Pastor Candidate Presentation

Well, good evening. It is a great excitement. We are here and thinking, as I was sitting over there listening to all his announcements, how good God is. He's very good to us. And it's an exciting day. Before we did start, I did want to thank the congregation for all the love and support you have shown us during this time of transition. This has been a very humbling experience, and we are thankful for the opportunity to serve such a wonderful church. In addition, and more importantly, I want to thank you for your prayers. I also want to thank all those who served on the committee, Sean Agnew, Chris Marshall, Jennifer Scruggs, Cheryl Thacker, John Bowman, Matthew Davison, Brian Davis, and Ron Pantuck. I also appreciate the contributions that Steve Belcher made as well. It has been a joy to serve with you all and I'm so thankful for the sincerity and godliness you have shown during this process. Finally, I want to thank the wives, husbands, and children of those who served on the committee. Without your support, we would not be here today. I particularly want to thank my wife, Hannah. Honey, I love you very much. Before I announce the candidate, I want to start by providing a brief outline of the search process. The committee developed a job description, compensation range, pastor profile, and church profile that were presented and discussed at the March church conference. We solicited recommendations from trusted professors at SBC seminaries, trusted leaders from like-minded churches and ministries, and the SBCV. Many interested men submitted resumes, resumes, ministry, philosophy, philosophy, statements and statements of faith. The committee then created a detailed written questionnaire dealing with theology, practice, philosophy and personal life that was sent to the four candidates who were considered the most promising when judged against our pastor profile. Following our review of the return questionnaires and listening to recorded sermons, the committee designated two candidates as finalists. Following extensive reference checking, the committee then interviewed each finalist in person for several hours. We then unanimously chose one candidate to recommend to the church. And before introducing the candidate, I want to outline the process to come so that you know exactly what to expect. Today is the beginning of the end, but it is not the end. A calendar of events is being handed out, and I want to explain it to you. So I'm going to wait till everyone receives that, and we'll go over that. To select a new pastor, our Constitution requires a secret vote on the recommendation to be held during a Sunday morning worship service, similar to the way we elect deacons. And if you look on your calendar, that's scheduled for August 22nd. So Sunday, August 22nd, that's at 1045. The Constitution also requires a special conference to discuss the recommendation at least a week before the vote. If you look back, that's scheduled for Wednesday, August 11th. So we'll have a regular church conference that day, followed by our special conference. It'll be a time for discussion of the pastor search recommendation. The Constitution also requires two weeks notice for a special conference, and that's tonight. We're announcing the special conference tonight. Now, in addition to these required events, the committee is also scheduled an informal question and answer session with the committee next Wednesday night, August 4th. So, you see, that will be a time for questions to ask the committee, anything that you would like to ask. And then Sunday, August 8th, and that's a mistake on your calendar. It says August 1st, the candidate and his family will be here at Jefferson Park. So he will preach that day. And then that night scheduled Sunday, our church family fellowship at Jenny Sue Miners, the candidate and his family will be there as well. So I'd encourage you to come to that. That'll be a time for the church to ask questions of the candidate himself. So he will preach in the morning service and Tina's family will join us for our church family fellowship that evening. You'll have a chance to meet them and our discussion time will be set aside for an informal question and answer session with them as. That's August 8th when he will be. Yes, sir. It's a mistake on your calendar. As a committee, we are convicted and convinced that the man I'm about to introduce is God's man for this church at this time. We pray that God will lead you by his spirit to the same conviction. While we have been honored that you elected us to take the lead to this point, it is ultimately all of us, the members of Jefferson Park Baptist Church, that will call its next pastor. We've also set aside certain days of prayer and fasting. So you see on the calendar these days are August 5th, August 10th, August 14th, August 17th and August 19th. So, please know that we have designated these specific days as a time for prayer and fasting, and we strongly encourage everyone to seek God's will through prayer and fasting on one of these days. There are many ways that one can fast, but the important thing to remember is that God loves it