The Southern Michigan Conference of the Free Methodist Church USA is looking for a Spirit-filled leader for the following full-time position at our church in Watervliet Michigan. This is a full-time position with benefits.
Watervliet Michigan is quaint village located in the SW corner of the lower peninsula in Berrian county. The village has a population of around 2,000 people with a county population of over 150,000. The twin cities of Benton Harbor/St. Joseph are nearby as well as the beautiful town of South Haven on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The Watervliet Free Methodist Church is a congregation over 125 years old and has been led by a long-tenured pastor over the past 25 years. As the current pastor steps into retirement in 2025, we are looking to appoint a dynamic, Spirit-filled man or woman of God to take the church forward into its next season of missional fruitfulness. Applicants should have interest in serving in a rural/small town but have a vision to reach regionally outside of village limits.
The Watervliet congregation averages between 100 and 120 people on Sunday morning. Approximately 25% of the congregation is made up of young children and teens. They are a vibrant worshipping community. Within the past 2-3 years they have constructed a gymnasium with kitchen and classrooms which is attached to their church building. Their strong financial stewardship has led to the paying down of the debt with an estimated pay off date to be before the end of 2024.
The church feeds hundreds of people every month through a long-standing food pantry ministry. As such, the church is well-known and well-regarded by many people throughout the region and receives significant financial partnership from organizations to operate this vital ministry.
The church is highly programmatically driven and needs to recapture a clear theology and praxis of the churches missional priority of making disciples that make disciples. The new leader will need to be able to skillfully navigate the transition process of following a long-tenured leader and demonstrate competent leadership in moving the church from a program-driven model to a movement characterized by disciple-making.
Applicants should also value the collaborative nature of being a part of a pastoral team in the Southern Michigan Conference. We are a network deeply desiring to partner together to ignite a Spirit-fueled movement of disciples, leaders and churches. We believe every church should be spiritually vital, deploying disciple-makers, developing leaders and multiplying churches regardless of its size. Finally, applicants should fit within our FM ethos which is Wesleyan, Arminian, and egalitarian.
If you’re interested in this position and would like to inquire further, please send your resume and a cover letter to Superintendent Bruce Rhodes at Bruce.Rhodes@smcfmc.org.
