We embarked on this journey beginning in June of 2023 when each of the seven members of our Search Team were nominated, vetted and approved by the Northshore Church Leadership Team and the Executive Pastoral Staff. We were then affirmed by a Covenant Member vote to serve on the Pastor Search Team. Our incredibly challenging and exciting task was to discover the man that God has chosen to lead Northshore Church upon the retirement of Dr. Larry McEwen in May of this year. From the very first meeting we prayerfully considered all that we had to do, praying earnestly and continually, and sought the Lord’s counsel at every turn. We started and ended each session with heartfelt prayers seeking God’s will, discernment, strength and wisdom. We also prayed continually for unity in the body of believers at Northshore Church.
 

The composition of our team was determined by the Northshore Church by-laws and constitution and included members of the current Leadership Team, Pastoral Staff and church lay people. To ensure we were properly equipped for this daunting mission, at our very first meeting in early July, we received invaluable training from Don Pucik, the Southern Baptist Association area representative and an expert in assisting churches in finding new pastors. We also studied and learned procedures and advice from several highly respected authoritative works dedicated to this task. As a team we decided to require a unanimous approval of a candidate to bring forward to the congregation, even though the by-laws are less stringent.
 

Even after all the training and studying, it was clear from God’s call that in order to do this highly important job properly, we would need some professional assistance. So, after laying the foundation for three months, in October, we contacted several Pastor Search Firms, and after carefully vetting each of them, we were led to “The Shepherd Staff,” a leader in the field of providing qualified and thoroughly vetted pastoral staff candidates nationwide. It was evident from the many meetings and interactions with them and from praying for the Lord’s will to be accomplished that God was leading us in their direction.
 

In November, as part of The Shepherd Staff process a three-member team, led by the President of the company, spent four days at Northshore Church, meeting with our team, the Pastoral Staff, Leadership Team and a wide variety of ministry leader and church member focus groups. The result of this “Discovery Weekend” provided them not only with our mission, purpose and vision, but also a clear picture of Northshore Church’s direction and needs. All this information was compiled into a job description, employment announcement and an extremely accurate Church Profile delivered in December and we began moving forward with Shepherd Staff. Before beginning the search externally, an internal candidate was interviewed and vetted by Shepherd Staff and our team. Ultimately, he decided to remove his nomination for personal and family reasons just before January.

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Shepherd Staff initiated the national search for our next Senior Pastor in March of this year. Through a series of detailed stages they reviewed, interviewed and ultimately vetted nearly 70 candidates. Constant collaboration led to the presentation of a single candidate, Michael S. Cooke in late March. Michael is currently the Campus Life Pastor at First Baptist Church Simpsonville, in Simpsonville, SC. We agreed as a team to review Michael immediately instead of waiting for a batch of candidates. We leaned ever deeper on Him for direction while intently pouring over the information in the presentation packet, including his testimony of faith, resume, references, education, work experience, background checks and links to several of Michael’s sermons. We held
three separate Zoom interviews with Michael and spent countless hours reviewing everything about him. After which, each member of our team felt the unmistakable tug of the Holy Spirit toward Michael and his family.
 

As we moved forward, the team was so incredibly impressed with Michael that a chemistry visit was scheduled for him and his family from April 18-23. During their stay, they spent lots of time getting to know our Pastoral Staff, the Leadership Team, and the Pastor Search Team. They even attended a worship service and were blown away by the genuine love they felt from everyone that greeted them incognito of course. We spent hours interviewing Michael and Jamie in several different settings throughout the visit, during which the Cookes expressed a clear calling back to Louisiana. At our Search Team meeting on Monday, April 22, after much discussion, deliberation and prayer we unanimously voted to affirm Michael S. Cooke and to extend an offer to present him as a Senior Pastor Candidate to the Church. Carrie Tassin and I met with the Cookes later that night in the lobby of their hotel to inform them and initially talk about the way ahead. The first and last thing we did with them was to pray!
 

The Cookes prayerfully accepted our offer to come in view of a call and will return to Slidell and Northshore Church on May 18th and 19th for the Official Candidates Visit. The Congregation is invited to meet the Cooke Family on Saturday, May 18th at the Church and later to hear their testimony and the Call to Northshore Church.
Michael will then preach at both services on Sunday, May 19th. Later that evening the Church will hold a business meeting where covenanted members will vote on Michael to become our next Senior Pastor; this will require a 90% approval vote.
 

My prayer for our next Pastor is that he will “Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Tim 4:2). This brings us to the opportunity for our church to meet and fall in love with Michael S. Cooke and his family in two weeks. – David Lawson, Pastor Search Team Chairperson