McGowan Search is the ministry vision of founder Dr. Charles E. McGowan, who serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. Dr. McGowan established McGowan Search to serve Kingdom focused congregations who are seeking high impact spiritual leaders. The company’s focus and commitment is Placing Pastors with Passion™, which means we feel a heartfelt calling to place pastors who sense a high calling to achieve significant Kingdom impact and are gifted with the talent and experience to do so.
Dr. McGowan is a retired Senior Pastor with close to 50 years of ministerial experience. He believes God has called him to use his vast network of ecumenical contacts, his years of ministerial experience, and his love for the Kingdom of God to address one of the most important issues facing the many churches in America, finding the right Senior Pastor. McGowan Search places pastors who recognize and appreciate the challenges and opportunity facing the church in the United States.
Charles McGowan is a graduate of Davidson College and served in the U.S. Army and in the Office of Naval Intelligence as a Special Agent in counterintelligence. He is a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary and has served as a Senior Pastor for churches in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. He has planted churches and grown congregations significantly throughout his ministry. Dr. McGowan served as Moderator of the General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church in America.
The Lord captured Tony’s heart as a high school student in Nashville, TN and began to gently and thoroughly re-orient his life around the gospel. With a degree from Vanderbilt University and formative years of ministry experience with Young Life in the Nashville area, Tony and his wife, Mary Lynn, headed off to Reformed Theological Seminary where he received the Master of Divinity degree.
They made their home in Charlottesville, Virginia for the next 25 years where he served in a variety of roles as Associate Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church and Director of Undergraduate Ministries at the Center for Christian Study. He recently served as interim senior pastor at Christ Community Church Franklin, TN and is currently serving as Assistant Pastor at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, TN in addition to his role with McGowan Search. Tony’s ministry through the years has revolved around teaching, shepherding, leadership development, administration and coaching ministry leaders. Tony is certified as a church planting coach with Church Multiplication Ministries.
The two great surprises of his life: the lavish grace of the gospel and that he finds himself a pastor. Tony and Mary Lynn have two adult daughters, Rebecca Giles and Mary Grace Bundrick.