EAGLE HILLS PASTOR PROFILE

OVERVIEW

Eagle Hills Church is looking for a new Lead Pastor. Located in Eagle, Idaho, a suburb of 30,000 near Boise, Eagle Hills is a recently independent church with an average attendance of 180. It has a large and beautiful facility. It is centrally located and heavily used by the community. There is a lot of opportunity for growth. The church is egalitarian in its structure and welcomes women at all levels of leadership including pastor. Eagle Hills Church is Wesleyan in its theology. Our mission is to attract and grow disciples for Jesus Christ. 

TOTAL COMPENSATION: $100,000

This sum can be broken out in the most beneficial way to provide a housing and utility allowance. Pastor will be required to obtain medical insurance and develop some kind of retirement plan. There is an additional $6,300 allotted for reimbursable expenses. 

EXPERIENCE/EDUCATION:

While an M.Div or its equivalent is highly preferred, it is not required. Experience in church leadership is required. We want to hear what you have done to lead a church to share and spread the gospel. Both men and women are welcome to apply.

AREAS OF COMPETENCY

1) PREACHING/TEACHING

We are looking for a pastor with a strong knowledge of the bible who is able to communicate and relate to a wide variety of people. We are not looking for someone who is overly dogmatic, but rather we are guided by Augustine’s ancient maxim, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; and in all things charity.” We believe in providing people with a clear understanding of what the bible says so that they can apply it to their own lives. Our members often say they want, “teaching, not preaching.” We do not want someone who will use the pulpit to tell us how to vote. We believe that church should be a place where people with different backgrounds and ideologies can come together in Jesus. Our worship is blended and we incorporate some traditional worship elements such as the Lord’s Prayer and the occasional saying of creeds. We practice communion in a variety of ways and do so monthly.

2) LEADERSHIP/ADMINISTRATION

We have a strong core of lay leaders and volunteers. This is not an accident. We believe that the training, maintaining and appreciation of volunteers is essential to making ministry work. We are looking for a strong, but humble servant leader who is capable of replicating leadership. We believe that good administration is vital to the success of any church. We organize and use our resources efficiently so that the Kingdom of God may be served as effectively as possible. Integrity in financial matters is critical.

3) PASTORAL/SPIRITUAL

Eagle Hills Church is looking for an applicant with a real heart for people. Candidates should have a strong spiritual core and an active prayer life. They should be alive in the Spirit and committed to personal spiritual growth. We want candidates who can talk with people about their problems, maintain confidentiality and minister to people who are going through the difficult times of life.

4) MISSIONS/COMMUNITY

Eagle Hills Church is very active in mission work. We are involved in local hands-on projects as well as work with people in need around the world. Mission projects we are involved with include: the Free Wheelchair Mission, Eagle food bank, monthly homeless dinners, blood drives, Operation Christmas Child, prison ministries, and Mission Mphimbi. We have a huge prayer shawl ministry which has given out over 2,500 shawls in the last ten years. We make our building available to the community in a wide variety of ways. We have our own Christian preschool with over 100 students. We also host the following groups: the Eagle Senior Center, the Eagle Theater Group, Jazzercise, Boy Scouts (the largest troop in the state), Cub Scouts, Millennial Choir, Stamp Club, various neighborhood Associations, the Idaho Watercolor Society, and many, many more. In addition to all that, we have an African refugee church that uses our facility for weekly worship. We average over 350 people a day in our building. We want to be a blessing to our community. We need a candidate with a heart for mission and outreach. 

CHARACTER

Candidates must be people of moral character. We want a pastor with true integrity, someone who is living out their Christian faith. Applicants may be single or married, but must practice celibacy in singleness and fidelity in marriage. Those with a past will not be ruled out, but we do expect strong evidence of a changed life for the candidate to be taken seriously. Before being hired, all candidates must agree to a background and credit check.

CHALLENGES

Like all churches, Eagle Hills faces challenges. We do not want to hide these. We want this process to be open and transparent and we want all candidates to know what they are walking into. Eagle Hills has recently disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church. We broke away due to profound theological differences. We are a church that is orthodox in our faith, taking seriously the creeds of the church. We are traditional in our understanding of sexuality. Disaffiliation means that we are in the process of creating a new identity for ourselves. Currently, we are an older congregation, but we really want to reach out to younger families. We have been growing steadily since Covid, but growth has accelerated, especially among young families since we disaffiliated and rebranded last year. We average about thirty children in our Sunday School, and we are trying to restart our youth group. 

While we have good giving and strong financial reserves, we also have a lot of debt due to building and disaffiliation. This puts limits on the amount of staffing we can afford. Our current pastor has been there for over thirty years, so pastoral transition will be new for many. However, we are committed to supporting the new pastor in every way possible.

The retiring lead pastor will still be a part of the congregation; ready to help, support and substitute for you at your discretion. We have it in writing that his job is to be your biggest cheerleader.