Last Thursday, we made it official; we extended a call to David and Lauren Johnson to come and do life with us here at The Church at Riverland Terrace, James Island Baptist. David will be joining us as our Worship and Connection-Small Group Pastor. Next week we will include some of his biographical information.
As far back as April we began our first conversation with Dave. Pastor Brent knew him personally from the time he and Jess served at Crosspoint Church in Orlando. Brent called to ask if Dave would be interested in talking to us and if he was interested to send us his resume. Dave’s resume was one of over 120 resumes I held in my hands, read and considered. That sounds like there were a lot of candidates out there. Not really. There were just a lot of people out there looking for jobs. If I told you about some of the resumes we received, you would think I was making up the story. There were some humdingers. There were less than 10 that we had serious conversation with and only four that we interviewed personally. Dave’s resume and interview kept rising to the top of our list.
Brent arranged for Dave and his family to come down and help in the area wide “Love God-Serve Charleston” week. Dave came and assisted in leading music and serving with the youth. We took a small group of leaders to hear Dave at that event and liked what we heard. We interviewed him that week. Dave is very likable, so we invited him back for his first official visit at JIBC where he met and worked with the praise team, met with around 40 of our leaders, led in four worship settings and had more interviews.
We decided to let that sit for a while and to seek feedback from the 40 or so leaders that met David and Lauren. They received high marks from them all. Not one felt any sense of “no or stop” from the Lord. It was a very good weekend.
Conversations continued with Dave and Lauren and eventually led to a second official visit. Once again, Dave met with the praise team, led in three worship settings and met with a smaller group of JIBC leaders. This meeting got down to the nuts and bolts of the decision making process. Again, our leaders gave thumbs up and were ready to move on.
You will perhaps laugh at this next move. I met one final time with our staff and with our Elders. I presented the decision to call David in the old fashion way in weddings: “If anyone knows of any reason these two (Dave and JIBC) should not now be wedded, speak now or forever hold your peace!” At that point, the decision was made to extend the call to Dave, Lauren and their two boys.
It looks like they will move here the third week of October. The final details have not been worked out, but we will keep you informed. You will love Dave and Lauren. They have already bonded with several members of our church family. Keep them and JIBC in your prayers as we transition into this new “kairos” moment of time. This really could be a defining moment for us.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Tom
