Andy has accepted a nomination for the Regional President position with our denomination, Converge North Central. This a role of pastoring the pastors of our region of Minnesota and Iowa. It involves strengthening churches, connecting pastors, and helping to plant new churches. Oak Haven will be one of the 205 churches that he will oversee, which essentially means that he will be providing spiritual and denominational support for Oak Haven and for our new lead pastor.

Yes. They are staying in their home in Andover and their kids will continue to attend Andover schools. Pastor Andy’s new role is based in the Twin Cities and will involve some travel. However, on Sundays he’ll be spending time with many churches. It is best practice for a pastor in transition to find a new church home to make way for the next pastor. We anticipate a future day when the Kumpels will be able to visit Oak Haven as our CNC Regional President and maybe even have Andy serve as a guest preacher.

Pastor Andy‘s last day at Oak Haven will be November 30 and there will be a vote in mid-December for Converge churches to affirm Andy in his new role. The Board of Stewards has already made some plans for what the interim and search process could look like and will continue to update on the timeline as more information is solidified.

We will continue our regular rhythm of sharing the Sunday teaching responsibilities amongst our entire pastoral staff. Pastors Elise and Ryan will probably preach a bit more often, and the Board of Stewards will be bringing in guest preachers and other friends of Oak Haven to bridge the gap.

It is healthy for a church to have a transition period between lead pastors; best practice is about one month for every year served, so for Pastor Andy’s 10 years that would be at least 10 months. Current church trends also indicate that a successful lead pastor search post-COVID could take around 18 months.