SBC Pastor/Staff Search Committee Profiling

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. N/A
5. No
6. No ...

There is a lot of profiling happening. For whatever reason, profiling is USUALLY not in the best interests of God's Church (except for the Biblical mandates) Most profiling is done to reduce the number of applicants to screen: I.e., have you pastored, do you have a degree, are you married, etc ...

I do not like it, but, I do understand it.

 

1. No, but the committee was chosen to be representative of the Church.
2. I am now on my second Pastoral Search Committee.
3. DOM? From your next question I assume the means Area Minister. No.
4. N/A
5. Personally I don't approve of profiling. Actually,it depends on what you means by profiling. Are you only referring to racial profiling? What about sex (i.e. calling a female Pastor)? What about a Pastor who was divorsed for Biblically correct reasons (e.g. his wife's adultry) and remarried? We did not pursue an otherwise excellent candidate due to the divorse issue. (That was by no means a unanimous decision.)
6. Again, it depends on what you are profiling for.

 

why did u signify this pastor being affiliated with the sbc?

 

Dr. Bob,

Just curious. Do you care if the prospective Pastor is born again. I noticed that "requirement" was not on your list. it should be at the top, #1, not even a close second!

I know, I know..but you know what happens when we assume.

 

You have to be very careful with profiling for employment purposes, it could be seen as discrimination. We are currenly looking to fill a possistion that would be youth minister, leading education department and something else(don't remember) we aren't a hugh church so these jobs are not overwhelming. There are somethings you can not ask(age, race, etc), or use to decide employment.

 

Pastor Lynn, We should certainly pray and seek God's guidance, but He has entrusted us to use discernment and wisdom in our service to Him.
I am a search committee member,

{good news, Dr. Bob}

entrusted to find a pastor who can work with our church

What you are doing is profiling the church, not the pastor.
You need to find out if the man will fit in with the areas in which your church is led to work.

If he doesn't, he will not be around long.
He will be constantly frustrated and there will be friction in the church.

If you hire a man led in direction A to pastor a church going in direction B, you may find yourself headed in direction X in mass confusion.

MR

 

You will not find consensus among the membership on what they want anyway.

What you need to do is determine what kind of church you have, then you can search for your pastor.

What is the main focus of the church?

Teaching?
Evangelism?
Community outreach?
Worship?

All churches fulfill the great commission with various emphasis on certain areas. All Christians are not the same and neither are all churches.

I guess we could toss all the resumes in a hat and pull one out.
If you want a scriptural method, this fits the bill more than profiling, but I wouldn't toss any names in the hat that didn't fit the church.

MR

 

My thought would be, along the lines of staying on topic, this fellow would not fall within the guidelines of the profile in Paul's letter to Timothy.

Yes, PastorLynn, there is a Biblical example of profiling. That is exactly what God told us to do in 1st Tim. 3. He also told us to examine our deacon candidates to see if they fall within the profile God gave us of deacons.

We have a profile and we are expected to make sure our leaders fit it.

Nowhere are we told to simply pray for God to send us the right man.

MR

 

I understand that some profiling (salvation experience, ministry call experience, doctrinal issues, etc.)is necessary to the search process. These matters enable us to weed-out those who are suspect in any of these areas. Even beyond these matters, it is wise to examine other issues, too, such as credit history, relationships with family, perception of the candidate in his previous and/or present place of service.

However, I question the practice of profiling based on issues such as age, education, number of children, and maybe some other matters that don't come to mind right now.

For those of you in Alabama who receive the Alabama Baptist newpaper, don't miss this week's issue. It has a very good editorial in it regarding the age issue.

The bottom line is that we don't want to do anything that would impede the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It just might be the will of God for a church to call a man who is over 50 years old, has no formal seminary training, and who has no children...or maybe has 12 children! God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. Amen?

 

Try thealabamabaptist.org

It appears that the site has not been updated to include this week's edition, but keep a check on it. It should be updated in a day or two.

 

I believe that God will use "congregtion surveys" to help develop a pastor's profile, if the church is prayerfully seeking God and His will.
One negative example of profiling is churches that will only consider candidates with Dr. before the name. I am sure there are many others.

 

How many churches want a Paul or Jesus who will push them out the door to work and do ministry?