If you thought seeking and calling a new pastor was a secret enterprise that happens behind closed doors conducted by a few “elite” individuals, I’m hoping the recent cottage meetings have shifted that thought just a bit.

Over 100 people, inside the church and in our community, have attended these small group gatherings hosted by members of our church in their homes and neighborhoods. Every member of the Search Committee has taken turns either moderating or recording your answers to very particular questions about Gilead Congregational Church.

Each meeting’s plan revolved around three big questions:

• Who we are
• Who is our neighbor?
• What is God calling us to be?

Eleven people could have answered those questions themselves in a closed room, and perhaps that would have been efficient. But, the portrait that would emerge from that one group would be a monochromatic, impoverished image of our church.

Thanks to every one of you who offered your considered insights and heartfelt passion, the tapestry that the Search Committee will weave is going to be bright and varicolored, encompassing and detailed.

We rely on the Holy Spirit’s stirrings to bring to us the pastor who is already being prepared for a call to our church. Thanks to all of you who have attended a Cottage Meeting, that person is going to have a big, detailed, beautiful portrait speaking to them as they discover their next chapter may be a sojourn in Gilead.