Abraham, Joseph, Jonah, the Apostle Paul are examples of people in the Bible who thought they were headed in a certain direction, but God had other plans in mind. Likewise, not long ago we told you that we would be starting a search for a preacher – the elders would serve as the core of a search team, we’d take our time and we would try to take an approach that would not look like a popularity contest. We anticipated advertisements, resumes, review of references – all those things that typically occur in a search. In the meantime, the Lord led us to Jay and Mandy Cline and them to us. As a youth & family minister, he’s made a huge impact on our young people in just the few months that he’s been here. He’s also accepted the invitation to preach every time it’s been offered. And he’s made a huge impact there. He has impressed the elders, and he’s impressed many of you who have provided us with that feedback. We could go through a minister search and bring in candidates, but in that process we would not get to know anybody any better than we’ve gotten to know Jay and Mandy and their family. Jay’s goal, his plan, his desire is to be a preacher and growing up as a preacher’s son he doesn’t have any delusions about what that entails. As elders, we don’t want to be hardheaded and miss opportunities that are put right in front of us just because we were headed in another direction. By the same token, we don’t want to miss the opportunity to take advantage of the collective wisdom of this congregation. So
we want you to know that we are seriously considering moving in a direction that will allow Jay to become our preacher at Northeast. But before we finalize an important decision like that, we want to give our members an opportunity to express to us both their support and their concerns. Please understand, this was not Jay’s idea. He did not come to us. This seed germinated as a result of feedback from several members. We’ve had a chance to propose the idea to a few others and we received positive feedback from all. Now it’s time to get input from everyone.

However, and this is a big however – even if we ultimately head in this direction, we have no intent of abandoning our commitment to our young people or the parents of our young people. If we do this, Jay will continue as our youth minister until we have another youth minister in place. We’ll continue as we have for the last several months various men in the congregation preaching, until we’ve hired a youth minister and made a smooth transition.

I personally am very excited about the possibilities. Jay is as talented a preacher; he’s dynamic and Bible oriented and he’s just going to get better. With his youth ministry background he can relate to our young people and serve as a mentor for our next youth and family minister. His years on the mission field give him a deep understanding of our own efforts in Haiti and India. He has a heart for teaching others about Christ. The goal of his youth ministry efforts has been to equip young people to teach others about Christ. I think he’ll bring that commitment to his preaching and teaching.

But that’s how I feel – we want to know how you feel. So let’s take the next two weeks, talk to the elders, call us, e-mail us, or come see us. But
please, don’t provide feedback anonymously. Allow us the opportunity to respond to your feedback. Let us hear from you, but even more importantly, talk to God. Pray for the church, for the elders, for Jay and Mandy and I know God will lead us to exactly the place He wants us to be.

Joe Davis