when His people seek His will. So, if you have any questions about fasting or prayer, please let one of us know. Are there any questions so far along the process? or on the calendar specifically. Well, the waiting is over and it is with much excitement that I am pleased to announce the man that I pray will be our next pastor. He's going to have a video introduction as well. Keith Goad. Hello, my name is Keith Goad, and it is a great honor to have been selected by your church community to be your pastor candidate. Lisa, my wife, and I have been praying for your church for some time, and are very excited about the opportunity and potential of coming and serving alongside of you. So before I introduce myself further, I'll let my wife tell you a little about herself, and this is our daughter Lillian. Hello again, my name is Lisa and we are just really excited about this opportunity as Keith is nominated to be your pastoral candidate. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with you, just fellowshipping and worshipping with you has been a joy. Each time we've come away from your church we've been overwhelmed, just thought to ourselves, wow, we could see ourselves worshipping with you with such a warm church body who love each other, who love the Lord. And yeah, we are just humbled by this opportunity. I'm from Harrisonburg, Virginia, so Charlottesville feels a lot like home. We love it there. And this is our daughter Lillian. She's 15 months old. Can you say hi? Hi. and we're distracting her with a few blueberries here. My name is Keith Goad. We currently live in Louisville, Kentucky, but I grew up as a child in a rural town just outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I lived in Greenville, South Carolina as a high schooler. And there I turned for the worse. I was very rebellious against God and my family. Everything I could rebel against, I rebelled against. It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I kind of started waking up from just this ridiculous rebellious spirit and just not satisfied with the life it had given me. I started reading scripture, and I saw clearly that I was the fool in scripture, and that Jesus was the wise man, and there was something much more attractive about Him than the lifestyle that He was promoting. And the gospel wasn't really clear yet, but it was a moment when I went back to my home to get some things for my house, for my parents, and a letter from my grandfather. I found it in a drawer. And when I read it, it just broke me down because I realized that he was telling me all the mistakes I was going to make. And he was telling me how the gospel would protect me from these things, and how they were unwise, and how the gospel would also forgive me of all these things. And it just opened my eyes. And from that moment on, I committed my life to Christ. And it was soon after that that I set a zeal to proclaim Him to all my other friends who were living in foolishness. and I got a real call to be a minister. So I went to Liberty to be prepared for the ministry. I didn't expect to be there for a year or two to learn the few things I needed to know. But ten years later, I went to Liberty and I've gone on to Southern Seminary and I'm finishing my second degree there. There was a lot to know that I was not aware of. While the education has been a great preparation for me to be a pastor, I said that the number one thing that prepared me to be a pastor was my marriage. We were married right after Liberty, a year after Liberty. And Lisa, soon after we were married, contracted pneumonia for the second time. And the Epstein-Barr virus, it damaged her nervous system to where she has a fatigue regularly. She's regularly dizzy. And it just made us slow down with life. It made me slow down with my selfishness. and really made me much more compassionate and sympathetic towards suffering. And so that I can look back and see was where God really started changing my heart towards being much more pastoral in spirit. My church recognized that and they called me to be a lay pastor about five years ago. There's a number of us, we regularly have not had a senior pastor through that period. We had a senior pastor less often than not. And so that gave me an opportunity to be an interim pastor, to do a lot of preaching, do a lot of counseling for premarital and aftermarital problems. It was a great benefit to me because it gave me an opportunity to really try to minister and help me to learn from trial and error, sadly. But they showed me a lot of grace. The church has been helpful in helping me understand my gifts and my calling. There's a huge number of, everyone I've asked about the advice on coming to you all. They've been very encouraging and positive. Your search committee has been a huge encouragement to us, the way they have conducted themselves, the whole process, the questions they've asked have just made me desire to be there more. Like Lisa was saying, every time we've visited, we've just loved the church. It is a great, warm body. I already have friends there, so if you call me or not, I will be visiting Chicago. I truly love a number of folk there, and I