May 26, 2020

Friends and Family of Christ Community church,

The Pastoral Search Committee is very excited to unanimously and enthusiastically recommend Josh Stahley as our next lead pastor. We’d like to share a few things about Josh and his family.  Josh is 41, and a Chautauqua County native; he grew up in Bemus Point, where his parents and other relatives still live, and graduated from Maple Grove Central School. He graduated from Cedarville University in Ohio and the Southern Baptist  Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He has over 10 years of experience at churches ranging in size from 50 to 5000, including a church plant in New York City. For the last five years he has been on staff at Soma Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he has served in various roles, most recently as Pastor of Teaching and Assimilation.

 

He has always wanted to return to Chautauqua County, and has felt God’s call to do so. He and his wife, Traci, have been married for about 10 years, and have three children: Owen (7), Marilaine (5), and Josiah (4).

Q&A with Joshua & Traci Stahley

Missed out on our Q&A with pastoral candidate Joshua Stahley and his wife Traci? Catch up on what you missed below!

LOADING PLAYER…
 
 
 

References

We spoke to several references about Josh. These are some of the things they told us:


"Josh is great – very gifted, smart, great teacher who can take complex ideas and make them accessible to ordinary people. He is a very nice, humble guy, with a great family. Our congregation loves him and were very sad when he decided to make the transition away from here; we are still in mourning.  He’s a blue-collar scholar with a special ability to connect with the people with tattoos or sexual identity issues, who flock to him like moths to a light.”


"He is great at working with the staff. He is very collaborative, very organized, and a good administrator. He is very excellent at working with people."


"He is a very skilled teacher with a large range of biblical knowledge and scriptural knowledge. He is very good at speaking to large and small groups. He knows the Bible very well. He is a biblical scholar with a shepherd's heart. He is a very good counselor and an all-around tremendous guy."

Leadership

We engaged two experienced pastors and leaders, Rev. Gary Schroeder and Dr. Dan Peterson, both with long connections to Converge and our church, to interview Josh.  Their comments are below:


Gary Schroeder: “I believe Josh is ready to take the next step to be a lead pastor and very well-qualified to do so. He is a delight to talk with and makes personal connection effectively. He values relationships and seeing people become all that God has for them. He thinks Biblically and practically. His DiSC and StrengthFinder assessments are a very interesting mix. Pastoral leaders come in all shapes and sizes and I believe Josh’s combination is very well-suited for CCC Fredonia. His humility and perspective are positive and refreshing. I believe he is just what CCC needs and conversely, CCC is just what he and his family needs.”


Dan Peterson: “I see God’s hand all over this.”


Al and Marie Detter interviewed Josh and Traci in person for over two hours, and strongly and enthusiastically support Josh’s candidacy.  Brian Weber, our current Converge Executive, also interviewed Josh and highly recommends him.

Search Committee

Our committee interviewed Josh and Traci twice via Zoom and recently in person.  Everything we saw and heard only confirmed our strong feeling that God is leading us to them and vice versa. They are very enthusiastic about moving and living here, and the possibilities and potential at CCC.  The elders interviewed them in person and are strongly supportive.  The high capacity volunteers who lead and organize our various ministries also interviewed them, and the excitement about working together is mutual.

 

Information will be forthcoming on how the membership will vote during this time of social distancing.  In the meantime, we are humbly asking you to prayerfully consider extending our congregational call to Josh to become our next pastor. 

 

Sincerely,

Daryl Brautigam

Pastoral Search Committee Chairperson

Cc: Search committee members: Bianca Plascencia, Bruce Clark, Dave Gould, Josiah Lamp, Patty Matteson, Rob Przybysz