CHURCH PROFILE FORM

Church Information:

Name: __Sunnyside Christian Reformed Church

______

Location of church [City, State/Province]: ____Sunnyside, Washington

______

Classical Church Counselor: ______

Search Committee Contact:

Name: ___Al Smeenk

______

Address: _3190 Forsell Road

______Grandview, Washington, 98930

______

Home: __(_509____)_837-8904______Cell:__(__509___) __830-8904______Work:_(__509__)__837-3044______

Email address:

______

Community Setting:

Location Function Growth

_____ Rural _____ Industrial __x___ Growing

_ x__ Small Town _____ College/University _____ Static

_____ Metropolitan ___x_ Agricultural _____ Declining

_____ Suburban _____ Recreational

_____ Inner City _____ Military

_____ Small City _____ Bedroom community

Approximate population of community: ______20,000______


Church Profile:

We are open to:

Male and Female pastors £

Female pastors only £

Male pastors only x

List all staff positions: ___Senior Pastor and second staff is Pastor of Discipleship and Administration______

______

Position Available: ___Senior Pastor______Date of vacancy: _June 2019______

General position description: ___The primary role of the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Christian Reformed Church shall be to communicate God’s Mission to His people in the congregation as well as the community.______

Full-time or Part-time [F or P]: ___Fulltime______

Bi-vocational position [Y or N]: ___No______

Number of years preferred of ministry experience of potential candidate: ___minimum of 5 years life experience, whether as Youth Pastor, Senior Pastor or corporate experiences.

Required languages: __English______

Have you completed the Denominational Survey conducted by the Center for Social Research £

If yes, post link to it here: ______

Church Demographics:

Profile of church members:

Age:

__16_% 0-11 __11_% 12-18 ___9 % 19-24 ___10 % 25-34 __14_% 35-49

__17_% 50-64 __23_% 65+

Occupation:

___12% Business __19_% Professional _11__% Trades __7__% Stay-at-home parent

_19__% Agriculture _25__% Retired ___7__% Student ___0__% Other

Percentage of members belonging to the congregation:

Less than 5 years _____%

5-10 years _____%

10 or more years _____%

Racial/Ethnic composition of congregation and surrounding community: ______

___approximately 10% of our congregation is Hispanic, our community is approximately 90% Hispanic______

Composition of congregation:

Mono-Cultural £

Multi-Cultural x£

Specific Ethnicity (specify: ______) £

List the last three persons in this position:

1.Pastor Stanley Drenth

2.Pastor Harold De Groot

3.Pastor Laryn Zoerhoef

Worship:

How are members involved in planning and participation in the liturgy/worship?

We try to involve all ages in worship. Along with our Worship Coordinator we have several Worship Planning teams who construct services and lead practice. We also have a variety of children, teens, and adults involved in different aspects of the liturgy. We try to plan services that meet the needs of six generations as well as services that are accessible to guests and seekers.

Describe the worship services in your church:

They are blended services that seek to use regular elements (songs, God’s Greeting and Greeting one another, prayers, message and Parting Blessing. We also try to vary the liturgy each week with other elements (readings, confession and pardon, litanies, creeds, drama, and testimonies.)

The above answers have reflected our English-speaking services, but we also have a Spanish speaking worship service that is planned by a regular worship team which includes our Hispanic pastor. Their services involve lively singing, prayer, strong evangelistic messages, and personal testimonies.

Describe the discipleship practices in your church for all ages of members and attenders:

Our emphasis has been on discipling our youth, providing adult education opportunities, and providing a 6-week newcomers class. We are evaluating our small group ministry and have a task force seeking to develop a thorough discipleship pathway during this year.

Building/Financial:

Present annual budget: ____$525,886______

Last year's annual budget: ____$594,000______

Percentage of financial obligations met (last complete year reported):

Budget ______89%______

Denominational Ministry Shares _Congregational decision not to include in budget until all debt is paid due to the fact our loan request was turned down when we were building our new facility after a history of paying ministry shares to the Christian Reformed Church Loan Fund. ______

Classical Ministry Shares _____100%______

Amount contributed above budget and ministry shares: ______

Specify (optional): ______

Facilities:

Describe facilities: _____Beautiful newly constructed facility in 2013______

Are your buildings adequate for your ministries?

