Solar Oven Partners pray to find director who feels call of vocation
By Donna Fisher
How does a vibrant and successful ministry create a job search for a new Director when the founder plans to retire? Solar Oven Partners UMC faces that challenge this fall as the search continues for someone to succeed Rick Jost.
Photo: SOP volunteers and Dominican cooks watch as food is place in solar oven for cooking. Photo by Rick Jost.
Last week in an editorial on leadership, New York Times columnist David Brooks framed the challenge this way: “A career is something you choose; a vocation is something you are called to. A person choosing a career asks, How can I get the best job or win the most elections? A person summoned by a vocation asks, How can my existing abilities be put in service for the greatest common good?” *
Solar Oven Partners is offering a vocation, not a job. As Brooks goes on to says, “…a vocation involves falling in love with something, having a conviction about it and making it part of your personal identity.”
Solar Oven Partners UMC (SOP) seeks a passionate, qualified candidate who feels a sense of God’s call to the Director's position (opens in early spring upon Director’s retirement). This vibrant ministry has an 17-year history of placing solar ovens internationally in the hands of the poor, and empowering them through training in solar cooking and water pasteurization.
The Director provides supervision, instruction, and leadership in all SOP operations, recruits and manages volunteers, leads Volunteer-in-Mission teams overseas, and works to expand and sustain the donor base. To learn more about Solar Oven Partners and to access the Job Description, go to http://www.solarovenpartnersumc.org then click on the SOP Director Position Open button.
The deadline to submit resumes is December 1, 2016. Please submit application to Rev. Rebecca Trefz, Director of Ministries, Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church 1331 W. University Ave., Mitchell, South Dakota 57301 or email resume to Rev. Rebecca Trefz. Additional questions about the position should be directed to Search Task Force member Karen Workman at 701-250-9379 or karenworkman@centurylink.net.
“We’re looking for the person who believes in making Solar Oven Partners a part of their own personal identity through their commitment to the mission of the United Methodist Church,” says Karen Workman, a member of the SOP Advisory Board who chairs the search team. “We’re praying that the right man or woman with the skill set, gifts and graces we need will apply for the SOP Director’s position.”
