New and Notable: Don’t Just Send a Resume

Tim Challies talking about new releases in February 2019.

Tim Challies is a popular Christian author, blogger, and co-founder of the publishing company Cruciform Press. Within these roles, one thing he’s especially known for is reviewing books. And because of this, authors and publishers send him hundreds and hundreds of books each year. I’ve heard Challies mention that when he goes to the post office to empty his PO Box, the postal workers celebrate because they get back their office. That’s a lot of books!

Each month, he takes a small handful of the books published in a given month, and he creates a video talking about a few he considers noteworthy. This month Challies was kind enough to mention my book Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church, which helps pastors in the job-search process.

I’m biased, of course, but I do think the book is noteworthy, if only for the fact that in the last dozen years no book has been written to help pastors in the job-search process. There are plenty of books written to help churches find a pastor but none for pastors to find the right church. Until now.

If you’re skipping ahead, he talks about my book at the end of the video, which begins around the 4:48 mark. Challies says,

Last, but not least, Don’t Send Out a Resume by Benjamin . . . I’m going to go with . . . Vrbicek. (I’m not totally sure of the pronunciation there.) This is a book about being called from one church to another to fulfill a ministry position. And it’s meant to help make that transition, help decide whether you should accept such a position, and help understand how you would think that through well, what you should look for.

And so he’s written the bulk of the book. He’s also had contributions from a host of people you may know, J.A. Medders, Dave Mathis, Jared Wilson, Chris Brauns, and so on. Sam Rainer and others.

So, this is a book, if you’re into ministry, you’re thinking about getting into ministry or maybe you’re thinking about changing up the church or ministry you work with. I think you’ll find this a helpful guide.

Tim, thank you for sharing about Don’t Just Send a Resume. And thank you for pronouncing my name correctly, which is not easy to do!