For those of you who could not make it this past Sunday, February 2, 2025, Tim Wellert (Chair, Board of Elders), gave us this update at the end of each service:

The elders have been meeting most weeks since mid-October and have spent a significant time in prayer and seeking the Lord regarding the following topics. We welcome you to approach us for more conversation after this announcement, in coming weeks, and at future information sessions that we’re announcing today.

While historically, West Side has had one paster handle most Sunday sermons, we (the elders) would like to move toward a vision for Sunday sermons to be primarily taught by two pastors. We’re calling them teaching pastors. These pastors will be part of a team of individuals responsible for vision casting, developing, and delivering the sermons. We’re calling this group the “teaching team.”

We anticipate the teaching team will be comprised of a group of 4-6 people, mostly full-time pastors here at West Side but also some people outside this description such as past pastors like Ned Amstutz (an elder) or some of our elders feeling a calling to teaching.

We anticipate that the teaching pastors will handle approximately 80 percent of Sunday sermons while the balance will be handled by the other members of the teaching team and perhaps an occasional guest speaker.

This structure is strategic so that we can share the preaching load, hear passion and insight from more than one person, keep the teaching pastors involved in important church functions outside preaching, and provide opportunity for those desiring to teach.

We have begun to develop a governing document to guide the teaching team in purpose, structure, and operation in order to provide some boundaries to work within. This document is currently going through a round of edits and our plan is to have a final version done by end of March that we can share with you. We are very excited about the direction this group can take us and hope that you are able to join us in our excitement as the teaching team develops.

Now for the main announcement. After watching Pastor AJ over the last few months, we have all had an opportunity for what I’d consider an “extended on the job interview.” Although many of us knew AJ on a personal level or have witnessed his work within the confines of his ministry to our youth, we have now had opportunity to observe his passion, spiritual giftedness, preaching, and shepherding skillsets as he filled the role of “teaching pastor” in this interim period. I personally think he has done an excellent job.

As time has progressed, the elders have discussed AJ, his skills in teaching, his character, and passion for furthering the kingdom and conclude that we want to recommend AJ to the church as one of our full-time teaching pastors. The next step is that the elders’ recommendation will go to the congregation for a formal vote at the next congregational meeting, scheduled for March 2.

For those aware of AJ’s current roles and responsibilities, you may be wondering what this change means for the youth. If the members here at West Side do approve AJ as a teaching pastor on March 2, we will need to search for a new Director of Next Gen soon in order to hire someone by summer. In anticipation of this possibility, we intend to begin developing a search this month (February). Please note that we only intend to get the ball rolling until the vote in March. We won’t conduct interviews or make any offers, and will put the brakes on everything if the church is not in agreement with the elders recommendation when we meet on March 2.

I’d like to quickly discuss our vision for pastoral staff. We envision four full-time pastor roles going forward. The executive pastor role is filled by Ron and will continue to be for some time. We’ve discussed that we anticipate most of the Sunday sermons will be handled by two teaching pastors. AJ is currently filling one of them in the interim, and as discussed, we’d like to put him into one of those positions full time starting in March. We do not currently have the budget to fill the second teaching pastor role but are hoping to be able to begin the search later this year.