We are pleased to introduce to our congregation Nathan and April Martin of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
As Joel explained in Sunday's annual meeting (access the audio recording by clicking here), our succession team turned to Nathan as a potential candidate for our pastoral opening after our previous applicant withdrew from consideration.
Some of our folks may have met the couple when they visited TRBC back in January. They were favorably impressed by their experience--enough for Nathan to take the next step of engaging our team in a Zoom interview. We peppered Nathan with a series of "deal breaker" questions, which he answered in so thoroughly a compatible fashion that it left little doubt in all our minds that we should move forward with a candidating process.
By mutual agreement between the Martins and our team, we crafted what we call a "courtship" approach to discerning God's will in such a monumental decision. By God's providence, their relatively close geographical location enables more opportunity for them to get to know us and vice versa than an out-of-state candidate would afford.
Here is the strategic plan/timetable:
Preaching/Visitation Schedule
March 13
April 3
April 10 - Congregational Q&A
April 17
May 1
May 15 - Congregational vote by the membership
July 3 - Installation of our new vocational elder (Lord willing)
October 1 - Curt and Jan free to depart (allows for three-month overlap of service)
We will provide more infomation about Nathan and April as we progress through the "courtship" process.
Please regularly pray for wisdom for the Martins and our church as we explore the prospect of calling Nathan as our next teaching elder.
May the Lord's will be done!
