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Called
By God, Called For God
The Board has unanimously agreed and
approved to the official candidacy of Reverend William P. Kellogg of
Folsom, California for the next Lead Pastor. The Board's
decision was preceded by a unanimous recommendation by the Pastoral
Search Committee. According to the Constitution and By-Laws, the
membership must approve the candidate by a 66% approval vote. Please
mark down on your calendars September 11, 12, 15 and 19.
The 11th
(5P.M.):
A general congregational meeting (all members and attenders are
invited) to meet the Kelloggs.
The 12th:
Official ''Candidate Sunday''
The 15th
(5P.M.):
A meeting held by the Board and the Pastoral Search Committee for the
congregation to ask final questions about both the candidate and the
process. (The Kelloggs will not be in attendance).
The 19th
(after church): The membership is asked to remain after the
service in order to vote. Written ballots will be given,
tabulated and the result will be announced.
Bill's Biography
He grew up in Sacramento on 11th
Avenue in Land Park and frequented Vic's Ice Cream.
The Kellogg family was heavily
involved in many Christian organizations including Young Life and
Campus Crusade.
The family attended 1st
Covenant Church (where Pastor Bill was saved at 10 years old) and
later Arcade Baptist Church.
Bill served two years in the United
States Marine Corp.
Bill attended and graduated from
CSUS in 1972 with a B.A. degree in philosophy and from Dallas
Theological Seminary in 1978 with a ThM degree. He is a life-long
learner having spent additional time at L'Abri under Os Guinness and
Francis Schaeffer.
Bill married Susan in 1978 and they
have two children - Anneliese 26 and married; Andrew 21 and single.
Bill and Susan have over 30 years of
pastoral experience in the local church. Eighteen of those years were
in Berkeley/Oakland. In 1998 he took his current church
Community Bible Church when it was 70 people and turned it around to
where today nearly 300 people attend on any given Sunday.
One of his board
members said -
As a person, he lives a life that
is transparent. You have a high degree of confidence because he lives
what he preaches. It was a huge breath of fresh air that he would be
so transparent about his life. He also had tremendous interaction
with family. He also had tremendous generosity with his time and
money.
Bill is very personal. One of his
staff members said - Even
at 300 people he still does hospital visits because he loves it.
Bill is a terrific discipler. As Gil
Stiglitz, the Director for the Evangelical Free Churches of Northern
California said - ''His
greatest strength is that he works with people very well and is
focused on training them and putting them in leadership roles.''
A final comment from one of his
board members helped to validate what we were thinking and feeling.
The church is doing well. I can't
think of any negative reason as to why he would leave. It has to be a
"God thing" all the way.
Why We Chose
Pastor Bill
1. He
met and exceeded the basic Creed, Credentials, Character, Competency
and Calling criteria;
2. He
met and exceeded our ''Deal Breakers''; namely, 1) he must have at
least 5 years of ''Turnaround'' church experience; 2) he must have
some knowledge and experience of a city centered church ministry; 3)
he is called to ministry and he is responding out of a calling. This
is not an experiment! This goes back to a calling he had back in
1973. He is moving toward something. He is not running away from
something. He is actually leaving a very secure situation to answer
this call.
3. His
wife Susan. She is a God-centered pastor's wife! She will add
to the ministry - not be a hindrance.
4. He
is educated, teaches with depth and yet, can put the ''cookies on the
lower shelf''. He inspires with his preaching;
5. By
his credit score and from what we heard from his references, he
possesses a clear understanding of the value of money, budgeting and
stewardship;
6.
He knows how to work with a Board. He is respectful, a team player
and does not attempt to be adversarial;
7.
He lives what he preaches. He lives a life that is transparent and it
inspires a high degree of confidence. His ethics are above board; He
acts in a manner becoming of a pastor.
8. He is not threatened or
insecure. This is demonstrated by his association with local
ministerial groups in which he has played an active role.
9. He
has very good interpersonal relationship skills. He treats everyone
fairly. This includes working with ministerial staff. He empowers and
delegates.
10. He
is from Sacramento and will use his extensive network to build up the
church. He understands this city and its diversity like the back of
his hand.
Our Process of
Vetting
As a Board and as a
Pastoral Search Committee we strongly believe before you vote you
must have the confidence to know a thorough job of vetting was done.
Humanly speaking, we feel we can stand before you knowing we did the
most thorough job we could do.
Degrees were
verified as to their authenticity.
Nothing but ATS accreditation was accepted.
References (at
least one current Board member, one board member from a previous
church and one staff member) were called and comments were written
down. (You may read these if you desire). This was to fulfill a
commitment to our congregation and to each other that our work would
be transparent and have a trail. In all we spoke with 6
references. Everyone confirmed what Bill told us about
himself.
A credit
report was run and
the result was that the Kelloggs were in the top 1%.
An investigation
was made by a private firm which submitted a report that our
candidate was free of any misdemeanors, felonies, civil suits, sexual
crimes and his Social Security number was verified.
Perhaps the nicest
comment we received came from one pastor who did not apply for our
position. After reading our material on our church website, he
said,
Everything from
your church profile to the congregational survey well let me tell you
there should be more churches who take the search for their shepherd
with such care and concern.
May your in
depth search produce a shepherd that can lead and guide the people of
FBC - Sacramento forward in service and love!
We believe in
Pastor Bill that is exactly the person God has led us to.
-- Doug Muraki,
Interim Senior Pastor
For the Pastoral
Search Committee & Church Board
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