Dear Riverside-
There has been a lot of transition in Riverside’s staff in recent months and we wanted to give you an update.
We are grateful that in all cases the transitions have resulted from God’s leading and nothing bad, but also know that any changes cause uncertainty. Through each transition we have sought to be faithful and to continue to lead Riverside boldly in our mission to “glorify God by becoming disciples of Jesus Christ who share life in authentic community and transform the world through God’s love, truth, and power.”
In early May, Dar Muehlhausen notified the Leadership Team that she would be stepping down as Riverside’s Children’s Discipleship Director. After 8 years in the position and many more in other Riverside Children’s Ministry roles she believed it was time to step away and pursue other aspects of God’s call on her life. Megan Mills was unanimously selected as our new Children’s Discipleship Director and began on July 1.
In addition, over the past couple years Riverside’s Leadership Team has identified a need to increase pastoral support on Riverside’s staff and set a long term goal to hire another credentialed Evangelical Covenant Church pastor at some point. This past Spring the Leadership Team decided it was time to move in this direction and approved a job description for an Associate Pastor of Discipleship. The decision was to transition Rick Whitlock’s position, which is a part-time Riverside position combined with a part-time Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) position, into a full-time Riverside position with associate pastoral responsibilities in addition to Rick’s current roles. Before publishing the job description publicly the Leadership Team offered the new position to Rick. In June, after considerable prayer and discernment, Rick chose to remain with CCO and not to accept the full-time Riverside position. Rick will likely stay a part of Riverside’s staff through the end of the year, but will ultimately transition his responsibilities to our new Associate Pastor.
Instead of beginning an Associate Pastor search over the summer while Pastor Dan was gone, we planned to publish the new Associate Pastor of Discipleship position in early August. In July, however, we learned that the Wellners were headed to Wyoming. This meant that we also needed to hire a new Youth Discipleship Director and Worship Director. The Wellners have now returned to town and are wrestling with various job opportunities. Becky loved her time with the youth, but is looking for positions that would require less evening commitments than Youth Discipleship Director.
After considerable prayer and discernment the Leadership Team has approved a unique job description for two full-time Riverside staff positions that would cover all of our areas of need – pastoral support, youth, worship/music, adult discipleship (college/grad, small groups, etc.). The job description provides applicants with the opportunity to pick the ministry areas that best match their gifts. We are excited to see how God uses this opportunity to bring us staff leaders who will continue to help Riverside make disciples who make disciples.
You can find the job description here. Please share with anyone that you think might be interested in joining Riverside’s staff team.
We are finalizing the Search Team that will facilitate our staff search and will let you know who that team is as soon as we have confirmations from everyone. Please begin to pray for this team. Specifically pray for wisdom, discernment, and unity throughout the search process.
Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the Leadership Team (lt@rcovenant.org) or Pastor Dan (dteefey@rcovenant.org/765.463.4600). We are excited about where God is taking us and are always humbled by your trust in us as Riverside’s leaders.
In Christ,
Riverside’s Leadership Team
Amy Fisher
Stan Hickman
Julie Griffin
Everette Mills
Diane Kelley
Chuck Moeschberger
Dan Teefey