We would like you to meet Ryan Stigile
We would like to introduce you to Ryan Stigile. Ryan has been called by the Board to be the next Lead Pastor here at The Community Co Church! Ryan has an extensive and impressive ministry background, with history and expertise in large multi-site churches, local churches, and even most recently church planting! Ryan is coming to us from Dublin, Ohio, so Minnesota winters are going to be a new thing for him and his family! He is married to Emily and they have one daughter Addie; she can't wait to go sledding. He is also an avid Cubs fan (though he’s already committed to making the Twins his “AL Team”). And he loves to "go for a run" any chance he gets. Before their daughter was born, Emily served as a licensed professional counselor. She loves a good book and a cup of tea. And she’s excited to connect with new friends in Forest Lake!
Ryan is a great visionary. He has the ability to see what the next phase of our mission will look like and paint that picture for others in a compelling way. He communicates in ways that are engaging, clear, challenging, and encouraging. You will walk away knowing what's important, why it's important, and how you can be a part of it! He is also a strategic thinker and leader, and is passionate about the local church.
People who know Ryan best would describe him as People-Oriented, Energetic, Honest, and Fun. Our Board and Staff have really enjoyed getting to know Ryan and Emily through this process. We can't wait for you to get to know them too!
Ryan Stigle Interviews & Other Important Videos
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Have more questions? We did our best to answer some of them below...
Seven months ago, our lead pastor resigned. While the staff was used to hiring other personnel, hiring a lead pastor is tasked to the Board of Directors per our by-laws at The Community Co Church. After Pastor Brad's resignation, we consulted with Converge North Central, an accountability and support organization made up of a large network of churches to which The Community Co Church belongs. Converges leadership highly recommended that we utilize Chemistry Staffing.
Chemistry Staffing serves churches all across the country. This is all they do. They find church staff, and specifically, lead pastors. Hiring a lead pastor isn’t just looking for someone that looks good on paper, or just agrees with theology. We are bringing someone in that is to lead our church.
Chemistry Staffing understands the unique position of both churches and candidates. Finding someone you LIKE is easy. Chemistry staffing's goal is to find a long term, healthy fit, for the church that is looking. What we liked about Chemistry Staffing is that they identify 5 areas that need to match for new hires to be a healthy fit.
· Theology
· Culture/DNA
· Personality
· Skills
· Chemistry
Working with Chemistry Staffing sort of replaces the idea of asking members of our church, who work full time jobs and are limited in time and experience, to go through the grueling process of searching the country to find candidates to consider. Chemistry Staffing applies a tried and true process that is both scientific and relational in order to narrow the prospects down to a reasonable number of candidates. Our church benefits by allowing Chemistry Staffing to do the front-end leg work on matching candidates to The Co. By the time we know a candidate’s name, Chemistry Staffing has had a minimum of 3 interviews with them.
At the request of Chemistry Staffing, the Board put together a church profile that reflected our beliefs, our passion, our culture, and our vision.
https://thecommunityco.church/about/#corevalues
Chemistry Staffing promoted the lead pastor position on their platforms and others, and dozens of people reached out to them about this position. Chemistry Staffing then vetted all of them through a number of interviews and other tools used to determine the best fit. 43 total candidates made it to the vetting stage for our churches specific job position! By the third Chemistry Staffing interview, Joel Nelson, our own interim pastor also works with Chemistry Staffing, served as our church coach and helped with the final selection of candidates. Joel has been a part of The Community Co Church in some fashion, since it began 23 years ago.
Chemistry Staffing initially presented us with three candidates. One withdrew before we had the chance to interact with him. The other two were interviewed by the board on two separate zoom interviews. While we liked them both, we were united in believing Ryan would be the best fit and should move forward with the next steps. It is best practices not to work with more than 1 candidate past this stage, out of respect for each of them and to maintain the integrity of the process.
We took our “relationship” to the next level and moved to meet and continue the process in person!
Ryan and Emily visited Forest Lake and attended a Sunday service here at The Community Co Church.
This was done in a “secret shopper” fashion, which is an industry standard and was directed by Chemistry Staffing. Out of respect to him and his family, this visit was not announced to the church as a whole or the public, but the Board and Staff knew he was coming to check out The Co personally.
As nothing was official yet, this visit remained under the radar. The in person visit allowed the Board and Staff to meet him personally and interact in a variety of settings. It was also a chance for Ryan and his family to see and experience the Forest Lake area and learn firsthand about the church and the community. They soaked up Forest Lake for the weekend- and loved the warmth of the people and the feel of the town.
Part of the “secret shopper” experience was to allow Ryan and Emily to see how the Community Co operates and the feel of the church as a first-time visitor. This was a visit without pressure.
This final visit resulted in what Chemistry Staffing and the Board had hoped for, the discussion about solidifying a pastoral relationship. Ryan was on the same page with The Community Co Church in beliefs, church vision, philosophy of ministry, and chemistry! As is best practices, his visit ended with the Board of Directors presenting him with the details what it would look like to solidify his Pastoral relationship with The Co. He went home to pray and consider...while we stayed and prayed!
About a week later, we zoomed with Ryan again, tweaking some of the details and he said YES to our call, subject to a congregational vote.
We were advised by Chemistry Staffing and Converge North Central that confidentiality is vital and the “best practice." The Community Co Church Board also signed a contract where we agreed to keep certain aspects of the Pastoral search confidential, up until we knew that both parties wanted to “get engaged.”
Confidentiality also honors the candidates whose churches may not know they are looking for another position. With social media and emails, once the word gets out, it gets OUT.
It got more difficult for all of us to maintain confidentiality as we got to know Ryan and Emily better. Our excitement for them and our church grew! However, we knew we needed to wait until he was ready to accept our call to be our next lead pastor before we could share the information with the church at large.
We hired Chemistry Staffing in May, and spent the first few months having Chemistry get to know our chemistry here at The Co. We filled out paperwork on profiles, beliefs, DNA, structure, theology, etc. Once our church profile was complete, the search for our next Lead Pastor was officially launched. Then in September, we were given the initial candidates that had passed all of Chemistry's interviews and vetting. We were asked to reach out to them within 3 days as this stage of the process things were intended to move forward in a timely manner.
Initial Zoom interviews were set up, following by a second lengthy interview with each candidate, the “secret shopper” weekend, and here we are!
For the last year, the Board has met at least one night nearly every week...typically, not less than 3 hours at a time. They have spent weeks meeting several times a week. We are so proud to call these people on the Board our church family. We admire each of them and their desire to lead with integrity and make decisions that are best for this church! God is on the move and working through each of them in great ways.
Chemistry Staffing, Joel Nelson, and Converge North Central, all support the Board of Directors calling Ryan to be the next lead pastor of The Co!
Our Board is unanimously FOR Ryan and we are so excited for the next steps!
No problem! I am sure there is something we forgot or something we didn't think to communicate here! Please feel free to approach any Board member you feel comfortable talking to, we would love to hear your heart.
If you aren't sure who to talk to, send us an email and we will get in touch with you!
