First-ever pastoral search interview

Brother,

First - what is bonvivant?

Second - if your experience is not unique, I would be greatly surprised.

Tell them that you have kids in tow. You might ask them if they and your wife can spend time somewhere.

I have not had two interviews that were even remotely similar (even the ones that were using the 'same' pastor search material). Fortunately (unfortunately), my interviews have been with churches that were hurting greatly. Pastor left without even giving a sermon. Pastor left owing the church alot of money. Pastor was asked to leave for preaching personal issues and not the Word of God. Pastor left for infidelity. The last 5 candidates said that they wanted a small church to get out of the big city and did not once mention Jesus Christ. And a bunch more.

Pray alot. Pray some more. And pray some more.

I have honestly enjoyed my 'candidating' and my rejection letters (and phone calls). It has shown me just how badly the church is hurting in America. It has shown me how unprofessional some of our professional clergy have become.

 

First, don't be afraid of money questions. Many people feel like a concern over the salary is thinking of it as a job. However, the church needs to be able to support you and your family (the laborer is worth his wages). What the church pays can speak volumes regarding what they expect of their pastor in terms of tenure. If there is a parsonage, its location/condtion often speaks for how much the church has considered the fact that your family will live there. Does the church expect your wife to be full time in the ministry to (secretary, children's ministry, youth ministry, WMU, making banners, etc.)? If so, do they pay well enough that she won't be juggling these expectations with a job? Discussing compensation is always awkward, especially if they aren't discussing it. I knew of a church that once had a pastor that had accepted the call without ever wanting to know the salary until after he was on the field. The congregation was so impressed by this faith (actually, he had done so much research, he could come up with a good ballpark guess) that pastors after him were almost viewed as "in sin" to say anything at all about salary. No, its not about the money, but it is a worthwhile concern.

As for time, they are all different, and they all have a different process. Over the past year, I have dealt with several search teams, three went pretty far. Two were for youth or youth/education positions and one for a pastor position. Its a long story how I went from seeking a staff position to seeking a pastor position. Anyway, the first two took about 4-5 months from resume to decision. The last one, took about one month. It could be the difference of a staff search and a pastor search. Could be the difference between larger churches and smaller churches. Either way, that's what it was for us. A lot of it will depend on the process the team is using. In my expereince, if their process is more of a job interview (meeting several candidates and choosing the best) then it takes longer.

 

A person's financial statement reveals a lot about them. It reveals a lot about their heart. People spend money on what they feel is important. It also reveals a lot about their discipline.

 

So how did it go????

 

Things to look for

1. If the church sign has a chalk board where they write the pastor's name.
2. If the reason the last pastor died had anything to do with stress.
3. If the parsonage has a shed to keep your boxes in (you WILL need them soon).
4. If the pulpit committee is a standing committee.
5. If the only person under 60 on the committee is the one stuck with taking minutes.
6. If each of the committee members' cars cost more than the annual salary the pastor gets.
7. If the committee members are all armed.
8. If none of the former pastors for the last 25 years are still in the ministry.
9. If there is a special wing at the state mental hospital for former pastors and pastor's wives of this church.
10. If you look up and vultures begin circling just as you pull into the lot.

 

Praise the Lord! Will keep praying for you and your family.

 

I am glad your visit went well.Sent up a little prayer that things will go God's way.

 

Let me give you a perspective from someone who has served on a search committee, so you can have an idea of where they might be coming from. Of course, each church is unique.

We were not trying to sugar-coat or gloss over anything in our church. However, we wanted to get to the person God had in store for us. The church pushed for the work to be done as quickly as possible. The committee wanted to move slowly and carefully. Of course, we wanted to put things in the best light possible, but at the same time we wanted to be honest and open with each candidate.

It became difficult, as the process went on, not to pick one or two of the candidates out of the group and use them as a standard, rather than sticking to what we thought as a committee we needed to look for. We got more than 500 names of potential pastor candidates from several sources, and had to weed through that list to narrow it down without really having much contact with any of them except what was on their resume. Once we narrowed the list down to about 25 people, we started talking to them. It may depend on where you are in the process with the committee, since it is a time consuming process and you are working with several people at one time.

