Ministry Information Form Query

Our vision is to express God’s love in the community of St Louis Park and the world.  We are open minded and work hard to achieve this vision.  We are committed to growth and learning.  We seek to provide an inviting and welcoming church home which serves the needs of our members and our local community.  We offer a nurturing environment that strengthens relationships, helps people grow in faith through a variety of opportunities for worship, service and education, and embraces diversity, including welcoming immigrants and refugees.

We feel called to feed the community and our constituency:

•           By feeding the congregation and community spiritually through worship, education     opportunities, speakers, and prayer.

•           By making sure we are reaching out to members who are sick or unable to attend in- person worship and activities through personal contact and technology.

•           By feeding the community through enlarging our relationship with the St Louis Park Emergency Program (STEP), which supports community members needing food assistance, social work, and housing referrals.  We traditionally donate money, collect food and school supplies, store items for the organization, host the holiday toy distribution in our building, and donate food from our garden.

•           By feeding the community through new initiatives that may include community supported agriculture, a community garden, and serving meals.

•           By providing space for various outside groups and functions, such as being a local polling site.

•           By communicating in multi-pronged ways to the community to make the congregation and the neighborhood aware of the programs available.

•           By organizing and offering opportunities for service. 

• We seek a warm, creative, innovative leader and organizer who can recognize the needs and interests of the congregation and community and how Peace Church can provide service.
• We seek a pastor who will provide care and leadership for existing members.
• We seek a dynamic and motivating leader – a “spark plug,” to help us seek out and organize new ministries and strengthen the current ministry. 
• We seek an effective communicator who reaches out to the community and makes them feel welcome to join our activities and opportunities.
• We seek a pastor who helps us seek out and utilize current opportunities offered through PCUSA and our local Presbytery to help us grow in service to mission.

We seek a visionary leader to help us look toward a new future while affirming elements of our current identity. We want to develop new efforts to reach new people and witness for peace and justice in the world. 

Specific characteristics:

• Dynamic speaker and leader
• Continues to develop their theological and biblical skills
• Able to guide people as they explore their faith
• Technologically savvy and/or willing to learn
• Optimistic
• Compassionate, open, and caring
• Perceptive
• Accepting of differences
• Effective moderator
• Skilled at conflict resolution
• Problem solver
• Resourceful

PASTORAL-65% of the responsibilities

1. Be an effective preacher and worship leader
2. Lead adult classes, now on Zoom, by using higher level Biblical criticism, encouraging questions, and emphasizing open discussion
3. Initiate short-term educational opportunities. For example, new member class, officer training, book discussions
4. Reach out to hospitalized and shut-in congregation members, members in crisis situations, prospective members

ADMINISTRATIVE-20% of the responsibilities

1. Be the chief communicator to the congregation using oral, written, and digital methods
2. Serve as a resource person for all Session committees and the Board of Deacons in their program planning and activities’ implementation
3. Moderate Session and Congregational meetings
4. Supervise and coordinate paid staff and volunteers
5. Explore ideas for new programming and sources for funding them

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES-15% of the responsibilities

1. Work with Session to discern the future direction of the congregation and define goals to move in that direction
2. Continue in personal, spiritual, intellectual, and administrative growth
3. Participate regularly in Presbytery and occasionally in Synod and General Assembly
4. Help our congregation to continue its emphasis on mission, both local and global

GENERAL

1. Be eager to be part of the congregation and the broader community
2. Guide but not govern
3. Be open minded, foster questioning, and help us put our faith into action

https://www.peaceprez.com/

https://www.stlouispark.org/our-city/about-us/vision-st-louis-park

https://stepslp.org/

https://mlp.org/

http://www.mnchurches.org/what-we-do