look forward to getting to know the rest of you, if you were to call me. So we look forward to seeing you on August 8th, when I'll be coming to preach, and we'll be praying for you. We'll continue to pray for you, and God bless. Thanks. Bye. Keith has also written a letter to the body and I want to share with you now. Hello, Jefferson Park Baptist Church, it is an honor to be nominated by your search committee as your pastor candidate. I have been praying for you and your pastor search since preaching for you in February. My wife, Lisa, and I are encouraged, humbled and challenged by the nomination. My love for you and desire to be your pastor started back when I preached at JPBC in February. First, I was encouraged by how well you received the preaching. You are a joy to preach to and receive the word of God as a faithful body. It is a blessing to find a body that desires to be taught like you. Second, I was encouraged that you do not leave the service quickly. You stayed around to fellowship with one another, and this allowed me to get to know a few of you. I then had a wonderful time with a number of members that afternoon and with the church again for the evening service. Lisa and I left with a growing desire and curiosity about serving with the church. These two things give me confidence that you have a love for God and one another. After studying your website, I was also encouraged to see that we are like minded in theology and vision for how the church should glorify God. Lisa and I are also attracted to Charlottesville because it is one of our favorite cities. While in town for a conference, John Bowman, Chip Case, and Byron Glaspie visited us in Louisville in April. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and we discussed the life and needs of Jefferson Park in greater detail. This fellowship further reinforced my desire to serve with you and underscored the consistency of our vision for a healthy church. I've been training to be a professor for eight years. However, my desire to be a pastor has grown significantly while serving in a local church for the last five years. And this desire has accelerated in the last year. I had not pursued being a pastor because I think it is a high calling and I did not want to presume I should be a pastor. After consulting with my elders and advisors, however, they were all unanimous that your church would be a good fit and that I am equipped to be your pastor. My desire for J.P.B.C. has only grown since spending an additional two Sundays with you in June, as well as a Wednesday night and a few dinners. I've been very impressed with your search committee and the way they conducted themselves and the kinds of questions they have been asking makes me more excited about serving your church. JPBC seems to have all the potential a pastor could hope for. There are many different kinds of people within the body, and the location of the church is excellent in terms of being accessible to a number of communities in Charlottesville. I have seen great potential leadership with the members I've gotten to know and have been encouraged with the friends that I've already made in such a short time. God has greatly blessed you as a church, and it would be an honor to have the blessing of being your pastor. My main vision for Jefferson Park is that you grow in your love for God. This will be the main emphasis in my preaching, counseling and care. I believe my success as your pastor will be judged by how much we grow in our love for God and what he has done for us in Christ Jesus. Our growing to love God more will cause the church to grow in its ability to care for and love one another as brothers and sisters. So that discipleship begins to take root. It will also lead to vibrant evangelism in the community. My prayer is that we will be compelled by the love of Christ to share his gospel with friends, family and neighbors. I also hope to have strategically planned church outreaches. The community will see our love for God and for one another. And if this is done under the unity of Christ and empowered by the spirit, they will be attracted to the gospel. If you call me to be your pastor, I ask that you commit to praying for my family and me regularly. I've included seven ways you can pray for us, one for each day of the week. Pray that our marriage will be protected and that I will care for my wife, Lisa, and daughter, Lily. Pray that I would faithfully lead you in evangelism and discipleship by word and example. Pray that as I study God's Word to teach it that would have its proper effect in my life first. Pray that I would proclaim God's Word with faithfulness and boldness and that the Spirit would use my words to cause you to love God more. Pray that I would be surrounded by leadership that would complement my weaknesses and shortcomings. Pray that you would show me grace and forgiveness in these same areas and that a culture of forgiveness would be created as we all live as sinners waiting on the return of Christ to finally redeem us. I am looking forward to preaching again at JPBC on August 8th. I pray that weekend will be a time of great fellowship and worship as Lisa