The committee may also have a tendency, simply because of sheer number and volume of questions and contacts, to lump you in with a group or groups of other candidates. You need to find some things about yourself and your desire to serve as a pastor that help you to stand out and away from the crowd.

What's the professional make-up of the committee? Ours consisted of a dentist, an executive secretary at a major insurance firm, an editor at a publishing company, a college professor, a high school principal, a graduate student and a lawyer. I discovered early on in the process that we were drawn to candidates who presented themselves professionally and were articulate and well educated.

We sat down at several points and continually revised our list of requirements and preferences. At one point, we figured out that there wasn't anyone in the world who fit our profile. Right after we realized that, we more or less went through a time where we simply asked God to match us up with the person who he wanted here, and to help us recognize that person when the time was right. It wasn't long after that when we found the person we were looking for, and he had many of the qualifications we had talked about, including feeling that he could serve in our church at the salary we were going to pay at that time.

That was three years ago. Was it successful? I'd say so. In addition to being far more qualified educationally than we had hoped, he took a brand new church full of mainly new believers and seekers, with a worship attendance of 100, and is now working on his third generation of converts becoming disciples of Christ in a congregation of 500 people.

There's a fit out there for you and the key to finding it is to let God lead you to it, and it to you.

 

I'm glad it was a good experience and that you are content with God's will.

A couple of observations:
1. If you don't continue your schooling now, you probably won't finish it, That's just something to consider before you stop your schooling to get in the full time ministry,

2. Do find out what your references might be saying about you. If it's negative, it may be something you need to work on. If it's personal, you need to know that. It might not be one of the references that you listed. They might have asked for secondary references and they said something about you.

God will use you.

 

May I share a personal story that may help you? I graduated from Southern Seminary in the spring of 1963, persuaded that my ultimate ministry should be the classroom rather than the church. I was interested in medieval and Renaissance students, and had applied to and been accepted in two university graduate schools, but wanted to serve a church while I was in graduate school. Not only was I prepared for ministry, but also I needed to earn a living, particularly as my wife had informed me that the two of us were going to be three!

I spent a summer after seminary graduation doing supply preaching in churches all over southern Indiana (IU was one of the schools I wanted to attend), only to hear people say at the door, "We enjoyed your message, did you know we called a pastor last week?". But then toward the end of the summer, the "perfect" situation ... a church eight miles from the University, wanting to go to a full-time pastor for the first time, with a new parsonage ... what could be better? Thank you, Lord.

I preached twice one Sunday, interviewed the pulpit committee, and they invited me to come back the next Sunday as their candidate. I did so, bade them farewell as they convened for a business meeting ... and later that night got the phone call: "Our people say you seem very good, but if we are going to be full-time, we want someone who is not a student, even a part-time student". I confess I wept that night, and so did my wife.

The next day I picked up my shattered self and made an appointment to see the Executive Director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention to see whether he could recommend me to a church near Lexington, so that I could attend the University of Kentucky ... not my first choice, but adequate. After the pleasantries and the usual disclaimers about his not being able to guarantee that his recommendations would be heard, he said, "You seem as though you are interested in the academic world. Weren't you active in the Baptist Student Union when you were an undergraduate? What would you think about doing campus ministry? We have an opening at Berea College, only forty miles from Lexington. Let me send you down the hall to our Director of Student Ministry.

The short version of the story is that within a week I was moving to Berea to begin campus ministry work, and that within six weeks after moving there I smacked myself up-side the head and said, "You said you wanted to do ministry in the higher education setting ... look where the Lord has put you! You're there!"

Just to round out the story ... after a few years at Berea I was transferred to be the campus minister at the University of Kentucky, did take a few courses, but never went on for that PhD. I spent a total of 23 years in campus ministry at several institutions, earned a DMin in higher education ministry, and believe to this day that the disappointment I felt when that first call did not work out was God's way of steering me in the direction that He and I both wanted.

 

:smilewinkgrin: keep looking or if you want a fast answer, ask your wife :smilewinkgrin: