Lead Pastor Search

 
 

Our mission is to call all people to full devotion to Christ (Luke 14:27). This high call is to mark the body of Christ, while offering a safe place for all people on their journey because Jesus is clear that the law of love supersedes all others. Since our beginning as an independent church, we have remained committed to living out our core values and are emphasizing three strategic areas of focus in this season: connecting and community, discipleship, and missional engagement.

Our church has never been about any one individual or a few key leaders; rather, it is about each of us using our gifts to form one body in Christ to the glory of God (Romans 12:4–12). We know the Lord gifts each of us differently, and we want to best utilize our gifts to serve our church and advance the kingdom. During this latest season, the elders have spent considerable time seeking direction from the Lord in how best to lead our body into the work He has for us to do in a rapidly changing culture. 

For the past year, Kyle and Tresha have wrestled with Kyle’s best use for the kingdom at CityBridge as he has felt the church would best be served by a Lead Pastor with a different skill and gift set. This wrestling led to many hours of discussions with the elders over the last several months about what is needed in the Lead Pastor role for CityBridge to thrive and whether Kyle’s role should be redefined. After much prayer and processing, Kyle and the other elders reached unity that the church would be best served if we redeployed Kyle more consistent with his gifts and passions and identify a new Lead Pastor for CityBridge.

Kyle‘s role has changed significantly over the last three and a half years from the former role of Campus Pastor under the direction of Watermark Community Church, to his current role as Lead Pastor of CityBridge. While in the Campus Pastor role, Watermark handled the organizational leadership and teaching functions which allowed Kyle to utilize his primary gifts of exhortation, pastoral leadership, and shepherding. Since launching CityBridge in 2021 with Kyle serving as Lead Pastor, these two areas of organizational leadership and teaching have become increasingly important in the Lead Pastor role. Kyle has faithfully served and led our body and will continue to do so, but he feels called and excited to serve our body in a new role.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The Kaiglers love our church family and are staying at CityBridge. Kyle’s new role will be Director of Engagement where he will lead our body to engage missionally with the lost, our guests, and with the community which aligns perfectly with his gifts and passions. Kyle will remain as an Elder and serve in staff leadership.

  • We are beginning a search for a new Lead Pastor. We are engaging a third-party search firm to partner with us to identify the best candidate for this role. We have communicated with our staff team and are now communicating with our body as we officially launch this search.

  • The Lead Pastor’s role includes serving as a primary teacher for the church, overseeing and directing the church staff, casting and leading through vision, actively shepherding members of this church, and other elder responsibilities.

    Ideal qualifications of the Lead Pastor include meeting the elder qualifications outlined in Scripture (Titus 1:6–9, 1 Timothy 3:2–7), significant pastoral experience, track record of exegetical teaching with a deep understanding of God’s word aligned with our doctrinal statement, management and organizational leadership experience, humility and authenticity consistent with our core values, and preferably, a life experience that is ahead of the median life stage of our membership.

  • This is a crucial hire, so we want to bring every resource to bear in the effort. Our search firm is helping us widen the circle to include candidates within our network as well as outside our network. They will help us evaluate candidates we may already have a relationship with, as well as those we have yet to meet. Each candidate will go through the same process where the firm will help to screen, interview, and perform due diligence for consideration. In addition, we will benefit from the search and assessment experience the search firm will share with us from performing over 350 senior pastor searches for churches.

    We will also include several CityBridge staff and member leaders in this process to help the elders with input regarding requirements of the role, qualifications to seek, and feedback on potential candidates as we progress through the search (Proverbs 15:22).

  • We have updated our staff regarding the decision to search for a new Lead Pastor for CityBridge. We have invited anyone who has interest to discuss the role with our elder team and participate in the process through the search firm if they wish to pursue the role. We will consider their candidacy along with others who apply.

  • The final decision on this role will be made by the CityBridge elders. Prior to making a final decision, we will gather input from staff and other leaders in our body. 

  • The Lead Pastor will be an elder and serve alongside our existing elder team to shepherd the body at CityBridge.

  • The ideal candidate for our Lead Pastor role will have the gift of teaching and be a primary communicator on Sunday mornings at CityBridge.

  • We have several men within our body who have taught in the past year, and we are grateful for each of them. We still value a team-teaching model and are committed to helping our current teachers grow in their gifts and skills. How often these men teach will largely depend on our new lead pastor, including his capacity for leading the mission and teaching.

  • We believe once we launch this process it will take between four to six months. Once the final candidate has accepted the position, Kyle will spend one to two months transitioning the role to the new Lead Pastor to ensure a smooth handoff.

  • This page will be updated periodically. As the early stages of this process are largely exploratory and fact-finding rather than interviewing, we do not anticipate having an update for about three months.

  • As we begin this process, we ask first and foremost that you would pray. Pray the Lord would superintend this process to appoint the right man to lead our church. Pray for wisdom and discernment as the elders move through each step in this process (James 1:5). Pray for the body and the staff at CityBridge to prepare for a new leader.

    As mentioned previously, each member plays a role in this body. We believe God has equipped us, as the local expression of His church, to be on mission for His glory. We would ask that you continue to “excel still more” in making disciples and giving of your time, talent, and treasure for the glory of God and furthering of His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:58).

  • Please use the link below to find out more about the role and send any names you think should be candidates for the role.