By MARK MAYNARD, Kentucky Today
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (KT) – Jason Lowe has served as an interim pastor on multiple occasions over the last seven years during his ministry with the Pike County Association of Southern Baptists.
Lowe is the associational mission strategist for the Pike association and his role in that position is to serve the churches. He hasn’t hesitated to do just that whenever called upon, and in 2019 he worked eight months as the interim at Grace Baptist Church.
Lowe’s goal is to prepare the church for the next pastor. However, with multiple churches now without pastors in the association, it was becoming more than he could juggle. He was starting a push to train some others in the association with an interim pastors cohort group when a deacon from Grace Baptist Church asked a question that led to an idea.
“He said, ‘I love the interim pastor cohort idea, but I’d love it if there’s a resource for the church itself. Is there anything like that out there?’’’ Lowe said.
Lowe thought and thought but came up with nothing. “There’s a lot of resources for pastor search teams and interim pastors but there wasn’t anything for the congregation.”
With Lowe’s experience of helping so many churches going through the difficult transition, it became obvious to him what needed to happen.
Lowe wrote a book called The Church During the Search that guides the congregation through the transition period. It speaks directly to the congregation instead of pastor search committees or pastors coming to or leaving a church.
“The idea is to prepare the church for how they can honor the Lord throughout this process,” he said. “I’ve seen some churches do really well in transition season and seen some churches struggle.”
Lowe, who said it was on his bucket list to write a book, never expected one like this to be the first. But God clearly and effectively guided him. He said it was about the time that COVID hit that everything happened so, after the initial shock wore off, he did have some extra time to write.
It can be used as a study or an outline for congregations as they navigate the waters of church life without a pastor. The opening chapter deals with the emotions that the church may be going through after a pastor has left them.
“The way the book is designed, it centers around six commitments that every church member is encouraged to make regardless of if you’re on the search team or just a faithful member coming to church,” Lowe said. “It walks you through it with 30 small chapters of about a thousand words each. There are five-day focuses on each one of those six commitments.”
The commitments discussed in the book are: Be prepared, be informed, be humble, be prayerful, be patient and be productive. He expounds on each area.
Lowe said the book has a definite purpose and direction being aimed at the church members themselves.
“The way I describe this book is it’s not a training manual for pastor search committees,” he said. “It’s a guide to help churches honor the Lord in their attitudes and behavior.”
It can be used as a study guide for the church, Lowe said.
“It’s also right in line with one of Dr. (Todd) Gray’s initiatives (of helping churches in pastor searches),” he said referring to the Kentucky Baptist Convention executive director-treasurer’s goals for 2021.
Gray was one of several who gave a written endorsement of the book.
"One of the most critical times in the life of a congregation is the time when the church is searching for their next senior pastor," he said. "Jason's book, written from the perspective of one who has trained numerous search committees, assists churches by providing practical tips... Jason's book brings the unbeatable combination of solid research, personal observation, applicable anecdotes and love for the local church."
Lowe’s book can be purchased on Amazon for $15.99 or bulk discount is available at jasonalowe.com.
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December 26, 2020 at 07:56PM
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Book aimed at guiding church members during pastor search - Kentucky Today
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