Mars Hill Church is looking for leaders who love Jesus and want to devote their lives to serving the church.
The Lead Pastor Residency program is entering its third year of training men to be leaders at Mars Hill. The residency exists to assess, train, and send out called, qualified and competent pastors to plant new Mars Hill churches. The program is designed to develop in residents the core beliefs, character, and skills needed to effectively lead others on mission with Jesus.
This year’s application process opens on January 14th and will close on May 1, 2014. Based on the last two years of the program, we expect hundreds of applications for the handful of positions available. The program is extremely selective because its purpose is bigger than producing healthy pastors. Our intent is to plant healthy churches that will reproduce in time.
This is not the place to start if you are exploring a call to ministry or would like to gain some pastoral experience. Think of it less as a development program and more of a finishing school. Lead Pastor Residency applicants should have a mature relationship with Jesus characterized by holiness and humility. An applicant should have a proven record of introducing lost people to Jesus as well as leading believers to growth as obedient disciples of Jesus. Applicants should have several years of ministry experience already.
A promising candidate is a man who, by God’s grace and through his Spirit, is a leader of leaders, a vision setter, and a selfless servant-shepherd.
This is a fully paid, one-year crash course with Pastor Mark Driscoll and the 60 plus elders currently serving at Mars Hill. Each lead pastor resident will be embedded at one of Mars Hill’s churches where they will receive hands-on, real world experience serving a church with practical training and coaching from the pastors and Executive Elders of Mars Hill. After a successful residency, participants will be employed by Mars Hill to plant a new church or lead an existing Mars Hill church.
The demand placed on lead pastor residents is heavy. First of all, nobody gets anywhere without humility and patience. The program is seeking experienced ministers who are willing to submit themselves to authority and be teachable despite already being proven teachers and leaders in the church. Secondly, these humble men need the boldness and courage to take the good news of Jesus where they will be rejected and ridiculed for doing so. Lead Pastor Residents are men not only of knowledge and experience, but they are mostly men of action.
Pray about it. If God is calling you, keep praying.
