Religious | Presbyterian Church in America
Full-Time
Posted: Aug 21, 2025
Application Deadline: Nov 1, 2025
Description
see our application on our website.
A Message From Our Pastoral Search Committee
Thank you for considering the position of Crosswater’s Senior Pastor. The
Pastoral Search Committee hopes that the information in this packet will be helpful to you and your family as you consider whether the Lord is calling you to serve our church. Our church has been praying for you and your family.
Included in this document are our church’s vision, history, and strengths, as well as specific areas in which we’d like to grow. Some information about our community in the heart of the Hampton Roads region has also been included.
Upon learning more about our church and community, if the Lord is leading you to apply to the position of Senior Pastor, please see the “How to apply” section at the end of this packet.
Hampton Roads, Virginia
The Hampton Roads area comprises 9 cities and counties, including Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News, Hampton, and Williamsburg. Our region is filled with history and opportunity. Crosswater is located in the city of Chesapeake, in the area known as “Western Branch”, a holdover name from when the Elizabeth River controlled commerce and travel.
The area of Western Branch is growing in population and commerce. Amazon opened a massive distribution center in a nearby part of Suffolk in 2022. The additional Amazon jobs and other economic developments in the area have led to an explosion in new apartments, condominiums, and single-family homes in the surrounding area. Our church would like to minister to the growing number of people and families who are moving to the area.
Our Vision
Our vision is to be a people so taken with Jesus Christ that we rejoice in his love, walk in his ways, and carry his gospel to our community.
Our Values
⮚ Renewing Grace: in a world of broken lives, the gospel of grace brings about renewal and wholeness that glorifies God.
⮚ Reliant Prayer: In this world we are powerless to bring about gospel change by ourselves. To bring grace to people’s lives and care for our communities, we must be a people who are dependent on the Lord in prayer.
⮚ Redemptive Community: In a world that is disconnected and constantly fragmenting, the gospel calls us to form deep, meaningful relationships in community.
⮚ Reformed Lifeview: We strive to be winsomely reformed, believing the Bible to be God’s authoritative Word, our rule for faith and living. We affirm the historical confessions of the Reformed faith as teaching the principles and truths of the Bible and expressing the gospel of grace.
⮚ Relentless Mission: In a world of self-absorption, the gospel of grace propels us out of ourselves to love and serve other people.
Our Mission
Our Mission is to make disciples of all ages, who in heart and hand, live like Jesus in all areas of life. We accomplish this by:
⮚ Developing spiritually-reproducing Christians through missional discipleship.
⮚ Befriending, hosting, and praying for the unchurched.
⮚ Engaging the lost and the unchurched with the good news of Jesus through thoughtful questions, listening ears, and seasoned words.
⮚ Encouraging new folks to love Christ and his church and pursue meaningful membership.
Our Church Profile
Crosswater was founded in 2012 as a church plant from Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church in Suffolk, VA. As a plant, we benefited from the wisdom of two pastors: David Dickson, who is now retired and our pastor emeritus, and Dan Kerley, our former senior pastor, who recently moved to Florida to accept a call to a new ministry opportunity. Dan and his wife Lesa are beloved by our congregation for their maturity and friendliness. The Kerleys expected to finish out Dan’s season in professional ministry at Crosswater, but the Lord opened a unique opportunity for him in Florida. The Kerleys have our love and gratitude for their faithful ministry to us in Christ.
Crosswater particularized in 2013 and now meets at StoneBridge Christian School. We have an excellent relationship with StoneBridge, which offers us plenty of room to grow our community with its large worship space and many classrooms.
Looking to the future, we desire to raise up and train leaders within the church to take advantage of present and increasing ministry opportunities. In line with attendance and membership growth and expanding ministries, we desire to obtain our own church building. We plan for this building to serve as an effective tool for growing the ministry of our church in addition to providing office space and storage facilities. While currently a small church, we would like to grow to make this financial investment in the church’s ministries without a large debt burden.
Our congregation enjoys a balanced demographic. We are about 1/3 seniors, 1/3 adults under 65, and 1/3 children and teens. Worship attendance averages 120.
