St Clair Community Church

August 07, 2022

St Clair Family, 

We are excited to share that Amanda Van Halteren was announced this morning as the person stepping into the role of lead pastor at St Clair. 

(St Clair has spoken on Women in Leadership previously. You can listen to the podcasts here: pt. 1 & pt. 2)

Amanda holds a Masters of Divinity from Tyndale where her studies included not just pastoral and theological development, but also skills in counseling which she has implemented in her work within the church as well as in her work outside of it. She has a key insight for looking at the processes, structures, and programs that the church uses and asking the question “is this making disciples?”, “where are we going?” and “how are we getting there?”. We see a real apostolic and teaching strength in her and are excited for what she will bring to our community. She has spent much of this year (previous to and during the hiring process) learning about St Clair, meeting many of you and participating with humility while waiting for God’s leading – and she has been diligent to do exactly that. Some of you may remember that Amanda preached earlier in the year on the topic of being courageous.

Over the last few months, St Clair has been in the process of hiring someone to step into a lead pastor role. Looking back over the whole hiring process we can see that God has been guiding us all along this process. Early in the year, before we launched our hiring process, two people had put their names forward to help lead St Clair through the next season, before they even knew we were thinking about hiring. Both of these candidates were and are very qualified and gifted individuals who love St. Clair and love Jesus, and that was evident throughout the hiring process. We are really thankful for their gifts and presence in our community and for their willingness to participate in the process of discernment. There were many conversations, formal interviews, reference checks, follow up conversations, discernment and prayer, and we walked our way through the hiring process being sure that we were being attentive to the Lord’s leading. We have done this to the best of ability, and today, we’re excited to share that Amanda Van Halteren has accepted the offer as lead pastor for St. Clair.

Amanda will start to transition over the next few weeks, continuing to meet with other staff and leadership. She will join us next week for our church picnic so be sure to give her a warm welcome when you see her there. August 28th she will be preaching in our Sunday service, and officially starting the role at the beginning of September.

As we say on many a Sunday, when you look around and see someone you don’t know – then they are new to you. So if Amanda is new to you, we encourage you to invite her into the life of our church and of your life and help her to feel welcomed in our community.

The hiring process is drawing to an end, but we want to encourage you all to continue praying for what lies ahead, namely the leadership of our church, Amanda’s transition into her role, and Matt’s transition out of his role. As you will all know, this is a weighty time for our church, and we need to continually ask for The Lord’s presence and hand to rest on and guide us during this time. Amanda and Matt both need our prayers as they journey through this season – so please, continue to pray, and if you haven’t been you can start right now!

Hiring Amanda is an act of faith for us because currently we are not operating on a balanced budget. Much has shifted in the last year, and financially we are still working to come back into a balanced place financially for the work we have before us. This is a step of faith for us. We are waiting on the Lord to make this possible financially for us – and are asking for Him to provide for us to continue the work that He has called us to – and so we continue to invite people into partnering with St. Clair – if you call St Clair home, then we’d encourage you to give generously to the mission of making disciples with your time, your efforts, and also with finances. If you want to know more about giving you can visit our website. 

We are giving thanks for God’s guidance, provision and care for our community. We look forward with anticipation to what He are doing in and through St Clair in this season, and in the season to come.

Grace and Peace, 

St Clair Community Church Leadership Team