Senior Pastor

Metropolitan Bible Church of Oklahoma City is seeking our next senior pastor. We are pre-trib, pre-mill, dispensational. If you are interested in the position, submit a cover letter and resume (with family photograph) to churchdoctor@yahoo.com.

METROPOLITAN BIBLE CHURCH
Senior Pastor Job Description
GENERAL
“The Senior Pastor shall have general oversight of the spiritual life, regular services, ministration of the ordinances, and organizations of the Church. He shall be a voting member of the Board of Elders. He shall be accountable to the Board of Elders.” (MBC Constitution, VII, 2)

PUBLIC WORSHIP
• Teaching the Bible in the regular worship services of the church
• Planning worship services with the minister of music
• Organizing and guiding services of the Lord’s Supper and baptism
• Selecting and inviting guest speakers as required for special events

ADMINISTRATION
• Ensuring effective administration of all church ministries
• Supervising the ministries of the pastoral staff
• Strategic planning with the elders and staff
• Serving ex officio on church committees as desired
• Ensuring excellence in all church publicity (print and digital media)

PASTORAL CARE
• Providing for regular visitation in homes, hospitals and retirement centers
• Encouraging and promoting the prayer ministries of the church
• Providing pastoral counseling as needed
• Officiating for funeral services and marriages

OUTREACH
• Encouraging the church’s support for and involvement in world missions
• Providing training and leadership in evangelism, follow-up and discipleship
• Encouraging participation in community ministries of compassion and social justice

PERSONAL
• Maintaining a disciplined schedule of study in preparation for teaching and preaching
• Cultivating a growing relationship to Christ by meeting with Him in daily prayer and Bible reading
• Ensuring margin in the weekly schedule for healthy family life and a happy marriage
Oklahoma: “The Land We Belong to is Grand”

Oklahoma City has been making some noise lately. Top national rankings in 10 different quality-of-life categories. Billions of dollars in city and education improvements. New corporate locations. The fastest growing entertainment district in the southwest. And the list goes on for the state’s Capital City and the ten-county metro area that is home to 1.4 million. It's the 20th most populous city in the US and the 8th largest in the Southern US. The city is known for its diverse economy, growing population, and low cost of living that is 13% below U.S. average.

Oklahoma City is strategically located in the center of the continental U.S. and at the crossroads of the nation’s interstate highway system - I-35, I-40 and I-44. Residents have convenient access to transportation, with an average commute time of 28 minutes. You won’t find the bumper-to-bumper traffic of a Dallas or Houston. The city is also well-connected with two major airports and railways.

OKC's economy has diversified beyond oil and agriculture, with growth in aerospace, healthcare, energy, and logistics. The city boasts a Gross Metropolitan Product exceeding $80 billion annually.

A significant portion of OKC's residents have a bachelor's degree or higher (36.6%), according to the Census Bureau. The city also has a large number of students attending 15 area colleges and universities.

Oklahoma City has all the major amenities you would expect from a major metro with great restaurants, countless arts and cultural opportunities, professional sports (the OKC Comets are the LA Dodger AAA affiliate, the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder). OKC is home to the Bricktown Canal Walk, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the Oklahoma City Zoo, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, and the 2028 Olympic venue for rowing.

Nearby Lake Hefner is one of the country’s premiere sailing lakes. You can kite surf or sailboard or just go fly a kite with your family.

A Better Living, A Better Life – that sums up today’s Oklahoma City.

Metropolitan Bible Church Profile

The roots of Metropolitan go back to the 1930s when radio Bible teacher E.F. Webber began leading tent revivals in the city on NW 23rd St. Eventually, this meeting evolved into a church. In December 1943, “City Bible Church” was “born.” The core group longed for a church that preached the Bible, especially the prophetic word. Later the church was renamed “Metropolitan Baptist Church” in 1950. The church had a steady growth in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s under the leadership of Dr. David Cotten. Eventually, Dr. Cotten accepted a position on the faculty of Dallas Seminary. Two other MBC staff later joined the faculty, Mike Lawson and Bill Bryan. Dr. Randy Faulkner took the helm of leadership after David Cotten. In the fall of 2018, the congregation called Dr. John Frawley to take Metropolitan into the next chapter. On November 3, 2019, the church took the name “Metropolitan Bible Church” as a way to honor the past but look forward to a bright future. In 2025, we begin the process of finding our next senior pastor under the guidance of intentional interim, Dr. D. M. Woody Woodward, on staff with Interim Pastor Ministries.

The Authority of Scripture. Historically and contemporaneously, our church is known as one of the premier churches for the systematic preaching of the word of God. Our folks have a high Bible IQ. We have a large women’s Precept Bible Study that draws women from other churches.

Missions. Our church has a rich commitment to missions. We’ve launched 85 people into full-time ministry. We present a four-day Missions Festival each fall. We send short-term mission teams around the world. Our students spent a week in South Carolina last summer conducting VBS and doing a work project.

Children. We have excellent facilities because the children’s wing is the newest building addition. We host an AWANA ministry on Wednesday night. We offer VBS every summer. We even send kids to youth camp. Our children’s wing, especially the 3-story indoor playground, is the envy of many churches.