Yes__x___ No_____

If no, please explain:

Is a building program projected?

Yes_____ No__x___

If yes, describe what and when:

Does the church own a parsonage?

Yes_____ No___x__

Location of office or study: _office is in the church

______

Compensation:

The salary range we are prepared to offer our new pastor is based on the CRC Minister Compensation Survey for our area: x£

If other, please specify: ______

The average annual increase for this position over the past three years is:

$______or ____2______%

Housing:

X Housing allowance

£  Parsonage only

£  Either of the above

Benefits and expenses:

x Pension

x Medical insurance

£ Life insurance

x Social Security or Canada Pension

x Travel/mileage

x Continuing Education funds

x Continuing Education time allotted

x Sabbatical policy in place

_____4______Annual vacation (# weeks)

______Other (please specify) ______

Church Characteristics:

[Check which one(s) are closest to your church’s characteristics]

Presently, the FOCUS OF OUR CHURCH’S MINISTRY is

The community The community The community and Current members Current

exclusively primarily current members / / participants members participants equally primarily / participants

exclusively

External ______x______Internal

______

In our church, the WORSHIP SERVICE IS DESIGNED FOR

Designed for Emphasis on Unchurched and Emphasis on Designed for

unchurched unchurched believers believers believers

Unchurched ______x______Churched

______

In our church, the STYLE OF MUSIC used in the worship service is

Contemporary Mostly Blended Mostly Traditional

contemporary traditional

Contemporary ______x______Traditional

______

In our church, LEADERSHIP is generally provided by the

Predominantly lay Frequently lay Lay leaders and Lay leaders function Predominantly

leaders leaders pastoral staff share under the pastoral pastoral staff leadership staff

Congregational Pastoral

Members ______x______staff

______

Our church seeks to ENCOURAGE SPIRITUAL GROWTH through

No specific Ministries for a Ministries for Ministries for Ministries for all

ministries few groups selected groups most groups groups

Informal ______x______Formal

______

In our church, EVANGELISM STRATEGIES AND METHODS are

Predominantly Generally Equal Generally Predominantly

unplanned unplanned emphasis planned planned

Unplanned ______x______Planned

______

Our church is representative of the ECONOMIC DIVERSITY of our community

Strongly Mostly Moderately Mildly Weakly

representative representative representative representative representative

High ______x______Low

representation representation

______

Our church is representative of the ETHNIC DIVERSITY of our community

Strongly Mostly Moderately Mildly Weakly

representative representative representative representative representative

High ______x______Low

representation representation

______

Our church’s RESPONSE TO COMPASSION, MERCY, AND JUSTICE NEEDS is

Commitment to Encouragement of Church-based and Encouragement of Commitment to

church-based action church-based action personal action personal action personal action

Church-based ______x______Personal

______

Our church’s MISSIONAL FOCUS is

All local Mostly local Equally local and Mostly All global

global global

Local ______x______Global

______

Narrative:

Do you have a recently articulated mission/vision for ministry? [Y or N] yes

In what ways does your church participate in ecumenical activities? Our pastors are involved in the local Ministerial Association and their activities in the community; we also participate as a congregation in church wide community events. We have recently completed an ecumenical effort sponsored by our church in which over an eight-year period churches gathered together to paint 100 homes in our community. We are seeking the next big community wide, church wide effort presently.

Reflect on your strengths/gifts as a church: We are committed to the Lord, to Christian Day school education, our youth, worship, and community needs. We are also involved in global missions, seeking spiritual formation in our congregation, and value gospel preaching.

We are gifted with a number of good leaders, many administrators, many with gifts of service and hospitality, and many who are generous, especially when a need arises; that need is quickly met.

Reflect on your passions as a church: We are passionate about reaching up in worship, nurturing our youth in church and through the Christian school, offer hospitality and serving our community in word and especially deed.

