Pastor and Church Expectations

My thoughts on some things churches should consider when looking for a pastor.


1. What are the churches expectations of the pastor once he gets there. The church needs to be very clear on this. It would be helpful if it were discussed by the church as a whole and an agreement was reached so that individual expectations do not confuse things and create unneeded hostility.

2. Be prepared to trust the man you believe God has called. Churches often say that they believe God has called this pastor but then will fail to trust him as if God actually called him. If you cannot say I trust this man because God called him then do not call him.

3. Be sure you understand what the pastoral candidates expectations are of both his role and the support he is to receive from the church. Failure in this area often leads to hurt, disappointment, and conflict.

4. Have a plan to help the pastor and his family adjust to the church and the recent move. What often happens is the new pastor moves to this new area, knows almost no one, and neither does his family, and they are left to themselves to adjust to it all. Be ready to be very supportive, ask what the church can do along the way to help. Check on the pastor and his family regularly.

Maybe some other pastors can add to this as well.

 

The church needs to decide what kind of resume load it wants to work through. Do you want as many resumes as possible or only a small number.

A lot of churches will list their need on the SBC website or state convention websites and some others not affiliated.

Some churches just look for names from people they know who they think might be a good candidate.

If you post your need publically and make an email address available to receive resumes through then you should expect anywhere from 200-500 resumes to sift through. This can cause resume fatigue.

If you only want to receive a much smaller amount of resumes to sift through then you would be better served by only making a physical mailing address available.

It takes almost no effort to shoot our a resume via email. It takes time, effort and money to send one out snail mail. This will greatly decrease the resumes sent to you.