Youth. We have a healthy youth ministry. Students are on fire for sharing Jesus. They are assuming creative leadership to serve in the student ministry, church, and community. They don’t simply spectate and consume. The student ministry has grown over 10% each of the last three years. We believe God will continue to bring both numerical and spiritual growth. Youth Pastor Matt Menhennett retired from ministry after serving here 18 years. He recruited 30 volunteers who serve passionately. Five of our elders serve weekly in youth ministry (!). Our youth enjoy phenomenal weeks at camp and on mission with LeaderTrex. Some 17 youth have believed Jesus for eternal life last year through their witness or prayer. Youth meet Wednesday nights (60 students) for D-Groups and Sunday morning for Sunday School (45 students). Morgan Highley, our Technical Director, supplies a great deal of support for youth meetings. Metropolitan is phenomenal about supporting its youth and kids. We draw from 9 High schools and lots of homeschool/coops.

Worship. Dress is casual. We consciously began dressing down a few years ago, but a few men still wear coat and tie. Pre-COVID we had a traditional and a contemporary service. We currently offer just one service at 9:30am. Our style is blended (piano, electric guitar, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, violin). We sing about 5 songs each Sunday. Our adult choir sings twice a month. The children’s choir sings once a month. We have a quarterly Night of Worship. We have quite a few prayer warriors. We offer three prayer meetings throughout the week.

Doctrine. We are evangelical. We are conservative. We share the Dallas Theological Seminary doctrinal statement, which means we are unabashedly dispensational. We are flexible as to the version of Bible you may teach from. We are very grace oriented. We believe the one condition for salvation is to believe Jesus’ promise of eternal life as a free gift apart from works. We believe assurance of salvation is the birthright of believers from the moment they are born again. We believe if you could lose eternal life, then God would not have called it “eternal.”

Staff. We are staff directed, elder protected. The senior minister is expected to lead the board, and he relies on his staff in guiding the church. Our staff is composed of a senior/lead pastor, parttime Associate Pastor Rick Hermansen, fulltime YP (search is ongoing), fulltime Children’s Education Director James Moore, part-time Sonlight Mothers’ Day Out Director Brandi Bradford, part-time receptionist Kaitlin Niles, fulltime Business Administrator Kirsten Walstad, part-time Technical Director Morgan Highley. Metropolitan is committed to integrating ministries. We don’t operate in silos but embrace a team ministry approach.

Facility. God blessed us with a huge facility of 66,976 ft2 on 18.37 acres. We have an abundance of space. The worship center seats 400 and we average 225 on a Sunday. We are poised for future growth. We recently updated flooring in many of the hallways. The youth have a very cool upstairs room with great technology. We have a full-court wood floor gymnasium and three kitchens throughout the complex. We have a baseball diamond on the property. Don’t forget the 3-story indoor playground. Our library and media center are great assets, with many reference texts and commentaries for the studious pastor. We own a late model 14 passenger van.

Fellowship. Our Family Groups provide the first line of defense for pastoral care. Our people genuinely love and provide for one another. Fellowship is strengthened by familial bonds as many people are part of generations that have called Metropolitan home. Our people love to laugh and have fun. We have a lot of health care professionals (nurses, doctors, pharmacists) and a few lawyers. Our church is highly educated.

Outreach. Our church ministers to the students and faculty of nearby Wiley Post Elementary. We provide free furniture to needy folks through Care Portal. Some of our people volunteer as tutor/mentors through Whiz Kids at local elementaries. Our Wednesday night AWANA ministry sees many children believe in Jesus for eternal life. Our youth play against university international students in a fund-raising dodgeball tournament. We open our facility weekly for basketball and twice weekly for pickleball. We host a private Christian school on our campus called Venture (60 students).

Finances. Our church is debt free and generous. We offer a competitive salary with matching funds for your retirement fund. We do not offer a health insurance plan, but highly recommend our pastors use Samaritan’s or Medi-Share, two health sharing companies that provide amazing, comprehensive coverage (as long as you don’t have a preexisting condition). We have a sabbatical policy to provide regular refreshment to our staff.

Challenges.
Disunity. We have experienced congregational disunity during John Frawley’s seven-year tenure and in the aftermath of his departure. John unfortunately faced a perfect storm. During COVID, we experienced a downturn, as did most churches. Our leadership released three staff. When we were able to regather in public worship, the numbers did not seem to justify returning to two services. By combining the two services into one, many people felt betrayed that their preferred style of music was given short shrift. Much of the discontent has been healed.
Age. The average age of our church (59.6) is much older than the average age of our community (46). It is vital that Metropolitan grow younger.
Complacency. In our SWOT analysis, related terms cropped up. We suffer from weariness, worship tension, disunity, poor communication, poor evangelism, and a narrow philosophy of ministry (the recent survey perceived our focus as a platform to preach [61%] but stated that we should be an equipping center [41%]).
Vision. An inspiring vision of the future is the cure for complacency. What is vision? It is a compelling picture of a preferred future. The Transition Team will craft a vision statement with a series of goals to accomplish that vision.

Future. Interim Pastor Woody Woodward is working with a Transition Team to assess health and plan for the future. We have conducted a values audit. We rewrote the mission statement (What we do) and will soon create a vision statement (What we will look like in five years). What will our staffing configuration look like? What will be our average age? What new ministries will we create? What will our campus look like? What groups will we target? We have created task forces to address key issues: Every Member a Ministry, Clarifying the Discipleship Pathway, Constitutional Revisions, Evangelism, Stewardship. We are pumped about our future. Fresh winds are blowing.