Could It Be Time for a Pastoral Transition?

“All the time,” said John Piper, “I’ve been thinking about it for thirty years.”

What had Piper been thinking about for thirty years? A potential transition in pastoral ministry.

He said this around the time of his retirement from his long tenure at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota. “I thought about quitting a lot,” he added. But then Piper mentioned the way God didn’t give him a chance to move at the same time he wanted to move. “Here’s the beautiful thing that I look back on with such thankfulness: the Lord never let those ‘ready-to-move’ feelings come when there was an opportunity to move. The opportunities to move came when I didn’t want to move. He timed it perfect.”

If you’re reading this post about pastoral transitions, perhaps you’re only doing so “for a friend.” But my guess is that you’re a ministry leader who might be in one of these ready-to-move seasons right now, the kind of season Piper mentioned. (If, however, you’re a member of a church, and you want one of your pastors to move to another church, well, that’s a different situation entirely! And if you’re a pastor who wants some of his members to move churches, that’s also another post, one I won’t be writing.)

As the summer ends and fall arrives, I suspect you might not be alone, as the fall is a common time for pastors to begin thinking about transitions. In fact, I’ve recently been writing a draft of an article for another publication about the blessings of not transitioning away, the blessings of what I’m calling “the ministry of staying put at your church.”

But if these thoughts of transitions are rattling around in your heart, I thought I’d offer a few things to consider. Because before you go looking for the tips and tools you need to transition well from one church to another, it’s worth backing up to ask the question: are you sure it’s the right time?

For some pastors, a looming transition is obvious. This is your last semester or two in seminary, and you’re ready to work in the field. You’re being influenced by both “push” and “pull” factors, not just one or the other. You’re being pushed out of seminary and pulled into a new local church. When this is the case, it’s fairly straightforward. Let the transition begin.

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Some of you, however, feel like you’re on a rollercoaster. You feel anticipation and excitement as your church grows in size, but then a loop-de-loop and a double corkscrew induce fear and instability. How do you know when your time is done? If you were terminated, others decided the ride for you was over. But what about when the decision is yours?

Determining God’s will is often tricky. Gideon used a fleece, but I’m not sure this was to his credit. So we probably shouldn’t try something similar.

When I was a kid, my parents gave me a choice about a summer vacation. I couldn’t figure out what to do. My parents told me I could go with them on a short trip to visit my grandparents or I could stay home with a friend to attend a local basketball camp. I had no idea what God wanted me to do. One morning I distinctly remember staring at a small bowl of cereal and asking God this very question. As I twirled the last few Lucky Charms with my spoon, I asked God to make the cereal into the shape of the state—either Missouri (basketball) or Iowa (grandparents)—to indicate what I should do. I’m not encouraging you to go and do likewise. After all, when I was a child . . .

Kevin DeYoung wrote a whole book about how to discern the will of God. “‘The will of God’ is one of the most confusing phrases in the Christian vocabulary,” he writes. “Sometimes we speak of all things happening according to God’s will. Other times we talk about being obedient and doing the will of God. And still other times we talk about finding the will of God” (Just Do Something, 16).

Too often we feel as though we need to divine God’s will (say, with Lucky Charms). But DeYoung argues we should stop “thinking of God’s will like a corn maze, or a tightrope, or a bull’s-eye” (23). Instead, we need to realize God gave us brains and passions and mentors and friends and education and experiences and longings. As we listen to all of these—as well as when we adequately take into account our proclivity for sinful, mixed motives—somehow God shows himself faithful to lead us to where we should go.

In his book Before You Move, John Cionca explains thirty-five different categories to help pastors sense whether God is moving them to another ministry. He uses the metaphor of red and green traffic lights. The more red lights, the less likely God may be moving you, and the more green lights, the more likely he may be. So, if you get nineteen green lights and sixteen red lights, that makes things clearer, right? No, it’s not a simple math problem, and neither do each of the thirty-five categories carry equal weight.

Yet I do find it helpful how this approach forces one to think broadly about the situation. Often when a pastor wants to move, it might be that a few persistent annoyances have provoked his restless desire. It’s better to consider the whole picture.

I won’t list all of his thirty-five categories, but here are some I found especially useful.

