We are so grateful to the Lord to be able to put forth Weston Duke as the committee’s unanimous recommendation to be the next Lead Pastor of Capital Presbyterian Herndon.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Weston and Hannah and their girls will be visiting our congregation March 28–30. On Sunday, Mar. 30, plan to attend:
Thank you for your prayers over this search. We have seen the Lord provide in so many ways during our search and we are incredibly excited for the congregation to get to know the Dukes. Please join us in continuing to pray that God’s will be done, and for the Dukes and their visit with us.
The committee started meeting in early January, and continued to meet for discussion and prayer at least weekly. Our early meetings focused a lot on identifying the attributes that we desire in a candidate.
Pastors Ryan Laughlin and Bill Fullilove assisted us by networking with their contacts across the country, and through seminaries, to identify potential candidates. We also received and reviewed recommendations from the congregation, solicited applications from other potential candidates, and received several unsolicited applications from others.
We considered all applicants and everyone recommended by the congregation (including by those on the committee), and evaluated their backgrounds and experience. After screening them we first conducted preliminary interviews for those who seemed to be good candidates, and then selected a few for lengthier interviews. Some candidates opted out for various personal reasons, which due to confidentiality we are unable to describe.
After further prayer and discussions, the committee invited our top candidates back for in-person meetings, and ultimately we reached the unanimous consensus that Weston Duke is the best candidate to serve our church.
Weston possesses the attributes and skills we are looking for in a lead pastor. He has a deep love for Jesus, and possesses high integrity and honesty. He is a humble servant leader, whom we believe will be a relational shepherd/pastor who cares greatly for our congregation.
His preaching is sound, centered on God’s Word, and provides clear, exegetical, expository teaching. He is very organized and is a confident, skilled communicator.
He is excited to serve in our diverse community, and looks forward to working with Timo, Ben and the MPC pastors and staff, and our Capital Pres Herndon officers and lay leaders, to build Christ’s kingdom.
Weston earned his BA in Communication from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and acquired his MDiv from Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. Weston has been a Campus Minister with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN, for the last seven years.
Some of Weston’s activities during his RUF tenure include preaching expository sermons to students, leading weekly small groups, discipling and counseling, engaging in numerous apologetic and evangelistic conversations, and mentoring and empowering a team of interns to reach the students. Several other roles Weston has had are Pastoral Intern at a PCA church, Director of Chapel Ministry at a nursing home, and RUF Campus Intern at Rhodes College. He has served on the Church Leadership Development Committee, as an Interim Moderator of a Session, Chairman of the BCO 15-3 Commission, and for over 13 years with various missions.
Weston married Hannah over 12 years ago. She works full-time as a commercial interior designer. They have two daughters, Emma and Olivia.
We worked hard and covered a lot of ground over the past two-and-a-half months. Committee members worked diligently and divided up tasks to work through the process very efficiently, meeting several times a week together and listening to many sermons. We also received substantial assistance and wise counsel from Ryan and Bill. They helped tremendously with cultivating a healthy candidate pool, structuring the search process, managing logistics, and much more.
We considered a large number of potential candidates, including a mix of assistant pastors, a couple of lead pastors, and current RUF pastors. We are confident that the candidates we considered represent a great cross-section of those currently available.
Yes. They met when Weston and Hannah visited Northern Virginia a couple weeks ago, and they were able to spend some time getting to know one another and meeting with Pastors Ryan, Bill, Terence, Austin, Joe, and Rob.
They will have time for a lengthier meeting, and with Ben, next weekend (March 28–30).
This is still under consideration by Weston and Hannah. But likely sometime in July 2025.
Weston has several sermons he’s preached at local churches in Tennessee, most frequently at Trinity Presbyterian in Murfreesboro. These include:
Weston is being hired as an Assistant Pastor of McLean Presbyterian Church (MPC), which means he is called (hired) by the Session. The Capital Presbyterian Herndon (CPH) elders and our committee unanimously recommended he be called by the MPC Session, and the Session has agreed to hire Weston pending a vote from the CPH congregation which will take place on Sunday, Mar. 30.
<< Back to All UpdatesBart Seitz
Chair of the Pastoral Search Committee
info@capitalpresherndon.org
