CBC Pastor Search Team
At the end of May 2022, Stephen Heleman resigned as senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church to answer a call from a struggling church on the West Coast. The need for a new senior pastor set into motion the development of a pastor search team according to our by-laws and a process to find the right man for the job.
Since then, the pastor search team has been unwavering in our commitment to seeking God's will and guidance in finding the right candidate for senior pastor. We have tapped into search resources from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the national Southern Baptist Convention and have diligently followed a process to review candidates and determine whether they would fit the pastor profile developed by the team based on the church's survey.
To protect our candidates' existing ministries and livelihoods, we won't be able to discuss who has applied or who we are specifically and currently considering. However, in the interest of increased transparency, we've set up this web page to share the search team's process and the latest updates, as well as answers to some frequently asked questions. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. The whole team may be contacted by email at psc@cbcfamily.net.
Applicant resumes, meanwhile, can be sent to cbc.bastrop.resumes@gmail.com.​
​
Team Members:
Teresa Carroll
Kasey Hoffman
Gary Gagnon
Jason Hoffman
Samuel Clark
​
Status Updates (most recent first):
-
July 15, 2024—Jim Jordan and Keenan Foley stepped down to concentrate on Church Council work. Samuel Clark and Gary Gagnon were added as new members. They are now reviewing all sermons and notes from current candidates who are still being considered.
-
June 30, 2024 - Determined top candidates and collected additional information from them to better understand their beliefs. Began meeting with and interviewing candidates. We made an offer to the top candidate, who declined our invitation to come in view of a call.
-
May 30, 2024 - Reviewed all resumes received and systematically analyzed key points to evaluate candidates.
-
April 30, 2024—The job listing is now closed. The search team has also narrowed down our applicant list to the top four candidates who stood out among the rest. We will reach out to them to determine their continued interest and have them fill out additional questionnaires to get to know each other better. Then, we will prayerfully determine which man we should pursue uniquely first.
-
April 1, 2024 - The search team has opened a job listing on the SBTC job board for our new senior pastor for Bastrop. CBC's survey results directly influenced some of the phrasing and priorities on the job listing.
-
March 18, 2024 - With the new church survey concluded, the pastor search team convened to review the results. You can view a summary of those results here. We thank CBC for helping us describe our church family to prospective applicants and giving the search team a picture of the man you all hope the Lord will call to our church.
-
March 3, 2024—The search team invited everyone in the CBC family to take our new church survey. We wanted to hear what kind of man you think we should be looking for to be the senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. This survey was active until March 17th.
-
February 26, 2024—The pastor search team reviewed profiles for our community and our church together and concluded an objective review of applicants who have trickled on over the last 90 days.
-
February 19, 2024—After the initial survey was developed, we reviewed all the questions and their phrasing again. In the next couple of weeks, the church will receive an email with the survey, and print copies will be available on request.
-
February 12, 2024 - The search team developed a hopeful timeline for the process developed the week before, including milestones when we will update the church on our status. This timeline reflects our ideal schedule that assumes no unforeseen obstacles and that the first candidate we interview is the man God has for us. In that best-case scenario, we would hopefully have a vote on a candidate at the beginning of August 2024. We also developed an objective scoring system, as recommended by the SBTC's guidelines, to help the team initially focus on candidates closest to our ideal candidate.
-
February 4-5, 2024 - The search team reconvened to construct an updated survey of the church's hopes and expectations for a new senior pastor. This survey will be sent to the church soon. We also wrote out the entire process we will follow, based on the SBTC's guidelines for a pastor search process, but with the added benefit of lessons learned from interviewing previous applicants. We will meet again to reconstruct the job posting for this position and confirm our plans for communication with the church body throughout the search process.
-
January 29, 2024—After meeting on January 22nd for pastor search training by Alex Gonzales, the newly reformed senior pastor search committee met for the first time for team orientation. Over the next few weeks, we will review our process and what we're looking for in a pastor to ensure accurate portrayals of CBC today.
-
January 21, 2024—At the church family meeting, Teresa Carroll and Kasey Hoffman were announced as the newest members of the search team. On January 22, 2024, they will meet with interim pastor Alex Gonzales and the other pastor search teams for pastor search training.