Shared staffing is a new and innovative idea to help smaller churches thrive in our modern world. Too often we find smaller community churches short staffed and the few staff that do work in these churches get asked to do a lot of work outside of their skillsets.

 "Shared staffing" is a way for community churches to benefit from a larger staff team, to keep their home church their home, and to keep their staff from burning out.

Covenant Presbyterian and Grace Presbyterian are entering into a partnership to incorporate this plan and help both of their churches thrive into the future. 

To summarize the partnership, the shared staffing plan would be taking the place of the traditional Interim Pastor that would come in after Pastor Barb's retirement.  Instead of creating a short-term contract with one individual, Covenant hired a contracted team for 24 months. This team includes Rev. Justin Spurlock, Rev. Dave Van Deren, and a yet-to-be hired associate pastor.  Each churches support staff would remain the same.  The associate pastor position will require a Pastoral Nominating Committee to interview candidates.  This committee would consist of members from both Grace and Covenant.

Rev. Justin Spurlock will serve as a Head of Staff and as the Moderator of Session for both churches. Rev. Dave Van Deren's primary role will be working on pastoral care and congregational connections. Once Covenant hires a third person for this pastoral team, that person will serve as the primary pastoral and preaching presence at Covenant.

Both congregations will continue to be separate churches. The only difference is that Rev. Justin Spurlock, Rev. Dave Van Deren, and the yet-to-be hired associated pastor will serve both churches. Typically, a church has 1 head pastor that needs to do a lot of different work, but with our shared staffing plan Justin, Dave, and Covenant's next hire will specialize in their talents to do the work of a traditional head pastor. This will allow them all to thrive in their God-given skillsets and be able to collaborate with other leaders.

The support staff at Covenant will remain in their same roles and may get asked to help support the other church every now and again. To find out more information about Justin and Dave, please click the button below!

Grace Presbyterian Church is called to cultivate a spiritually vibrant community of grace. We seek to be a Christ-centered, intergenerational, open-minded community that participates fully in Christ's mission of grace.

For more information about Grace Presbyterian, please feel free to check out their website at the button below!