Red Lights to Moving	Green Lights to Moving
Congregational Hunger	Congregational Apathy
Vibrancy and Growth	Stagnation and Decline
Good Giftedness Match	Poor Giftedness Match
Enthusiasm for the Task	Restlessness or Withdrawal
Good Opportunity for Impact	Limited Opportunity for Impact
Family Happy and Growing	Family Distressed and Stifled
Appropriate Compensation	Insufficient Compensation
Tenure Less than Six Years	Tenure More than Six Years
Compatibility with Staff	Poor Staff or Key Relationships
High Integrity and Credibility	Low Integrity and Credibility
Advisors Confirm Ministry	Advisors Suggest Major Change
Ideal Geographical Proximity to Extended Family	Less than Ideal Geographical Proximity to Extended Family

Again, these don’t provide a full-proof plan; they’re simply tools. If the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah had used these categories, the score would have been a shutout: 0–35. These prophets were certainly in one of those ready-to-move seasons. Often, a prophet’s congregation didn’t want to fire him but to kill him.

In fact, when God explains to Isaiah that his job description involved preaching until the pews were not only empty but until they were burned to ashes, Isaiah’s “Here am I! Send me” quickly became “How long, O Lord?”

For Isaiah (and many other prophets), faithfulness meant staying put when all the lights appeared to be green. Why? Because the voice of God became to them like Gandalf thrusting down his staff and roaring, “You shall not pass!”

If, however, God is telling you it might be time for a transition, I would bring several other trusted friends and ministry leaders into that conversation. Ideally, if your situation allows such disclosure, do this with someone in leadership at your church rather than blindsiding them later. Not all situations allow such honesty, however. You might not feel free to discuss this with anyone local until the process progresses.

In the meantime, if you’d like more help thinking through a transition—help finding the right job in ministry with excellence, integrity, and respect for everyone involved—then you might find helpful my book on this topic, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church.

* Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

Happy 1-Year Birthday: Don’t Just Send a Resume

One year ago today, my book Don’t Just Send a Resume launched into the world. I’ve been so encouraged by the response. About once a month over the last year I received a note from a reader who was helped by the book. Here’s one from a pastor named Kevin:

Hey Benjamin! Thank you for writing “Don’t Just Send a Resume.” I graduated from ________ Seminary about 18 months ago. I took an un-ordained Pastoral Resident job at a church in ________ where I had done a couple summer internships. About 8 months ago I got licensed and began searching for Assistant or Associate Pastor jobs within the denomination. I had a few jobs I applied for where I had no idea what I was doing. Then I picked up your book . . . and it helped a ton. It gave me perspective, encouragement, and it was just plain practical. My wife also read through parts of it and found it super useful as well. After taking some of your advice I began to have more serious leads and a couple weeks ago I officially accepted an Assistant Pastor role at a PCA church in the ________ area. I’m thankful for how the Lord used you and the book you wrote!

Not to make this sound like a speech at the Oscars, but . . .

Thank you to everyone who helped with the Kickstarter campaign.

Thank you to all of the authors and pastors who made contributions to the book: Chris Brauns, Cara Croft, Dave Harvey, David Mathis, J. A. Medders, Sam Rainer, Chase Replogle, William Vanderbloemen, Kristen Wetherell, Jared C. Wilson, and Jeremy Writebol.

Thank you to everyone who helped edit the book: Jason Abbott, Mary Wells, Ben Bechtel, Russell Meek, Stacey Covell, Alex Duke, Alexandra Richter, and dozens of early readers.

Thank you to Tim Challies for including the book in your “New & Notable” promotion.

Thank you to the 20 or so people who wrote endorsements.

Thank you to ABWE, EFCA Now blog, GCD, AmICalled.com, and other websites who posted articles about the book.

Thank you to Matt Higgins for creating a fantastic book cover. Such a great design.

Thank you to David K. Martin for making the audiobook.

Thank you to everyone who bought a copy of the book and shared about it online.

Thank you to the two-dozen people who wrote Amazon reviews.

Thank you to my wife, who still encourages me to write when the economic return on my time makes absolutely no sense.

And thank you to New Life Bible Fellowship, to whom I wrote the book’s dedication. This Oscar—I mean this “book birthday”—is for you.

If anyone would like a copy of the audiobook of Don’t Just Send a Resume, you can grab one at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. But you don’t have to buy one. I still have a few dozen to give away. Please just send me a message (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email: benjamin@fanandflame.com), so I can give you the code to download it.

Thanks for all the encouragement along the way!

