Welcome to James Paton, our new Teaching Pastor!
We are pleased to announce that James Paton has accepted the call to serve Crossroads as our Teaching Pastor, serving on the leadership team along with Bill Hoopes as Community Pastor and Miriam Phillips as Executive Pastor. James and his wife Gillian plan to arrive in early February with their two children, Callum (16), Eilidh (15) to join their son John, already studying in Amsterdam.
James comes to us from serving the last 9 years as co-pastor of a large, dynamic, missionally oriented congregation in Calgary (Canada), after growing up in Scotland and pastoring in Switzerland.
The Pastor Search Team, made up of Crossroads members, with a vast array of gifts and experience, spent many months searching and praying though 200 applications for the Teaching Pastor position, including reading what applicants had written about themselves and their perspectives, letters of reference from people who have worked with them, listening to sermons, eventually Skyping with 6 pastor couples and inviting 2 couples to visit us here in the Netherlands. We are very grateful to the team for spending the many dedicated hours in this thorough process.
After receiving the insights and recommendations of the team, inviting input from Bill and Miriam and spending additional time in prayer and discernment, the Elders unanimously agreed to call James to this role—which we are please to report he has accepted.
In the first few weeks, James will focus on getting his family settled, finding long-term housing and planning with Crossroads leadership and staff before taking on full responsibility for leading the Teaching Team, developing learning opportunities throughout our community and helping to lead Crossroads toward more fully carrying out our mission. We hope you will give this family a warm welcome to our community and pray for them, giving them grace as they adjust. Will you thank God together with us for answering our prayers?