Since there are many military installations in Hampton Roads, we benefit from the fresh energy military personnel bring when they move to the area, and we look to send them off encouraged and strengthened.
Our worship order emphasizes expository preaching along with personal and corporate confessions of sin and assurance of forgiveness. We are currently confessing our faith together using questions and answers from the Westminster Catechism and are about to start using the New City Catechism. We enjoy a musical prelude and offertory along with congregational singing. The music style is wide ranging from modern worship songs to classical hymns. The composition of our instruments varies, but we frequently enjoy piano, guitar, bass, violin, cello, drums, as well as vocalists.
You won’t be ministering alone. You’ll have support and wisdom available to you. Crosswater’s Assistant Pastor of Students and Families, Matt Horne, has been here for two years. He has four years of ministry experience. He preaches once per month and writes the worship service’s liturgy when he does. He coordinates the youth and children’s ministries and welcomes new people by helping them get connected to the congregation.
Crosswater has an interim part-time music director, and we are seeking a person for this permanent part-time position (see job description on our website). Additionally, we have a part-time church administrator, a part-time office assistant, a CPA bookkeeper, and a volunteer nursery coordinator.
We have six Ruling Elders and six Deacons who actively use their various gifts to serve our congregation. As a congregation, we are seeking someone who can encourage us to use our gifts for the good of the church and to be active in ministry.
Active Ministries
Corporate Worship Service - set-up. sound, and worship teams facilitate our church having a beautiful and powerful worship service.
JOY Group - a.k.a. “The Chain Gang”
meets at the assisted living residence of a member for Bible lessons, prayer, knitting and crocheting; average attendance 8.
Men’s Bible Study - meets twice monthly.
Youth Group - Sunday evening Bible study at Stonebridge or member’s homes; average attendance 14.
Men’s Prayer Breakfast - meets twice monthly for Bible reading, prayer and great food at member’s home; average attendance 12.
Missions Ministry - Active support of 16 missions partners/ministries through our annual Faith Promise Giving and an annual Missions Conference where supported mission partners join us for food, fun, and presentations about their work.
Women’s Bible Study - meets weekly on Tuesday mornings; average attendance 12.
Women’s Prayer Breakfast - meets monthly on the first Saturday; average attendance 13.
Prayer Meeting - meets over Zoom every Thursday evening; average attendance 10.
Crisis Pregnancy Center (Walk 4 Life) - we participate annually. In 2025, we had 34 walkers who raised $11,522.70.
Singles Group - recently started with a summer book club; average attendance 8
Recently Inactive Ministries
Small Groups and Journey Discipleship Groups - a vibrant part of congregational life prior to COVID. We would like to reinstate these.
Mission Trips - Some individual members are regulars on medical missions or other ministry trips, but in the past we’ve had larger group participation on trips to El Salvador, Spain, and NY City.
ME3 Sports Camp - many of our presbytery’s churches take turns hosting a local week-long camp for elementary and middle-school kids.
Great Expectations Parenting Class - providing mentor couples who help organize physical, emotional, and spiritual encouragement for expecting parents with our local Crisis Pregnancy Center.
Approximate Annual Budget
Total Income: $372,000
Benevolent/Missions Disbursements: $32,000
Church Expenses: $342,000
Salary: Undisclosed
Requirements
Requirements for our Senior Pastor
In addition to possessing at least 5 years of experience in ministry and being
ordained or ordainable as a teaching elder in the PCA, the senior Pastor will fulfill the following responsibilities:
⮚ Preach at least 40 Sundays per year in addition to special Christian services such as Maundy Thursday.
⮚ Develop an excellent corporate worship service to include liturgy, blended music style, and regular observance of the Lord’s Supper.
⮚ In conjunction with existing leadership, create and execute a vision for Crosswater to grow spiritually and numerically.
⮚ Oversee administrative aspects of the church and supervise the church staff of a part-time administrator, part-time office assistant, bookkeeper, and music director and any future staff to ensure proficiency in their
respective roles.