and I get to know you better and you get to know us. I also want to read the pastor search committee has written a letter of endorsement. And please know that we're going to make copies of all this available for all you. We have packets that we're going to hand out in a few minutes. So you're going to have everything. But I want to read this as well as the pastor search committee endorsement of Keith Goad. The pastor search committee is delighted to unanimously and joyfully recommend Keith Goad as the next pastor of Jefferson Park Baptist Church. Many of you got to meet Keith and his family when he preached here in February and again the last week of May and the first week of June. Keith grew up in North and South Carolina and was converted as a freshman in college after, by his own account, living very recklessly as an adolescent. He transferred to Liberty University, where he met his wife of eight years, Lisa, who is from the Harrisonburg area. They are the very proud parents of a 15 month old daughter, Lily. Keith has served as an elder for four years at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He's currently finishing his Ph.D. in historical theology, theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, teaching at a local classical school and teaching online courses for liberty. Why Keith Goad? The short answer is that Keith is a God sent embodiment of the qualifications and expectations we established in the pastor profile we presented to the church. First and foremost, we believe that Keith meets the biblical qualifications through our personal interactions with him and our conversations with those who know him well. We believe he has been and will be an exemplar of the qualities of an elder explained in First Timothy 3, 1 through 7, Titus 1, 5 through 8, and First Peter 5, 1 through 4. This is a long list, but since scripture is our primary authority in all things, we want to spell out these qualities. Aspires to the office of overseer, above reproach, husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, give instruction, not a drunkard, not violent, gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, greedy for gain, manage his own household well, able to care for the church, not a recent convert, well thought of by outsiders, Children are faithful, not open to charges of debauchery or insubordination, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, lover of good, upright, holy, disciplined, holds firm to the trustworthy word, able to rebuke, be a shepherd of the flock, not lording it over those entrusted to him, be an example to the flock. Second, we have seen ample testimony that Keith affirms our theological expectations with both enthusiasm and grace. He not only affirms, but is also gifted to teach and defend the Baptist faith and message of 2000, the five solos of the Reformation and the doctrines of grace, the complementarian views of the roles of men and women in the church and the family and the plurality of church leadership. Third, he's preaching is excellent in content and quality. We have listened to many of his sermons, both recorded and in person, and we are confident that he preaches expositionally and places preaching of the word at the center of worship. We know he will preach repentance, the substitutionary death of Jesus and the centrality of the cross with every sermon pointing to Christ. We know by experience that his sermons are well-organized, well-delivered, and theologically rich. His preaching at JPBC was well-received by the congregation. Fourth, we are excited by the passion Keith displays for evangelism and discipleship. Not only has expressed his words to us, but also has lived out in his ministry at Third Avenue Baptist Church and Southern Seminary. He will promote evangelism and missions, reaching those inside and outside the church with the gospel. He will actively engage personally and engender a church culture that is a passion for the discipleship and spiritual growth of all members. He will intentionally seek to raise up and disciple leaders. Fifth, we personally look forward to being shepherded by Keith, a man ably suited to pastor everyone in this body. He will be a shepherd who is compassionate to the flock's needs while being able to teach and correct. He will relate to people of differing ages, educational and theological backgrounds, and ethnicities. Keith is excited about our church, not just where we are doctrinally in the ministries we participate in, but the church is composed of a gathering of believers of all human types united in the blood of Christ. We intentionally did not include expectations for education and experience in our pastor profile, wanting to be open to the spirits leading regarding a man's call, qualities and capabilities separate from more formal and secular standards. However, in Keith, God has provided us a well-educated, experienced elder. Keith has his Masters of Divinity is on track to finish his Ph.D. before starting at JPBC. Keith has served for several years as an elder with extensive experience in preaching, shepherding, counseling, and evangelizing. We are convicted and convinced that Keith is