Planning is hard work, but it feels like waiting. Only the wise know it’s not. The English language has a string of words for the un-planning unwise: impetuous, hasty, rash, impulsive, precipitate, reckless, etc. The patience and perseverance of this church in Master Planning is a tribute to your faith in future grace. I thank God for your fortitude through about 17 months of planning.

The Master Planning Team began its work in the early fall of 1994. A year of work resulted in the Mission and Vision Statement, followed by the appointment of about 15 application task forces. One was the Worship and Music Task Force. It has now completed the first half of its work—crafting three documents: 1) Philosophy of Worship, 2) Qualifications for Associate Pastor for Music and Worship, and 3) Responsibilities and Lines of Accountability for the APMW. These have been mailed to you. If you did not get a set and would like one, please call us.

In response to the Worship and Music Task Force proposals, the Council of Elders passed the following motion on January 21, 1996:

The elders move that a full-time Associate Pastor for Worship and Music be hired with the qualifications and responsibilities recommended by the Master Planning Worship and Music Task Force, and that strong consideration be given to seeking out a person of color for this visible leadership role.

Now begins the second half of the Task Force’s job. And you can help us. We have entered on the search for this remarkable person. Would you pray for this search? And would you help us get our documents into the hands of people who might know people who might know people who…

How do you sum up the flavor of who we are and what we are looking for? Here is one effort that we will probably use in several magazines.

ASSOCIATE PASTOR FOR WORSHIP AND MUSIC, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN. The mission of our 1,000 folks is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples. We are Calvinistic in theology, baptistic in polity, and charismatic in our affections, and driven by the truth that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him!” We are committed to old and new, fine and folk, depth and simplicity, head and heart, design and spontaneity, awe and intimacy—with unremitting God-centeredness, intensity and authenticity. We aim to be Bible-saturated, Spirit-filled, soul-winning, culture-confronting. We seek to meet God in choral music without the centrality of a choir, majestic organ sound without an organ, guitar even if not weekly, and any other instruments flung out from Psalm 150. Age and ethnic diversity do matter. Worship leadership means worshipping contagiously in front of others. Elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 expected. Write to Tim Tomlinson, Chair of Search Committee, 720 13th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55415.

See you at a District Home Meeting,

Pastor John