⮚ Mentor the Assistant Pastor.
⮚ Oversee a Discovery class for prospective new members as needed.
⮚ Identify key lay leaders and raise up new lay leaders to direct the various ministries of the church.
⮚ Lead Session Meetings and attend a quarterly Diaconate Meeting.
⮚ Be an active participant in the Tidewater Presbytery, including attendance at required meetings.
⮚ Participate in professional development opportunities regularly and follow Crosswater’s Sabbatical policy.
⮚ Conduct Leadership training for prospective Elders and Deacons as needed.
⮚ Be available for emergency and hospital visitation.
⮚ Be available for pastoral counseling by appointment and offer referrals as needed.
Our Desired Qualities for our Senior Pastor
Character, Habits, Competencies:
Embodies servant leadership and promotes this in our church culture
Rich prayer life
Preaching from the perspective of biblical theology that heralds the good news of God’s Kingdom from Genesis to Revelation, inviting newcomers in and members to grow as participants in God’s creation project
Able to work well with church leaders
Quality time in personal Bible study
Preaching that calls the congregation to a personal faith in Christ, repentance, and spiritual growth in order to be equipped for ministry
Relationship builder who can be amicable with a wide variety of people
Participating in individual discipling relationships
Promoting a rich worship life in the church
Good listener and prudent speech
A heart for hospitality in the home
Leadership with vision to energize the church to grow and the administrative experience in how to achieve this
Compassionate
Seeks resolution to conflicts in God-honoring ways
Shepherding the church in deep faith commitment and discipleship
How to Apply
How to Apply
We hope this packet is useful to you in discerning whether the Lord would
have you apply to be Crosswater’s next Senior Pastor. If you find that our church is not the right fit for you, but you know someone who would consider this position, please pass on our contact information to them. If you are interested in applying, please begin the process by sending each of the following to psc@crosswaterpc.org.
1. Cover Letter
2. Resume
3. MDF (PCA Ministerial Data Form)
4. Links to or files of three sermons from the past 18 months
5. Two professional references
6. One personal reference (not a family member)
7. A picture of you or your family
8. A brief written response to each of the following questions regarding
preaching, vision, and shepherding:
a. Hearing the preached Word when gathered on Sunday is an important
aspect of our community.
i. What preachers, past or present, are your greatest source of inspiration and why?
ii. What authors, past or present, have been most transformational in your Christian journey and why?
iii. What themes, doctrines, and/or theology of the Bible do you regularly return to for encouragement?
b. Crosswater’s church vision (see above) is central to our identity as a people. We want to increasingly live out this vision as a church.
i. How have you created or adopted a vision?
ii. What steps have you taken to implement a vision in a church
community?
iii. What was the result of these steps?
c. The term “shepherding” has a variety of equally biblical meanings.
i. From your most recent ministry, use a specific situation to show how you’ve practiced shepherding in a regular circumstance with a congregant.
ii. In reflecting on this time, what aspects of your process worked and what would you change?
Please use the following format to label all attachments in your email:
❖ JohnSmith_CoverLetter
❖ JohnSmith_Resume
❖ JohnSmith_MDF
❖ JohnSmith_Picture
❖ JohnSmith_Sermon# (Please label them 1, 2, and 3; if using links, labels are
unnecessary.)
❖ JohnSmith_References
❖ JohnSmith_Questionaire
We will review submissions to the role of Senior Pastor on a rolling basis, and will contact you with next steps. As you might anticipate, further in the process we will request information to perform a background check, credit check, motor vehicle check, and educational verification. We will also require candidates to complete a personality profile assessment, spiritual gifts assessment, and psychological health assessment to assist the committee in our decisions.
We look forward to getting to know you and your family as we dialogue about the possibility of your place at Crosswater. We will continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for all of us through this process.
For additional information and pictures of our church community, please see our website at www.crosswaterpc.org or Facebook at www.facebook.com/crosswaterpc
Primary Contact: Scott Yagel
Email: psc@crosswaterpc.org
Phone: 7574779238
Apply Online: View