Present: about 135 members
§ 1 Opening of the meeting
The congregation’s Chairman Marco Helles welcomed everyone and declared the meeting open.
§ 2 Election of verifiers
Ingegerd Berg and Brenda Taylor were elected to verify the minutes.
§ 3 Calling of an Associate pastor to the International fellowship
The chairman of the Personnel committee, Stephen James, presented the members of the Call committee for finding an Associate pastor to the International fellowship, namely Emily Tatlow, Brenda Taylor, Deborah Trapman, Henry Ampah-Korsah, Christopher Dalid, Stephen James, Ulla Marie Gunner and Chris Peterson.
The task of the new pastor is to be part of Immanuel church’s team of pastors and to partner with Chris Peterson for the International worship group, with special focus on children, youth and young adults.
The Call committee has done a thorough job for five months. The position was advertised both in Sweden and in international channels, which resulted in over 40 applications. Out of these the Call committee selected 17 candidates which were looked at deeper, using a special tool to rate their applications. Five persons were then called for an interview, which was done via Skype. Out of these five, a unanimous Call team presented Peter Anderson to the Personnel committee. The Personnel committee then presented him to the Board who decided to propose Peter Anderson to the congregation.
Peter Anderson is 31 years old and was raised in Minnesota, USA. In July 2015 he was ordained pastor within the Evangelical Covenant Church. At present he is an Associate pastor for youth at Crossroads Community Covenant Church in the state of Washington, a church with 600 members. He is also the main preacher at their Sunday evening service.
Before Peter was employed by Crossroads he worked in two other congregations, partly as chaplain and partly as youth leader. He has a broad experience of work with young people and also of camps.
Peter is married to Ann and they have a daughter, Sommar, 4 years old, and a son, Haakon, 10 months.
The congregation was given the opportunity to ask questions. From these it emerged that Peter has no previous international experience but that he has experience of working with refugees from Iraq. He has also studied at a Bible school in Jönköping during one semester.
On the question what distinguished Peter from other applicants, Stephen responded that all the applications were of high quality but that Peter had shown a special understanding of what young people need, especially young people aged 13–18 and what the church needs to be and do for them. This was something that stood out against other candidates and matches well what Immanuel church wants to be and do for this group of young people in Stockholm.
Then the congregation was ready to make a decision.
The congregation decided to call Peter Anderson as Associate pastor of the International fellowship and to be part of the church’s team of pastors.
The decision was unanimous.
§ 4 Conclusion
The Chairman declared the meeting closed.
Secretary: Cathrin Sjöström
Minutes approved by Marco Helles (Chairman), Ingegerd Berg and Brenda Taylor