The Orchard Church
- Location: Collierville, TN
- Size: 600
- Website: https://theorchardchurch.com/
- Hiring for: Senior Pastor
About The Orchard Church
The Orchard Church was planted in 2010 by its founding pastor Sam Shaw. Originally a fitness center, the church building sits in a great high-traffic area between Collierville and Germantown, Tennessee. Known as a “family of missionary servants” sent to bring people to faith and make new disciples, The Orchard has grown to be a thriving church community for multiple generations of believers.
Sam Shaw led and pastored the congregation at the Orchard until his retirement in 2021, but since then, the Orchard has struggled to find new leadership, going without a permanent senior pastor for over a year while they searched for the right candidate to fill the role. The ideal candidate would be a gifted preacher and leader capable of shepherding both the congregation and church staff, as well as casting vision for the future direction of the church, leading them into this new chapter.
Strategy and timing
The Orchard Church was eager to find their new Senior Pastor. They knew they needed a hand and decided to contact Vanderbloemen for help with the search. When they contacted Vanderbloemen and Director of Executive Search Eugene Lee was assigned the case, it was clear that The Orchard’s search was in the hands of a seasoned expert. As the Director of Executive Search, Eugene brought over 20 years of diverse ministry experience as well as experience working with recruitment team members at Vanderbloemen, assisting and leading hundreds of successful searches. Alongside Eugene was Executive Search Recruiter Dawson Penshorn, a talented young recruiter with a passion for discipling the next generation of believers, something integral to what The Orchard wanted in their new Senior Pastor. Also on the journey was Search Operations Manager Charisma Gutierrez, working alongside Dawson. Thanks to the efforts of this dream team, a great slate of candidates was presented. Among them was Cody Hale.
About Cody Hale
Cody Hale had been serving as the Senior Pastor at Iron City Baptist Church in Anniston, AL, for the past 12 years, and while he loved his position at Iron City, he felt the Lord calling him to something new. Through this call he found The Orchard Church. With decades of valuable experience under his belt, as well a practical experience with churches of similar size and handling congregation growth , Cody was the perfect candidate for the next Senior Pastor of The Orchard Church.
Here at Vanderbloemen, we are sure Cody is doing great things at The Orchard Church. They describe him as “a man of deep character and proven leadership” and they are confident that he will be the perfect person to lead The Orchard Church into their next chapter.
