The Transition Committee is well underway with its search for an Interim Minister. In an effort to keep every member up to date with our work and progress, we would like to share the following information which details and defines the procedures which we are required to follow.

All ministers interested in seeking employment within the Presbytery have on file a Personal Information Form, which is known as a PIF. The PIFs reside at Presbyterian (USA) headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. A PIF is a resume of information about the minister seeking employment.

All churches seeking to employ a minister, in any given capacity, complete a Church Information Form, which is known as the CIF. The CIF includes much statistical information about the church and also includes a well defined description of exactly what the church is seeking in its search for a ministerial candidate. The Transition Committee began drafting our CIF during the summer and submitted it to the headquarters of the Presbytery of New Hope in Rocky Mount in early September.

The Committee on Ministry, located in Rocky Mount and known as the COM, matches our CIF with the ministers' PIFs and this match becomes available to us via the internet. However, after careful review of each candidate and before we can actually make contact with any of the matches, we have to request permission to make the initial contact from our Presbytery Executive, who is Barbara Campbell Davis. Once permission is given, we then make the initial call to the candidate. If the candidate is promising, we request CDs and/or hardcopies of sermons. We also make contact with the candidates references while the materials are en route to us. All Transition Committee members have an opportunity to review the PIFs and we discuss, in detail, the candidates with each other.

This is a lengthy process and once a candidate has been determined to be the appropriate match for the needs of our church, we will request permission from or Presbytery of New Hope to make an offer to that candidate. The Session will then make the actual hire.