Lead Pastor

Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta
Lead Pastor

Position Description: Lead Pastor role for a growing church plant in Mt. Shasta, CA

Position Objective: To lead the community of disciples at Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta, helping them become a community fully committed to the ultimate joy that comes from fellowship with God, living in deep community, and inviting the yet-to-believe to experience abundant life in Christ.

Primary Responsibilities: This position is responsible for developing and sustaining the environment where this objective can be achieved and observed including:
- Identifying and developing the pastoral team members individually and collectively who by their very being and doing exemplify and equip the church family to experience and display the joy of Jesus.
- Envisioning and promoting an innovative strategy with our family of Churches that is focused on Christ with joy-filled discipleship at its core.
- Overseeing the lay and ministry staff in their development of the discipleship ministry that is built on intentionally building meaningful relationships that function interdependently.
- Seeking and nurturing leaders who freely and joyfully work toward accomplishment of the position objective.

This pastor will meet the following general requirements:
- Work, on average, fifty hours per week to accomplish the position objective.
- Holds a postgraduate degree in theological studies.
- Hold Evangelical Free Church of America credentials, or is willing to pursue.

Fit To Church Organization & Strategy: This position exists to serve and lead the Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta shepherding team who will support and oversee this position and the direction of the ministry. which is accountable to this position with relation to their ministry direction and employment. This position is designed to support the achievement of our mission and vision working closely with and accountable to the leaders of Vintage grace. Their direct report is to our Lead Pastor of our Family of Churches This position also has an incredible support system set up within our family of coaching, pastoring and counseling support so that they never have to lead in isolation (for more information, there is a fuller description of the how and who of the FOC on the last page).

Candidate Profile
When thinking about what this person is doing now, the following would be good clues that a match is possible:
1. Is in a church leadership position now.
2. Is a good preacher and teacher, and comfortable in one-on-one interactions, small interactive groups, or large sermon-like presentations.
3. Has worked through numerous approaches to discipling—some successful, some miserable failures, most mediocre— and is capable of presenting thorough analysis of what worked and what didn’t.
4. Working in an adult community greater than 100 participating adults.
5. Can demonstrate solid one-on-one relational skills.
6. Is known as a leader by colleagues and co-workers.
7. If asked, co-workers would describe him very quickly as a “learner.”
8. Trains, equips and deploys leaders and has a track record to prove it.
9. Happy, but open to the idea there might be a pastoral role that could bring more joy and more kingdom impact.
10. Longing for (maybe frustrated that he has not found) a network of pastors that more tightly aligns with his vision for Kingdom impact.

When thinking about this person’s ministry related challenges, he would be:
1. Realizing that there is more than doing the same old same old.
2. Frustrated that the church is not as effective as she could be at producing the kind of people who, by their nature, do what Jesus said would be good to do.
3. Tired of the pressure to be overly focused on building programs, rather than prioritizing people.
4. Ready to move away from a program-driven ministry, understanding that they only incidentally change lives, and that programs in themselves struggle to produce deep, life-changing change
5. Sold out to the notion that changing lives is the only reason they do what they do.
6. Humbled that they maybe just recently latched onto the idea in #5.
7. Infused with a desire to seek and enjoy God, no matter where it leads.
8. Articulate in describing the process that got him to the point of #7.

In the following, this person might think or respond in these ways:
1. Though clear-headed on most matters himself, on issues of doctrine and contrary views, is open to questions, exploration, and an appropriate level of uncertainty.
2. When presented with someone who lacks outward conformity to his or the ministry norms, is loving, accepting and nurturing, and finds it distasteful to seek outward conformity ahead of inner transformation.
3. Though capable of leading most any group or activity, will choose to empower and nurture another person if given the opportunity.
4. In situations that go contrary to his desired direction, he has grown accustomed to making his case clear but not pushing for his direction ahead of those that must go with him.

The candidate’s core character and general expectations include:
- Deep and abiding passion for Christ
- Being visionary complemented with strategic thinking
- Attracts leaders and makes leaders
- Teachable, fun and appropriately transparent
- Self-motivated and welcomes accountability
- Able to build and manage pastoral team leaders
- Has nurtured intimacy with God,, through practice of spiritual disciplines
- Is an example of a Christian man, in all its various roles. OR Exemplifies godliness to others.

Vision & Values
Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta is growing in its appreciation for what is possible when people come together, begin to shape a vision for their individual lives in God’s Kingdom, and then move forward into what He is doing. The following is a summary of the themes which are beginning to permeate Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta’s ministry structures and activities.

OUR MISSION: We want to encourage people to enjoy God together.

OUR VISION: We are passionate about building JOY-FILLED COMMUNITIES OF FAITH whose existence inspires individuals to live an abundant Christian life made up of three key relationships.
1. A deepening relationship with God.
2. A life-changing relationship with other believers.
3. An engaging relationship with those yet to believe.

OUR VALUES:
1. We find our greatest joy in Jesus.
God designed us to be happy and nothing makes us happier than a loving relationship with Jesus, now and forever.

