Job posting - Interim Executive Director for Crossways Camping Ministries

This position would be 8-10 months in length and is open to all rostered and non-rostered persons interested. Please read carefully the attached job description/expectations and consider if you or someone you know may be an asset to Crossways in our time of transition. Please feel free to print and share this information with potential candidates.

This is an important role for Crossways and we will be looking to fill this position in a timely manner. Resumes and references should be submitted to the task force chair:

For more information, please contact:
Steve Olson
71 Continental Ct.
Appleton, WI 54911-1607
stevenholson@gmail.com
Phone: 920/540-8611

Deadline
October 18, 2010

For more information, please click here.

Executive Director Position Transition

Member Congregations of Crossways Camping Ministries Association:

Rev. Wayne Harrison has informed the Board of Directors of his plan to resign as Executive Director of Crossways camping Ministries effective November 30, 2010. We appreciate all of the passion and work that Pastor Harrison has brought to the ministry of Crossways. We also pray God’s blessings upon him as he moves with his family to Ohio.

“What are we going to do now?” is a question that quickly comes to the surface of conversations. Here is our plan.

1. We need to celebrate with thanksgiving the ministry of Pastor Wayne. There will be a farewell celebration on October 23. Please refer to the Celebration information enclosed with this mailing.
2. We have consulted with the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries churchwide office and have received valuable support and information from Mark Burkhardt.
3. Because the Board of Directors feels that this time is an opportunity to review and prepare for the future, we will be developing a Strategic Plan this fall. In conducting this plan we will draw upon the insights of people from the Association. If you have information for us to consider, please contact Pastor Rich Block at pastorrich.mtcalvary@frontier.com.
4. In the meantime, we have established a four person Transition Planning Task Force with the purpose of facilitating our transition time and recommending to the Executive Board an Interim Executive Director. The plan is that this person will be hired by December 1, 2010.
5. In December and January a Search Committee will be formed to employ an Executive Director. With the information from our Strategic Plan and a position description from the Board, the Search Committee will begin work. We have a target date of introducing a new Crossways Executive Director to the Association on September 2, 2011.
   

This time of transition is not a time to “retreat” from our support of Crossways. Rather, we encourage you to continue to support the ministries of Crossways as a vital extension of the ministries in your congregation. Please pray for the camps, the staff and the Board of Directors during this time.

Shalom,

Executive Board of the Board of Directors
Pastor Rich Block, President
Jeff Roznowski, Vice-President
Dave Down, Treasurer
Pastor Ben Sheets, Secretary

Resignation of Executive Director, Pastor Wayne Harrison

Dear Friends of Crossways,

As many of you have already heard, I have resigned as the Executive Director of Crossways Camping Ministries effective November 30, 2010. This has not been an easy decision for me, but after a great deal of prayerful thought and deliberation, I decided to leave Crossways to join my family in Columbus, Ohio.

My wife Tondi has accepted a position with Nationwide Children's Hospital as a Research Scientist in the Heart Research Center with a dual appointment to the faculty of the Pediatrics Department at The Ohio State University School of Medicine. This is a tremendous opportunity to advance her study of infants born with congenital heart defects. As a multi-generation household, my daughter and son-in-law and granddaughters who live with us have also relocated to Columbus.

Although I keep hearing from people that they've heard I'm retiring, at this point I have no definite plans to retire. I will be taking a personal sabbatical for a few weeks and then explore my options. Since I am not retiring or seeking a call in a different synod, I will be "on leave from call" until I make such a decision.

This ministry with Crossways has grown to be very dear to my heart and it was a difficult decision to leave. As I look around at the three sites and remember them as they were when I arrived back in the cold winter of 2000, I am amazed at just how much has changed. There have been significant improvements in the facilities at all three sites. I believe we have grown in the quality and variety of the programming offered. I am sure there are more than two dozen of our summer staff who have gone on to seminary either for ordination or for masters degrees in youth and family ministry. I have been particularly blessed to have been able to work with the Western Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa and the 19 young people who have joined us from the Western Diocese during the summers, and to have visited there three times on behalf of Crossways. I believe that relationship's growth has enriched the camp's program, hundreds of our campers and, in fact, many of the congregations in this association.

There are so many things I will dearly miss and which have meant so much to me. But this ministry has never been about me. I love what we do and believe it is critically important to the lives of so many of God's children. Crossways, and all of you, will remain in my thoughts and prayers always. May God continue to bless this ministry for many years to come.

In His Peace,

Pastor Wayne Harrison
Wayne@CrosswaysCamps.org

Note from the Crossways Board of Directors: Information regarding the farewell celebration to be held October 23, 2010 for Pastor Wayne and the plans for the transition of Executive Director will be sent to congregations in the next week.