Surviving the Pastor Search Process tagged: , ,

Surviving the Pastor Search Process

Posted by in Church & Missions

Today’s post was contributed to sbc IMPACT! by “Taran.”  He is a teacher in the Deep South who is also an ordained minister.  Because of his position at a state educational institution, he chooses to maintain an anonymous blog and web presence.  He has served as pastor and interim pastor of several Southern Baptist churches.  Last year, his home church (Lakeview Baptist) conducted a search for a new pastor and foolishly (so he says…)  selected Taran to chair the Pastor Search Committee (PSC).  He live-blogged that search (changing names to protect anonymity) on his blog Coffespoons.  In this post he shares some of his reflections on the search process.

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The search process is important for the church of course, but also for the individual ministers affected by the search process.  As we began the process I had conversations with numerous pastors who had been burned in the process of a pastoral search.  In some cases their confidentiality had been compromised and their current place of ministry discovered that they were involved in a search.  In other instances, a search committee had not disclosed some large issue that might have affected the minister’s decision about whether or not to accept the church’s call.  So we tried our best to respect and balance both the ministries of Lakeview and the ministries of the various candidates we met along the way.  With that in mind, here are some suggestions that came out of our experience.

1. Pray. It should go without saying, of course, but I include this obvious task in order to reinforce its importance.  Early on in this process, we recognized that the task was far too big for us to handle.  The responsibility was too great and our resources and wisdom were insufficient for the task.  As one of our committee members commented early on, “We cain’t afford to screw this up!”  Prayer served to lubricate the entire process.

2. Have a clearly articulated and well publicized process for electing the search committee. Ideally this should be spelled out in the by-laws of the church.  Make sure that the entire congregation feels a part of the process.  It is imperative that all elements of the church have an opportunity to be involved in the selection process.  A transparent process will give the PSC credibility with the congregation.

3. Once a committee is decided, the PSC must decide how they will conduct the process of the search. Establishing the search process of the PSC is just as important as the process itself.  As a committee, we made several decisions about how we would conduct our week-to-week business.  E.g. what would be the role of the alternates?  Would we take a split recommendation to the church? Would we allow conversations about the process outside the committee meetings?  By ironing these wrinkles out ahead of time, we established ground rules that helped us avoid problems later in the search process.

4. Interact truthfully with all candidates. A pastoral friend told me from the beginning of the process “All search committees lie.”  Work hard to disprove him.  For example, when dialoguing with potential candidates, trust the interview process.  Interviews are for the purpose of determining similarity of spirit between the candidates giftedness and God’s vision for the church.  Be honest with the candidate and don’t keep silent about the church.  Telling a candidate simply what they want to hear will bring a multitude of heartbreak to both the church and the candidate.

5. Show no favoritism to any of the candidates. Aunt Polly is going to recommend a preacher she heard once.  You love Aunt Polly, so you may feel predisposed towards her candidate. Reject that impulse. Evaluate all candidates equally.  Practically, this means ask the same questions of each of the candidates, conduct the same number of reference checks on each of them, etc.

6. Maintain absolute secrecy in all personnel discussions. The names on the resumes are more than names of course, they represent years of ministry.  You put ministries at risk when work leaks out about the direction of the PSC.  In addition, you do not want your church to hang on every rumor that surfaces from the committee.  Again, be transparent in process, but not in personnel.

7. One rule that really helped us as a committee our decision to avoid caucusing outside the committee meetings. By caucusing I mean we decided not to discuss candidates with each other outside our meetings.  This rule helped us a great deal to share our thoughts honestly without knowing how the other members of the committee felt about a particular candidate.  It also helped us to avoided lobbying each other for preferred candidates.

8. Communicate with the church constantly. Give them the opportunity for input. Do a strength and weakness analysis and ask the church to provide feedback.  We decided to give a formal report to the church body at least once a month.  Even if all you are saying is “We continue to receive resumes and pray over them” it is still reassuring to the church that you are at work.

9. Overcommunicate with the staff. Even though the committee gives ongoing reports to the church, keep the staff involved with constant updates.  One of the greatest mistakes we made as a committee at Lakeview was to keep the staff out of the loop.  It is challenging for the entire church body to be without a pastor.  But the search process is understandably even more disturbing for the staff.  Their livelihood, ministries, and even jobs will be very much affected by the arrival of the new minister.

10. Check “one off” references. By this I mean, check each of the references, but ask them “Do you know anyone else who can evaluate this individual as a candidate for the pastorate?”  It is helpful to get a reference that does not come directly from the candidate.

11.  Evaluate individual candidates one at a time. This is a search for a minister, not a horse race.  When you reach an appropriate point (for us it was the second interview) evaluate each candidate individually.  Talking to multiple candidates serves no purpose.  Practically it can lead to splits among the committee and (if #6 is not followed above) even among the church.

12.  The Internet is a great tool.  Use it relentlessly to gather information. We scoured church websites and listened to sermons online.  It saved us travel and oftentimes looking around a church’s website often told us much about the leadership of the church.  It was also a good indicator of various candidates’ involvement in denominational politics and activity in other organizations.  Use it!

13.  On a related note, Google, Google, Google!! We found out a great deal through this marvelous site.  In one instance, we discovered that a candidate had made a very public statement at his current church that would’ve been very much at odds with the culture of our church.  The statement was not revealed to us by the candidate or by his references.

14.  Expect to bond as a committee throughout the process. The times we spent reading scripture, praying together, and studying Baptist doctrine brought us together like few other groups of which I’ve been a part.  The committee presented a united front which reflected the unity of the church.

15.  Recognize that not everyone will be pleased with the final decision. Our church requires an 80% approval for the calling of the pastor.  Whatever your church requires, realize that the candidate will not get 100%.  Understand that, unfortunately, not everyone will see the candidate in the same way that you do.

Overall this was one of the greatest experiences of my life and also something that I would never wish on my worst enemy.  We spent long hours away from our families and made sacrifices of resources, energy and money in the process.  But the Baptist search process is, I believe, the most biblical one available.  It allows for both the autonomy of the church and the freedom of God’s Spirit to interact and work together for the benefit of both churches and ministers.

Lastly I will confess that we made, no doubt, numerous mistakes throughout the process.  I would appreciate any thoughts or corrections where your experience has differed.