Worship Arts Staffing Announcement

I am excited to announce that Five Oaks is conducting a nation-wide search for a full-time Worship Leader who will report to David Gafford, Director of Worship Arts Ministries, and will be the primary weekend worship leader for the Woodbury Campus.

David will continue to oversee the entire worship arts ministry, but he will be freed up to to devote more time to strategic leadership and creative content of the weekend services (for both campuses) and to invest more time in leading the Communications Ministry (which includes our web site, as well as all in-house and outreach communications). We believe that freeing David up in this way will not only leverage his gifts, it will also have a measurable impact on the effectiveness of our weekend services at both campuses. Fortunately for us, David will also be able to continue to lead worship and special music as part of the worship leading team, which includes Jason Kramer (Hudson campus Worship Leader), but he will be able to spend more of his time on his broader leadership duties.

The new Worship Leader will also lead worship and music for Fusion, our Wednesday night high school ministry. By staffing this strategic position, we will be able to devote more time and effort to its development and provide music every week. This ministry has been lead by Jason Kramer as a volunteer, and Jason will continue volunteering with Fusion, which is one of his biggest passions. Jason has done a great job of taking this ministry to another level over the past few years, and we are so grateful for his leadership.

Hiring this position also allows us to make some other staffing adjustments, but we are waiting to see what the gift/talent mix is for this new leader before we decide. Basically, the new worship leader will have one more area of responsibility, but we also want to add some new responsibilities to Jonathan Haage, in addition to his worship arts duties. Jonathan is attending Bethel seminary and desires to get some experience in other areas of ministry. 

Slingshot Group, a worship arts consulting and search firm out of California, is assisting us in our search.  Our goal is to have someone in this position by early summer.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am about these developments. This will accelerate some adjustments we want to make to our worship services so we can make more room for God every week and communicate God's Word in ways that connect with more people. This is a topic you'll be hearing more about in the next few months. It also allows for greater utilization of the very talented and gifted people we have on our staff. I'm also convince that because of this position and what it frees us to do, we will be poised to reach more people for Christ in the coming years.

Please pray for our search, that God will lead us to the right person. If you have any questions, please direct them to David Gafford (office@fiveoakschurch.org), to Jay Dorenkamp, Governing Board Chair (office@fiveoakschurch.org) or to me. We would love to hear from you.