A Season of Change

By Jeff Foerster

Each year brings predictable cycles. Spring follows winter, which follows fall, which follows summer, which follows the previous spring. Our lives are made of rhythms as well—cycles of sleeping and waking, eating and fasting. However, it’s easy for those things to go unnoticed unless we stop to consider them, reflecting upon their importance.

We are in such a place at Elim, a place of reflection. We have been served and loved for the past 25 years by Martin and Kim. And now the season is changing. We, as the body of Christ, have responsibility to discern and move with intentionality further into the mission Christ Jesus has for His Church. In order to do so, we want to move with deliberate action, formed from godly discernment, born of willing reflection.

To walk well in this new season, we have chosen to seek an independent voice to speak into our community. Interim Pastor Ministries (IPM) has decades of experience helping churches move with intentionality through transitions. We have located and thoroughly vetted a well-qualified candidate to help us in this time: Pastor Steve McCoy.

We asked him to join us in our transition process, and he accepted our offer. Steve and Andrea McCoy will be visiting with us this Sunday, June 2. We are then planning toward June 23 as the first Sunday Steve will be here as interim pastor. Pastor McCoy has served as a senior pastor for approximately 35 years in New Mexico and California churches. Following this service, he joined IPM, and he now comes to us with four prior experiences leading churches in transition, including an EFCA church in our district at Canby, Oregon.

Steve also knows the Northwest, having been born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Yet his experiences have taken him across the country as well. He and Andrea met while at Southeastern Bible College in Birmingham, Alabama. Eighteen months later, they were wed while he attended Dallas Theological Seminary. Their family grew over the years with four children and then the additional blessing of four grandchildren.

His decades of experience as a senior pastor and his training and experience at IPM have prepared him well to assist us at Elim to thoughtfully and deliberately navigate our transition process. Pastor McCoy’s preaching is seasoned and, as we have listened to many hours of it, conforms to the EFCA statement of faith and the Scriptures from which it came.

One of the essential requirements of IPM is the agreement that anyone serving in the role of interim pastor will not seek, be considered, or be eligible in any way for the permanent senior pastor position at the church he serves. This prevents any conflict of interest now or in the future. This policy also enables the interim pastor to speak with clarity, conviction, and courage that which must be spoken. We believe Steve McCoy is extremely capable and will fulfill his role with dedication.

While Steve is joining the staff at Elim, Andrea’s role will be one of support to her husband. She will not be taking a leadership position at Elim, but she will engage at a participatory level at her discretion.

After having spoken with both Steve and Andrea via videoconference, we are excited to welcome them both to Elim this Sunday as our next step in the adventure God has planned for us. Please continue to pray for Elim, for discernment and wisdom, and that our faith and love would grow daily by the renewing of our hearts and minds!

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