2. We are biblically saturated.
How we view God says everything about us. When we see Him for who He is and us for who we are, lives are transformed. There’s nothing more important than getting this as right as we can and the Bible is our guide and authority to getting there.

3. We are transformed in community, becoming a part of communitas.
The primary ways we grow in our journey with Jesus is through pain and people, and while we do not hope for your increased pain, we are extremely intentional to realize that we do not live this life alone, and he has saved us FOR a personal relationship with Him and a corporate one with his people. That we as the church are those who share a common master in Christ and mission to share His love.

4. We are all sent to be every day missionaries, as the living proof of a loving God.
We find so much joy in pursuing Jesus that we can’t help but give it away to others and help those people give away that same joy. It’s the same system that Jesus used. We were saved, to be sent.

5. We embrace inevitable tensions.
The moments we realize God is both understandable and, because of our finite thinking, incomprehensible, we find ourselves filled with awe and hungry for more. This is worship!


A Brief History of Summit Church & Vintage Grace
In 1985 Summit Church started as an at home bible study with desires to start a Church. We had 15-50 people attending so we quietly outgrew our home bible study environment. We called a Pastor and started renting the Seven Day Adventist church on Sundays for a few years. We then purchased land and built a new facility in 1991.

Over the years (1991-2015) we increased our pastoral staff from 3 to 4. Our congregation grew to approximately 250-300 attendees. After this time we had one Pastor resign and one passed away unexpectedly. This left us with one Pastor to continue until the Covid Shut down in 2019-2020. Our last pastor resigned in 2022. Membership continued to decline to our current attendance of approximately 20 plus attendees.

We chose to sell our large facility in March of 2023 and we are currently renting space in downtown Mt. Shasta to meet on Sundays virtually with Vintage Grace.

Back in the winter of 2023 we were introduced to Pastor Drew and the Vintage Grace Family of Churches. We instantly felt connected as we came with similar theological DNA as we were both EFCA churches and we began meeting as a leadership team with Drew and Heather in February of 2023.

After a season of stabilizing and rebuilding our foundation with the support of Vintage Grace and their staff, we decided to officially become a part of their family of Churches and now consider ourselves one of a few churches, who although having different locations, have the same vision, values, and mission as we seek to serve the Lord through building joy-filled communities of faith together.

A Brief Description of our Family of Churches (FOC)
It’s easy to think that the Vintage Grace Family of Churches really started back in 2014 when Drew Sodestrom was sent by our denomination to plant Vintage Grace Church in Sacramento. That moment, over 10 years ago, began a pattern of sending that can be seen in our vision statement of ‘building joy-filled communities of faith’. But really the launch of it was when Pastor Todd who was serving as the lead pastor at RCC, had a vision of building joy filled communities of faith PLURAL. He brought on and discipled Drew for 8 years before sending him to Sacramento to plant not just a Church, but a family of Churches.
Since that first launch in 2014, the family of churches has been able to partner with assessing, coaching and sending multiple church planters and re-plants in Sacramento, Madison Wisconsin, Oakland, Yorba Linda, Placerville and Coloma, Ca.
Most recently, the family of Churches is planning a new plant in Orangeville, California as well as working directly with our Church in Mt. Shasta: Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta!
All this being said our next Pastor at Vintage Grace Mt. Shasta is someone who personally lives as an everyday missionary and a catalytic multiplier that can help us not just lead a great church that will change our city; but also one that that will help us lead to multiply joy-filled communities of faith all over Northern California and beyond, #ForHisGlory.
The core part of what makes a congregation a part of the family of Churches is shared vision, leadership, mission and resources all used for Kingdom Movement and advancing the Mission of Jesus in our local communities. We truly believe that we are better together and have seen great fruit in these symbiotic relationships and partnerships.

Our Shepherding Team
Drew Sodestrom: Lead pastor of our Family of Churches, primarily services in El Dorado Hills in residence but also as a coach, and leader of our partner churches and serving their lead pastors as they serve their congregations and cities.

Heather Hodson: Lead project manager for the Family of Churches, often serving behind the scenes to make sure every church and leader is equipped and empowered to fulfill the mission at hand.

David Krall: Director of DMH and Life Groups Pastor at Vintage. Helps train, develop and launch church planters through DMH & Vintage Grace pipeline.

Deb Wood: The first Summit Church Bible study started in her home. One of the founding church planting families. Active in establishing and building the church. Continues to work in various roles of church organization. A wife, mother, “favorite” mother-in-law and grandmother (of 5). Deb is a faithful lover of Jesus, leading like Him as she follows Him; she is recently retired, enjoys watching grandkids games, volunteering at sports events and working out.

Tiffany Hedlund: Granddaughter of the founding church planters. Athletic Director and coach at local Elementary school and AAU sports teams. Wife and mother of three children. Truly living out the vision of Vintage Grace as an every day missionary in all things.

Sandie Brack: In 2004, when her life and grandson’s life were in a very difficult gap, she chose to walk into Summit one morning and it was immediately “HOME”. Both Sandie and her grandson have continued to grow in their faith and use their gifts in any area that is needed.

Contact davidk@vintagegrace.org to apply!