General Director
General Director
Transition Updates
On April 24, 2023, Jim Lyon announced his intention to step out of the role of General Director of Church of God Ministries at the completion of his term in 2025. Read the full letters from Jim and Ministries Council Chair Esther Cottrell here.
What’s Next?
A Transition Team has been appointed by the Ministries Council to plan out the remaining term of current General Director Jim Lyon, select a search firm to perform a landscape survey of the Church of God movement, assist with compiling a candidate profile, and form a Search Team for the new General Director of Church of God Ministries.
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Efrain Cirilo (Transition Team Chair); Ministries Council Vice-Chair -
ESTHER COTTRELL Ministries Council Chair
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David Hoag President of Warner University
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Bob Oliver Ministries Council
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Ben Shular Church of God Ministries Chief of Staff
PARTNER. PLAN. PRAYER. PARTICIPATE.
PARTNER
The Transition Team has selected NL Moore & Associates as the search firm.
PLAN
An approximate timeline of the General Director transition and search process:
- June 2023 – Introduce the “Partner, Plan, Prayer, Participate” approach at the 2023 Convention & General Assembly
- September 2023 –
- Launch Vista Landscape Survey; complete by early October
- Ministries Council to review Search Team nominations and prayerfully discern participants.
- Nancy Moore to meet with the Ministries Council
- November 2023 – Executive summary of the Vista Landscape Survey results prepared by NL Moore & Associates and delivered to Ministries Council.
- January 2024 –
- Communicate results of Vista Landscape Survey with participants
- Select and orient the Search Team by end of January
- Open a link for General Director nominations on the transition webpage
- January – March 2024 –
- Launch Zoom Focus Groups with specific groups like Concilio Hispano, National Association, Regional Pastors, ad College & Universities, as well as open groups for anyone who would like to participate
- Nominations of prospective candidates are welcomed and encouraged
- February – May 2024 –Search Team will meet monthly to pray and prepare for candidate interviews.
- April 2024 – NL Moore & Associates will synthesize what has been learned through Vista Landscape and Focus Groups to create an accurate Candidate Profile for the General Director role.
- May 2024 – Candidate Profile documents will be reviewed and approved by the Search Team and Ministries Council prior to the launch of interviews.
- June – August 2024 – Candidates interviewed and assessed by NL Moore & Associates
- August – September 2024 – Candidate presentation to the Search Team
- September – October 2024 – Candidate interviewed by Search Team
- October – November 2024 – Any additional assessments desired will be accomplished no later than this time frame
- December 2024 – Goal is to have candidate selected by the end of first quarter 2025
- The Vista Landscape Survey will determine if an overlap with the new Candidate and our current General Director is appropriate.
PRAYER
We are people led by God’s Holy Spirit. We are people who believe in the power of prayer. We are intercessors and we are prayer warriors. As we engage this time of discovery for who our next General Director will be, we must join together in prayer so that we can intercede on behalf of those currently leading our movement, discern God’s directing voice, and advance the gospel of Jesus Christ through it all.
A Prayer Team, led by Pastors Melissa Pratt and Tim Gould, was launched at Convention 2023 to facilitate and guide intentional opportunities for prayer throughout the General Director search process. Below you will find prayer requests from Jim Lyon, Assembly Chair Esther Cottrell, and the Transition Team. These requests will be updated regularly to give you tangible ways to cover the search in prayer. Additional opportunities for the Movement to engage in prayer together will be communicated soon.
Updated 9/13/23
- Pray for the upcoming Ministries Council meeting in Houston, TX and the New Room Conference which is also meeting in Houston. Pray that the Lord will supernaturally guide the Ministries Council as it attends to its business, but also as it considers the power and necessity of the Holy Spirit in our midst and trajectory—and how we as a Movement can step up and into the calling of unity we so often profess, during the New Room Conference.
- Pray for clarity and vision for the Ministries Council as they deliberate and prioritize the needs and goals of the Movement, and as they select the Search Committee members.
- Pray for good participation across the Movement of the upcoming landscape survey from NL Moore & Associates.
- Pray for wisdom for the Transition Team.
- Pray for Jim to be filled fresh with the Spirit for the remaining days of his tenure at CHOG Ministries and the days beyond. Pray he will discern what is most important, what should be deferred, and what should be abandoned.
- Pray for financial resources to flow into Church of God Ministries so that Jim and those serving there can fulfill the tasks to which they have been assigned. Pray that the Lord will provide both extraordinary wisdom and the resources needed to set the table for the future, according to His will.
Join quarterly Zoom prayer gatherings organized by the Prayer Team. These gatherings will be led by multiple voices from across the movement, while providing opportunity for interaction.
Upcoming Prayer Gatherings:
- Monday, November 6, 2023
- Sunday, February 4, 2024
- Saturday, May 25, 2024
CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS
Updated 7/11/23
- Pray for Jim Lyon as he continues to follow up on all that convened at the Church of God Convention in Tampa, and for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit leading to refreshment and empowerment.
- Pray for the Transition Team and the Ministries Council as they begin to think, pray, and work together to form the Search Team.
- Pray for NL Moore & Associates as they craft a movement-wide survey this fall.
- Pray for our movement as we move toward a new chapter in leadership—that any anxiety will be replaced with hope, any fear will be replaced with faith, and any sense of disunity or apathy will be replaced with a collective sense of unity and mission.
ZOOM PRAYER GATHERING
Join quarterly Zoom prayer gatherings organized by the Prayer Team. These gatherings will be led by multiple voices from across the movement, while providing opportunity for interaction.
The first gathering is Saturday, August 19 at 1:00 PM EDT. Registration is required, so click below!
