Senior Pastor Job Profile
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Pastor Kyle Jackson is a passionate and enthusiastic pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He has 26 years of ministry experience in mostly large church settings. With strong experience in student ministry, congregational care, team leadership, and development, he is an excellent preacher and communicator. He loves helping people discover their God-given talents and thrives in building a collaborative team.
Important to Know about Pastor Kyle
Pastor Kyle’s “heart rate kept going up” as he read the job profile for Mount Calvary’s Senior Pastor position. He had considered other positions but Mount Calvary’s “resonated” and immediately felt like a strong fit. He shared with the call committee that he feels like he is running towards a spirit-filled opportunity and cannot wait to see what God is doing at Mount Calvary!
Pastor Kyle is energetic, enthusiastic, relational, and passionate about what God is doing. He is a direct communicator with strong collaboration skills. He enjoys collaborating with a talented staff within a multi-pastor environment and within large churches. The call committee consistently noticed his strong leadership skills with fantastic listening and communication skills. When compared to the congregational profile we were looking for, Pastor Kyle was a clear match.
Masters of Divinity, Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, MN
September 2006 — May 2011
SemPM student for five years while continuing to work full-time at Christ Presbyterian Church as the Director of Student Ministries. Specialties in Marriage and Family Ministries. Included a year at Luther Seminary.
Bachelor’s Degree, Luther Decorah, IA
August 1991 — May 1995
Executive Pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, MN
August 2019 — February 2021
Help the executive team lead a team of 100 plus staff at a 10,000 member congregation.
Specific areas include leadership of Congregational Care, St. Andrew’s Village (senior living community), Community Resource Center, and Global and Local Missions. Lead worship, preach and administer Word and Sacrament.
Pastor of Congregational Care at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, MN
April 2016 — August 2019
Oversaw Congregational Care at St. Andrew’s. Funeral and Wedding Ministry. Hospital and Care Visitation. Lead at St. Andrew’s Village (senior living community), Lead Worship in Preaching and administer Word and Sacrament.
Pastor of Children, Youth and Family at Incarnation Lutheran Church, Shoreview, MN
April 2013 — April 2016
Led the Children, Youth and Family Department at a large church in the suburban Twin Cities. Worship Leader in preaching and Word and Sacrament.
Intern Pastor/Interim Senior Pastor at Greenfield Lutheran Church, Harmony, MN
July 2011 — April 2013
Internship site as candidate for ordination in the ELCA. Unique three-point parish where he was Lead Pastor for two rural congregations. Preached and led worship every week for two years. Pastoral Care and Funerals. Became Interim Senior Pastor at all three congregations because of his supervising pastor’s illness.
Pastor Dave’s gift of flexibility provides a time of overlap where Mount Calvary will have two Senior Pastors working together to bridge the transition from one to another. With this approach, we benefit from the collaboration of Pastor Dave and the new Senior Pastor on foundational ministries and the history and culture of our congregation. At the same time, we are excited and look forward to encouraging our new pastor’s vision for the future.
Many churches our size have moved to this overlap-succession model to create continuity while looking to the future. We will look for our next Senior Pastor to be just as inspired as all of us to make Mount Calvary a welcoming, inclusive, open and affirming, loving, service-oriented place to call church home. Pastor Dave has done this for forty years and he’s excited about shepherding this process and a new leader to success.
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Chaplain
Communications
Starting with the nudging of Pastor Dave and between the Transition Team, HR Team, Council, Staff and Congregation, we have been preparing for a senior pastor transition since 2015 … six years of preparation!
In January of this year
We determined that hiring an Independent Recruiter was important to ensure we contacted the best candidates for Mount Calvary.
February
March
April
May
June
Our Recommendation
We have prepared for this moment for the last six years. Our recruiter contacted over 200 candidates and met with about 20 she felt fit the profile. We selected eight candidates for the committee to interview and conducted 28 interviews. Our top candidate was interviewed seven times and went through a professional assessment.
In conclusion, we can confidently say that we did our due diligence. Throughout the process, we received great feedback that Mount Calvary appeared to be well organized, the job profile was very inspiring, and Mount Calvary has a great reputation. We met a lot of fantastic candidates. However, through everything one candidate continued to stand out and the Call Committee is enthusiastically recommending to Council that we hire Pastor Kyle Jackson as our new Senior Pastor.
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People of Mount Calvary have followed God’s lead for over 90 years. Since the beginning grace, love, hospitality, inclusion, and service have been part of who we are and what God calls us to offer our community and the world. Our leader, Pastor Dave Olson, has been our conductor on the journey, empowering people to hear God’s word in scripture and in life, inspiring folks to follow their passions and to use their gifts for present needs and the next generation.
For 40 years Pastor Dave has dedicated himself to leading our congregation, and together we’ve built on our strong pillars and faithful foundation. What will the coming years look like for us? Let’s embrace our future with enthusiasm! We’ll need all our prayers, energy and resources to be our best. Join us in launching a legacy that shows we opened our hands to give what we could for our longtime mission to make, build up, and send out disciples of Jesus Christ.
Shared gifts grow in their significance. Our combined blessings increase exponentially and extend beyond our walls. Combining our gifts, we are able to meet compelling needs and serve our neighbors in unexpected ways. We can do so much more when we do it together!
Over the next year, we hope to raise $350,000 in gifts to provide for leadership transition, an executive search firm, technology upgrades, and critical partner support. These dollars will allow us to successfully position ourselves for a seamless transition. We’re proud of our legacy with Pastor Dave, and we’re excited about all the possibilities in our future. Please help us by supporting a thorough plan for growth. We believe this plan is the best way to move us gracefully forward.
Church is where the faith we hold dear unites us. It’s here that we invest in other people’s tomorrows as young people grow in faith and human needs are met in our community. In this holy space we inspire people to live in ways that benefit the world. We get to be a part of something greater than ourselves.
Families @ $5 a week
Families @ $20 a week
Families @ $50 a week
Families @ $1,000 a year
Families @ $5,000 a year