Vanderbloemen Search

William Vanderbloemen is the founder and CEO of The Vanderbloemen Search Group.

William has been able to combine over 15 years of ministry experience and 13 years as a Senior Pastor with the best practices of Executive Search to provide churches with a unique offering: a deep understanding of local church work with the very best knowledge and practices of professional executive search

Prior to his founding The Vanderbloemen Search Group, William studied executive search under a mentor with over 25 years of executive search at the highest level. His learning taught him the very best corporate practices, including the search strategies used by the internationally known firm Russell Reynolds.

William also has experience as a Manager in Human Resources in a Fortune 200 company, where he focused on integration of corporate culture and succession planning.

All of these experiences have come together with his pastoral work to form a unique gift for helping churches and ministries connect with the right key people

William also serves in a unique, part time capacity as the Senior Pastor of Cypress Creek Christian Church, a growing congregation of about 1500.

Prior to executive search and Cypress Creek, William led growth and innovation in churches in North Carolina, Alabama, and Houston. During his time in Alabama, William had the chance to help rebuild and relocate an ailing congregation, and lead them to new levels of growth. At 31, he was elected Senior Pastor for the First Presbyterian Church of Houston, a church of about 5000 adults and 1500 children strong. It is Houston’s oldest congregation.

William is regularly invited to speak across the country in both church services, and as a resource to churches and conferences on leadership.

William holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Princeton Theological Seminary.

Besides helping  connect churches with key staff and preaching, William spends a whole lot of time with family, and connecting with people.

William is an avid social networker. Whether connecting with friends, candidates for searches he is doing, or church members, he loves to network, and he would love to interact with you through Facebook and/or  Twitter

William, his wife Adrienne, their seven children, and their two poodles (one small who thinks she’s big, and one big who thinks he is a lap dog) live in Houston. In his free time, William enjoys running, working out, and caddying for his kids, who are now better golfers than he is.

Tony Morgan is one of the most strategic thinkers in the church. He is a sought after consultant, leadership coach, writer, and speaker. In addition to these ministries, Tony will be helping The Vanderbloemen Search Group in our executive recruiting work. He brings with him a wealth of experience, knowledge, and networks in the largest, fastest growing churches in the United States. His expertise is particularly focused on Executive Pastor roles and searches regarding strategists for churches seeking to reach a new level of growth and effectiveness.

For more than 10 years, Tony served on the senior leadership teams at NewSpring Church (Anderson, SC) and  Granger Community Church (Granger, IN), and now Westridge Church in Atlanta with Brian Bloye. With Tim Stevens, Tony has co-authored Simply Strategic Stuff, Simply Strategic Volunteers and Simply Strategic Growth–each of which offers valuable, practical solutions for different aspects of church ministry. His newest book, Killing Cockroaches (B&H Publishing), was released in 2009.

Tony has also written several articles on staffing, technology, strategic planning and leadership published by Outreach magazine, Rev magazine, the Christian Management Association, Pastors.com, and PurposeDriven.com. Tony and his wife, Emily, reside in Anderson, South Carolina with their four children–Kayla, Jacob, Abby and Brooke.

Tony is actively involved in consulting, coaching, and is a sought after speaker.

VGS President William Vanderbloemen says, “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tony on a number of searches in the past, and really believe that our gifts compliment one another to form a great team. Tony’s reputation, wisdom, and network are beyond compare in the world of Executive Pastors. He is going to take The Vanderbloemen Search Group to a whole new level, and we look forward to seeing how God uses this new partnership to help churches find the right leaders.”

The Vanderbloemen Search Group is pleased to announce the addition of Carlos Whittaker as a Ministry Partner. Similar to its partnership with Tony Morgan, Carlos brings expertise in a particular field of church work to the firm, and will further augment its ability to execute searches for top worship and arts staffers.

