The Search Committee for our Designated Term Senior Minister (DTSM) has been hard at work. As a reminder, the Council approved the recommendation of a Pastoral Transition subcommittee last October to pursue selection of a Designated Term Senior Minister for 24 months. The role of a Designated Term Senior Minister is to accomplish specific tasks outlined by the congregation. As stated by our moderator: “Our goal over the next couple of years will be to achieve a pace of transformation that allows discernment of the long-term Central to which we will invite our next Senior Minister. Some of this work has been accomplished over the past few years, and we do not anticipate any meaningful departures from our core mission of being an open and affirming congregation in pursuit of our Just Peace Covenant”. With the approval of Council, the search committee – Allen Moye, Makesha Spence, and Martha Wetzel – was appointed.
DTSM is a full-time, pastoral position with the following primary areas of responsibility: leader and head of staff, pastoral care, worship, leadership development, and strategic planning. The DTSM will also support the development of policies and procedures and environmental sustainability initiatives. The Designated Term is twenty-four (24) months, with an option, exercisable only by mutual agreement, for an additional period of twelve (12) months. At the end of the Designated Term, the congregation will call a Settled Minister.
Our DTSM Candidate:
We are pleased to present Rev Elizabeth Mitchell Clement as the approved candidate for DTSM.
Rev. Clement is a resident of Atlanta and a member of First Congregational Church. She is a 1996 graduate of Candler School of Theology, cum laude. While at Candler, she was taught by Jon Gunnemann, and her faculty advisor was our own Helen Pearson-Smith.
She was ordained on February 17, 1997, and now has 27 years service in various settings. Some of the reasons we think she is an excellent fit for Central include:
- Rev. Clement has specialized in ministry to churches in transition. She has been certified for Transitional Ministry by the Interim Ministry Network. She has served three different churches in transition during the last 8 years — three in Florida and one in California. One of the Florida churches called her back for a second term of ministry. The California church, in Belmont, Ca., was the church that our associate minister, Rev. Kristi Denham, served after she left us, in 1999.
- As part of serving churches in transition, Rev. Clement has developed a process that pulls techniques from a variety of sources to facilitate church congregations in discerning and activating their gifts in service to the church. We believe this will be a key part of Central’s strategic plan development in the coming years.
- Also, we just found her delightful.
You can read the full announcement by clicking this link: DTSM Annoucement.
