Dear Restoration,
Our church is in an exciting transitional season right now. We are shifting from a small, new church plant pastored by just me and Molly towards a slightly more established church with a more full pastoral team. In light of this, I am making changes to staff titles in order to bring clarity and to encourage you in your own spiritual walk.
Carrie: Parish Admin → Director of Parish Operations
Emily: Director of Children’s Ministry → Pastor of Children’s Ministry
Derek: Director of Worship → Pastor of Worship and Arts
Molly: Pastor of Outreach → Pastor of Mission
So, a bit more about these changes….
As our church has grown, so has the administrative areas —especially with the gift of our building. Carrie is supervising various operational teams of the church, and I want this reflected in her title.
We’re also changing the directors of Children and Worship to pastoral titles. This is to reflect and affirm the realities of what Emily and Derek are already doing at Restoration. Emily, with the support of her Children’s Leadership Team and amazing team of volunteers, shepherds, teaches, and cares for nearly a third of our congregation! Derek also serves to guide our hearts into greater adoration of God through worship music and arts.
Molly’s title is changing from Pastor of Outreach to Pastor of Mission for various reasons. She is the primary champion of our church’s value of Mission, builds relationships with partner ministries, and promotes avenues of service and mission among us. We feel that Mission better describes her role.
We’ve updated the website to reflect these changes (see here). May we all be stirred into greater love and service of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church, and the world!
Peace,
Fr. Rick
Appendix: Pastor, Deacons, and Priests
Almost everyone in our congregation is new to the Anglican tradition, so I’d like to take this as an opportunity to briefly describe how some common titles are used in our specific context.
Pastor is the Latin word for “shepherd,” and is used metaphorically for someone who leads. In many Anglican churches, this title may be used broadly to describe the act of teaching, guiding, disciplining, and encouraging congregants. Both ordained and lay persons can be given the title Pastor.
Deacon is the Greek word for “servant.” It is the first office of ordained ministry in sacramental churches. The deacon stirs the church to care for the sick, widows, poor, and marginalized. Restoration does not currently have a vocational deacon. All priests are first ordained as deacons and serve as such anywhere from a few months to several years.
Priest derives from the Greek word “presbyter,” which is commonly translated in the New Testament as elder. In sacramental churches, this is understood as an ordained office of ministry who serves as an icon of Christ. They lead a congregation, consecrate eucharist, absolve sin, and pronounce priestly blessing/anointing.
Obviously much more could be said about each of these things, but I hope this brief description clarifies how we use these titles and roles in our church. If you have more questions about ordination, I encourage you to read this letter or the liturgies for ordination in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer, page 470.
