.
Proposal.
So what we’re proposing is taking the smorgasbord of responsibilities overseen by Jeremy and dividing them up amongst multiple part-time pastors. Simultaneously, we will formalize the role/responsibilities of a couple other guys who are currently serving as pastors. So the pastoral team will grow from 2 to 5:
- Matt Hand will serve as the Lead/Teaching Pastor.
- Jeremy Conrad will serve as the Executive Pastor.
- Richard Lawrence will serve as the Worship Pastor.
- Brent Meyer will serve as the Youth/Children’s Pastor.
- Ryan Wickstrom will serve as the Hospitality/Connections Pastor.
In addition to these pastoral roles, we are also working directly with several volunteer experts in the church to develop our marketing/outreach and web-based/social media ministries.
Advantages of this reorganization.
- This covers all the responsibilities for which the executive pastor was hired at no increased cost.
- This moves away from thinking of any role as “a jack of all trades” and allows several different leaders to focus on one or two key areas of giftedness.
- This diversifies our staff and brings more voices to the table, representing more of our city.
- This recognizes leaders who are already serving as pastors and formalizes their roles, so that they are empowered and equipped to invest in their specific roles.
Concerning this proposed transition, more specifics will be announced in church soon. And your questions – whatever they are – are always welcome!