We are presently going through a renewal process guided be the Calvin Seminary learning lab with a desire to create a pathway to develop fully devoted followers of Christ who are equipped to make disciples. As part of this effort we also want to further revitalize our worship and our youth ministries.

List specific problems with which your congregation struggles: We realize that we need to motivate, teach, and model personal evangelism. We say we want to do this, but we are still hesitant to do so. This is one of the areas our renewal process will address.

We need a discipleship pathway – we are working on this as part of our renewal effort.

We need to connect with public school kids and develop a church identity that enfolds all youth in our community.

Many knowledge Christians who are presently serving the church or community.

We need to keep working on creating a culture of acceptance.

We need to keep working at ways to bring English speaking worshipping community and Hispanic speaking worshipping community together. We do have shared Sunday school, shared meals, staff working together in the same facilities, but we need further ways to really get to know each other and be known by each other.

What has been the most interesting and challenging event in the life of your church in the last three years? Some of the most interesting events in the life of our church has been our new facility, Gems and Cadets continually draw in community members, Workshops given by Keith Doornbos to develop our Renewal Plan, our former Youth Pastor changed careers so now we have a new Youth Pastor (Second Staff), Loving Sunnyside which enabled us to paint homes in our community, further steps in providing for crop self-sufficiency in Zambia through Farmer to Farmer, creating Safe Church Policy and Team, two successful Christmas plays that were open to the community, and bi-weekly meals open to the public to draw people in to our church. August 15, 2018 our church will be providing Day Care/Child Care services to the community in our facilities.

Challenging – people who have left our church for other churches in the community. Our biggest challenge was arrest/imprisonment of our church janitor/elder/praise team leader for sexual child abuse in his home at his daycare. As a result, we developed the Safe Church Policy.

List major goals that this congregation has set for itself or opportunities the congregation anticipates: There are seven investments we are working on presently:

1)  Creating a Culture of Hospitality that involves intentional welcome and significant hospitality – well on the way.

2)  Structures that Empower – creating systems and structures that support the vision of making more and better disciples with the goal of greater efficiency and broader effectiveness – hopefully be on the way after congregational vote.

3)  Revitalized Discipleship Strategy – ongoing priority.

4)  Disciple Pathway – an ongoing priority – these will intersect with all the other investments.

5)  A Fresh Youth Investment both inside and outside for the purpose of making more and better disciples of the next generation.

6)  Revitalized Worship: enhance the quality of the worship experience by creating well-led and consistent expressions of praise that usher people in the very presence of God combined with continued preaching that transforms minds and hearts.

7)  Revitalized Outreach Strategy: creating a new outreach vision that more effectively connects us to our neighbors so lives and the community are transformed, and many come to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Describe what being Christians of Reformed accent means to you: That we are committed to living out the Lordship of Christ in every area of our lives guided by God’s Word and Spirit. We also rest in the comfort of knowing that in life and in death, body and soul, we belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ and so are aware of our sin, our need for Christ’s free gift of salvation, and our need to express ongoing thanks for our great salvation.

Describe your understanding of the relationship between the local church and the Christian Reformed denomination: Although we see the local church having original authority, we value our relationship to our Classis and our denomination. We have not only sent delegates to Classis but many of our leaders have gone to Synod. We stay informed about the denomination especially via the Banner

Identify some of the cultural challenges facing Christians and Christian churches today: Immigration, keeping the interests of the youth, and sexual orientation,

What have been the three most important events in the history of your church?

Some of the most important events in our history are:

1)  Starting the Christian School and faithfully continuing to support it.

2)  Continued growth which forced us to build larger church buildings, the last being built in 2013.

3)  Continued growth which enabled us to develop a second Staff Position along with a full-time Hispanic ministry.

4)  Promoting community outreach by forming Loving Sunnyside Initiative and Farmer to Farmer (which is international).

Leadership:

How many council members does your church have? The following questions will be answered when the society meets and approves the new Structure/Systems. This will happen shortly.

What is the length of term for council members?

How often does the full council meet?

What subgroups of council exist, how do they function and how often do they meet?

When completed, email finished profile to:

2015 edition

Pastor-Church Relations

CRCNA