VGS President William Vanderbloemen says, “Carlos may be the best connected worship leader in America.  He will be a game changer for the Vanderbloemen Search Group. The combination of our existing client base, our new partnership with Tony Morgan, and now Carlos, has positioned us to be a unique servant and asset to churches looking for help finding key staff. I’m thrilled and humbled to be surrounded by these guys, and cannot wait to see where God takes us in this new chapter of service to the Kingdom.”

Having served at Sandals Church in Riverside, California, for ten years during a high growth spurt for the church, his most recent work has been in Atlanta with Andy Stanley’s Buckhead Campus of North Point Ministries. At Buckhead, Carlos served as the Director of Service Programming. In addition to leading worship, Carlos oversaw all the Sunday adult experience and design, including all areas of Hosting, Production, Creative, Video, Music, and Programming at Buckhead Church.

In addition to partnering with VGS, Carlos continues to lead worship at Buckhead, sits on the creative sermon planning team for Andy Stanley, and contributes to the creative planning for Catalyst Conference.
 He also leads a coaching network of worship and programming, is recording his first CD with Integrity Music, and is in constant demand as a guest artist in some of the world’s most creative and largest churches.

He is an artist, pastor, thinker, experience architect, and Web 2.0 junkie… and we welcome him to the Vanderbloemen Search Group team.

Zach has been passionately serving in Student Ministry full time for over 10 years.  Before his current role as Lead Pastor of Ministries for The MET Church in Houston, TX, he served as the Central Team Leader for Youth Ministry for Lifechurch.tv.  During his 4 years at Lifechurch.tv, he had the privilege to lead over 2,000 students, 350 leaders & 25 Student Ministry staff on a weekly basis at 14 campuses nationwide.

Zach’s passion/strengths are in building teams, training and equipping student ministry leaders, youth ministry strategy and creating relevant youth content for multi-site churches.
Zach has an amazing wife, Ashley, of 10 years and is the proud dad of 2 boys (Caleb, 4, Austin, 2).  Besides his love for ministry and seeing leaders lead from their “sweetspot”, Zach his enjoys spending time with family, Nebraska Football, snowskiing, golf, social networking, and a #5 at Chick Fil A!

Tammy Kelley is serves as both a Ministry Partner and Project Manager for the Vanderbloemen Search Group, offering both leadership and support to our searches.

Tammy brings 15 years of ministry leadership experience to the Vanderbloemen Search Group with a particular focus on people and talent management.  She has served in key leadership roles where her overall goal was to assemble teams of high capacity, high performance, and high character people who partner together to advance the kingdom.  She has a track record of developing and implementing strategy, improving organizational effectiveness, and getting the right people in the right roles.

Most recently, Tammy served for seven years on the senior leadership team of Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL.  While at Willow ,Tammy spent much of her time leading People Resources – human resources, internship, and volunteerism.  In addition, she also had the opportunity to lead and strategically invest in:  communications, global/local compassion, and Casa de Luz.

Prior to Willow Creek, Tammy served on the staff team of Ginghamsburgh Church in Tipp City, Ohio. Ginghamsburg has a reputation of instilling positive community impact by aggressively serving the under-resourced and being involved in social causes. While at Ginghamsburg Tammy served as the Executive Pastor and was also directly involved with Adult Ministries and Volunteerism.

When asked about working in a search firm, Tammy responded by saying,

“I’ve been skeptical about search firms in the past – quite honestly because during my 15 years in church leadership I’ve tried using search firms to fill key open staff positions a number of times – and the search firms just didn’t deliver. I’m joining Vanderbloemen Search Group because their approach is unique. It’s a smart approach that delivers results.”

In addition to serving with the Vanderbloemen Search Group, Tammy consults with churches, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations helping them create sound plans for growth and health, with careful consideration to the unique values of each organization. She is also a member of Tony Morgan’s Ministry Strategies team.

Tammy is the author of numerous articles and has hosted many workshops all focused on developing people and organizational structures.  At the end of the day I believe it’s all about loving God and investing in people.

Tammy and her husband Mike live in the Chicagoland area and are the parents of three grown children.