God's man for this church at this time, and we pray that that would be the Spirit's leading in your hearts as well. We encourage you to get to know him. We are making available to you his resume, His philosophy of ministry statement, his written answers to our questionnaire and his letter to the congregation. Our website will link to his sermons online, both those preached at Jefferson Park and those given at Third Avenue. We can provide CDs of his sermons for those who don't have Internet access. On August 8th, you will be able to again to meet him and hear him preach. We want you to read his materials and listen to his sermons and perhaps and most importantly, pray. So I'm going to ask now that those packets be handed out to everyone. OK, so we're going to hand out these packets to everyone included, you're going to see Keith's letter that I read to you earlier, the pastoral committee's endorsement that I just read. Keith's resume. He's philosophy of ministry. A copy of the questionnaire, this is the questionnaire that we sent to Keith and asked him to respond to. That's it, but you'll have. And before I reach the official read the official recommendation, I do again want to encourage everyone to take time to look over these these documents that you have. And as also as I mentioned, there will be a link on our website to sermon. So feel free to listen to those as well. Again, next Wednesday will be our first. Question and answer. So tonight's not going to be really the night that will answer a lot of questions. We're going to we've we've provided three opportunities to do so as a church and as a committee. So tonight's really a night just for the formal announcement. And so our hope is that you'll take these things and go and look them over. And then again, next Wednesday will be our first time of Q&A with the pastor search committee. Then on August 8th, that Sunday, after Keith preaches that night, 6 p.m. at Jenny Sue Miner's, Keith will be there with his family. So it's a time for you all also to ask him questions. And then again, finally, on August 11th, we'll have another time of discussion to discuss the recommendation. So I'm going to now read the official pastor search committee recommendation, going to ask I'm going to pass those, and Brian and John are going to pass these out to you all as well. So once you receive these, I will read the official recommendation, which is what we will be voting for, voting on specifically on the 22nd of August on our Sunday, this recommendation that Brian and John are passing out. Does everyone have a copy of the recommendation? OK, well, I'm going to read that now to us. And again, this is what we're this is the official recommendation that we'll be voting on. The pastor search committee unanimously recommends that Jefferson Park Baptist Church call Keith go to be her pastor with duties and remuneration as described below. OK. Also, I'm sorry, announcing also that the special conference will be on with a vote on August 22nd. So the deacons hereby at the request of the pastor search committee, the deacons hereby call for a special conference on August 11th at approximately 630 p.m. to discuss the committee's recommendation regarding the hiring a new pastor. And here is the official recommendation once again. The pastor search committee unanimously recommends that Jefferson Park Baptist Church call Keith go to be her pastor with duties and reiteration as described below overview. The church shall call pastor to lead in shepherding the church. He shall meet the biblical qualifications for an elder. First Timothy 3, 1 through 7, Titus 1, 5 through 8, 1 Peter 5, 1 through 4. He shall exercise leadership in the areas of preaching, teaching, prayer, worship, administration of ordinances, counseling and ministry oversight character. The pastor must be a man of prayer, must exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, 22 through 26, must demonstrate faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, and must give testimony to his conversion and to the leadership of God in his call to the ministry. He must have the character of a servant of God and the leader of his people as described in Scripture. Eligibility. A pastor and his wife, if any, must be eligible for full membership in the church, if not already full members. They shall present themselves for membership as soon as possible after his taking office. Duties. The pastor must be ordained and shall be the church's senior ministry leader. The pastor shall be a shepherd of the church, preach the gospel, Teach the scriptures, administer the ordinances of the church, encourage, advise, and admonish the church in matters of belief, word, and deed. Coordinate the church's work in fulfilling its purpose and oversee the administration of the church in support of its work. Serve as an ex officio member and be involved in the decisions of all groups, organizations, and committees in the church. attend deacons meetings, supervise the employees of the church, perform other duties specified in the JPBC Constitution or duly assigned by the church, be accountable to the body as prescribed by the JPBC Constitution.