We are pleased to announce that our new Ministry Director is Phill Pearson
You may know or recognize Phill. He and his wife Diandra have been members of our church for the past six years. He has preached for us a few times, and has served on Sundays such as setting up equipment, leading liturgy and hosting lunch club. Phill worked as a pastor in his early twenties and has worked in management at Cactus Club for the past six years. He brings a rare blend of pastoral and executive leadership experience—qualities we were eager to find for this position.
A Letter from Chandler Bartsch, Our Leadership Team Secretary
I want to briefly share about our (very thorough) hiring process.
We received 13 applications and nine were invited to an initial interview with Alastair. Four of these applicants were invited into the next steps: a written theological/personal questionnaire and an essay. After completing the questionnaire, one candidate withdrew their application after they further investigated relocation to Vancouver for their family. Three candidates were invited to a panel interview. None of these candidates are ordained in the Anglican tradition and so this position will be held as Ministry Director while the new hire pursues ordination in tandem.
Our panel was composed of myself as our leadership team representative, Heidi Martin (staff representative), Les Fletcher and Arabella Cheung (church representatives), and Alastair. Each member of our team invested a significant amount of energy and time in reviewing the application packets and conducting the interviews. I want to extend a huge thanks to each of our panel members for all of the energy they invested in the interview process. Your wisdom, perspectives, and deep care for our church were so appreciated during this interview process.
Our parish leadership team later reviewed the application packets for our final candidates. We spent time in prayer and lively dialogue over who we feel is best suited for the needs of our church. We unanimously agreed to invite Phill into the last step of our hiring process. Since this position will ultimately supervise our staff, as a last step, Phill met with our staff for an informal interview. Our staff expressed support for hiring Phill and excitement to work with him.
I want you to know that since Phill was an internal applicant, we added an additional step at the beginning of his process to add more objectivity. Before his initial interview with Alastair, Phill was interviewed by Gregory Schroeder, a consultant we have used many times over the years. For example, Gregory was on the hiring committee for Preston as well as Heidi. Gregory knows our church culture well, and after his interview with Phill he strongly recommended Phill for this role.
Throughout this whole process, we have been encouraged by Phill’s humility, creativity, passion for Jesus, love for our community, and hopes for our church’s future. We are excited to bring him onto our team.
I especially want to highlight Alastair’s commitment to this interview process. Alastair is often thrown into roles, like being the head of HR, head of marketing, head of finance, the list goes on and on. Thank you for going above and beyond in our hiring process, investing time to interview many candidates and being thorough in our search for the next Ministry Director.
If you have any questions about our interview process, candidates, etc, feel free to reach out to me or our People’s Warden, Jennifer Na
A Letter from Alastair Sterne, Our Lead Pastor
St. Pete’s — I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with Phill. Throughout the interview process, he has stirred my heart about what is already good and beautiful about our church, what should be celebrated, and he has also sparked my imagination about what can be developed and strengthened in our church to help us, and more people, discover the goodness of God with us.
Just to create a little bit of clarity around his role:
As our Ministry Director, Phill will direct the faithful stewardship and implementation of our ministries and operations. His primary pastoral responsibility is to oversee the implementation of our Community Group vision and to develop leaders. His additional pastoral responsibilities will focus around spiritual formation, such as: pastoral care, Catechism, preaching occasionally, and equipping people for building up the body of Christ in love.
As mentioned, Phill will hold this position as our Ministry Director while he pursues ordination. In the context of our Anglican heritage, Phill will not be considered a ‘pastor’ at St. Peter’s until he is ordained. But please don’t misunderstand, in addition to having strong executive and organizational experience, Phill is pastoral and gifted with people. He will provide compassionate, thoughtful, and emphatic care for our community. Although his role will focus on executive needs in our church, it will not be to the neglect of being with our church in our needs as well.
Please welcome and encourage Phill as he steps into the responsibilities of this role and pursues the well-being of our church. Phill is currently finishing his management role at Cactus Club and he will officially begin his position with us on August 7, 2022.
This coming Sunday, we’ll introduce Phill and give him an opportunity to share about his story and what led him apply for this role and what excites him about this opportunity. We’ll share his story on this page afterward (and you can also watch it afterward on our YouTube channel).
