Welcome Josh Smith and Family

In case you missed the announcement this past Sunday, we have hired a new Assistant Pastor. We are pleased to welcome Josh Smith and his family, and we cannot wait for him to join our staff! We believe that God has provided us with the man He has his hand on to help our community grow and thrive. Let me give you some technical details first before I introduce him and his family. In the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), the denomination we are a part of, an Assistant Pastor is called by the Session. On the other hand, the congregation calls an Associate Pastor. When we hired our first Assistant Pastor, Brian Henson, the Session called him and after a few years, when we made him an Associate, the congregation had to approve that call. Josh will become an Associate after he is ordained in the EPC, and when he does the congregation will vote on that call. Josh is currently ordained by a local church. It will take about a year for him to get his credentials in the EPC.Hiring an Assistant Pastor is not like falling off a log, but rather it is a slow and methodical process. The main qualities we were looking for in our new hire was an ability to take our Community Groups to the next level and to oversee our Discipleship Ministry. Of course, he will be tasked with some pastoral ministry and preaching, but we were specifically looking for someone who has prior experience and expertise (not just potential) that will aid in developing our Community Group leaders and coaching people in making disciples.With that in mind, we tapped into our network of ministers that spreads from San Francisco, California to Brooklyn, New York, asking our ministry partners in other places if they knew anyone who fit our job description. In fact, after we sent the word out, we even had one candidate from Vancouver, BC! When all was said and done, we had five candidates to start with. One of these dropped out and, after looking over the resumes for the four remaining candidates, we then started doing phone interviews with each of them, as well as contacting their references. The Personnel Committee was very impressed with two men, in particular. In fact, I got a text one night asking me if we could hire two people!As impressed as the Personnel Committee was with these final two candidates, one candidate stood out, and they recommended we interview him in person. After an interview with the Session, and then several follow up interviews, the Session unanimously voted to call Josh Smith to be our new Assistant Pastor (find Josh on Twitter - @yeshuasmith).But do you want to know what was crazy about this whole process and, by the way, amazing? After we interviewed people from as far away as Vancouver, we ultimately decided on a gentleman who actually lives right here in Collierville! In fact, he has worked at Grace Crossing for the past two years as the Teaching Pastor. If you go to Starbucks much, you have most likely seen him and just didn’t know it. Can you image that? God led us to someone who lives in Collierville and already knows and loves the city. You can’t make this up! God brought us to a man here in our town, not in a Presbyterian Church, who was looking to get into his “tribe” at the same time that we were looking for a new pastor.Another amazing thing about this hire is that, as I have gotten to know Josh, we have read the same books, love the same authors, and have been shaped by many of the same influences. We are, however, very different. Whereas I am trying to dream up the next big thing, Josh’s gift is to see the ministries become fully formed into structures where people can thrive. Josh has a tremendous intellect, and his wife is a peach.Josh will come on staff on August 1st. I will introduce him on August 7th, and he will preach that Sunday. I am sure it will not take long for his family to weave their way into the fabric of parish life here. The thing I respect about Josh most is his love for his wife and kids. Josh embodies as much as a saved sinner can what we are about: Loving God, Loving People, Loving Life. I knew he was the right man when we were running references and Robbyn Abedi, the Iranian Redneck (his words, not mine) who preached for us at the first of the year, told me this, “Josh is the only guy I know who before he was thirty had a life worth imitating.”I can’t wait for you all to meet his family. So be praying for them as they finish up their ministry at Grace Crossing and begin a new adventure here. Below is a little about Josh, in his own words. Blessings!My family has deep Shelby County roots, going back a couple hundred years. My wife and I are high school sweethearts and we have three very enthusiastic children. Over the past couple of decades we've spent our life loving and serving with Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, ex-Church of Christ folks and everything in-between, and while that ecumenical background has enriched our experience, we're excited to finally land back into the Presbyterian world where we find our own convictional identity. I have a deep passion to see the messiness of everyday home life become the primary place of Christ's incarnation to the world. I'm an amateur musician and I love the humanities - western civilization, literature, and the fine arts. I also love pop culture - movies, memes, dad jokes. Really, I love a good redemption story, and I think we're all living in the best of them.