Podcast Interview: Don’t Just Send a Resume to a Missions Agency

Today I’m sharing an interview I recently did on a podcast about the hiring process in local churches and missions. The Missions Podcast is hosted by Scott Dunford and Alex Kocman, who both work for ABWE, an international mission’s organization. Until recently, Scott was one of the pastor-elders at our church. Both Scott and Alex are good friends. Hopefully that’s clear by the way they tease me a bit, which is a favor I tried to return. This is my second invitation to the show; this winter we talked about the struggle with pornography (here).

I know I was the one being interviewed, but I will say this: in the last 10 minutes of the interview we talk about the way the gospel makes a difference in our identity. And last night as I re-listened to the conversation, I needed to hear these truths again. Maybe you do too.

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Or you can simply listen below.

 Here’s what Alex wrote for an intro to our conversation:

Too often in pursuit of full-time ministry abroad or at home, ministry applicants simply email a church or missions agency their resume and leave the rest of the hiring process to chance. Whether you’re fresh out of seminary or transitioning to ministry after a full career in the outside workforce, such a haphazard approach is bound to fail. Maybe we need to learn more about how to conduct ourselves professionally during the onboarding processes into pastoral or cross-cultural ministry.

Benjamin Vrbicek returns to the show to discuss his newest book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church. He believes that the typical pastor or missionary, while fully equipped to do his job, is not equipped to transition effectively when God calls him to move to another ministry context. The book also features short contributions by 12 published authors and ministry leaders including David Mathis, Jared C. Wilson, and others. In the interview, Scott and Alex catch up with Benjamin on a personal level and explore the similarities and dissimilarities between hiring in the ministry world and the secular world, and wrap up with some wisdom on transitioning well.

Dozens of Free Copies of My Audiobook: Don’t Just Send a Resume

I had no idea how difficult it would be to produce an audiobook. But then I tried.

It’s really, really difficult to read with excellence, even if you’re super familiar with the words because you wrote them!

I tried to narrate the audiobook for my “struggle” book that was recently published. After wasting a dozen hours of work and a thousand bucks, I abandoned the project and hired a pro. I hired David K. Martin to narrate the book for me. I hired David because he did such a great job on Don’t Just Send a Resume, my book to help pastors find the right job in a local church. Throughout the audiobook production process he’s been a consummate professional. For example, when I listened to an early, completed draft of the audiobook, I only found one error—one error in over six hours of audio! (By the way, David’s narration of my Struggle Against Porn book should be out later this summer.)

Just last week the audiobook of Don’t Just Send a Resume hit Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. But if you want a copy, you don’t have to buy one. I have a few dozen to give away. The only thing you have to do is send me a message (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email: benjamin@fanandflame.com) so I can give you the code to download it.

The portion of the book we used for the audiobook’s sample comes from a section that I draw the title from. I’ve included that section below if you want to listen and read.

Again, if you’d like a copy, please send me a message. And if you know a pastor or someone in full-time ministry who might like a free copy, please send him or her this way!

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Always Include a Short, Custom Cover Letter

It’s common to hear people talk of sending their resume to an employer. Never do this. Or I should say, never just send a resume.

Why? Because the cover letter, not the resume, is the leading edge of your job search. Merely sending a resume (at least in ministry) accomplishes little more than spamming a search committee. It’s lazy and rarely stands out from the stack. Sending a custom cover letter, however, shows you care. And pastors should care.

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Many job search guides in the business world will tell you the primary focus is on the resume. I’ve been told that for many huge companies (think: Procter & Gamble and IBM), resumes are usually read before cover letters. Additionally, a resume might remain in large resume “banks” for recall. In these situations, some of the standard advice about resumes (like including key word optimization for enhanced searchability) makes sense.

But in ministry, things are different. The vast majority of churches will open a hiring process, complete a hiring process, and then throw everything away or save it for a year, then throw it away. This makes the process far more personal. Furthermore, churches don’t have a full-time HR person who spends his or her day scanning resumes. So when a church conducts a search, it will likely read or at least skim your cover letter first. So make it count.

Having said that, much of your cover letter can be boilerplate, meaning you can use most (but not all) of the verbiage with little to no modification. It should include the following descriptions:

• this (briefly) is who I am;

• this (briefly) is where I worked;

• this is where I went to school;

• this is where you can listen to my sermons (or watch videos of me leading worship);

• this is what I’m passionate about and why you should hire me.

I won’t tell you exactly what to write, but stuff like this is expected and appropriate.

More than anything else, don’t make it generic. If everything in your cover letter could be sent to every church in America, then your cover letter will be underwhelming and most likely overlooked. Like a good sermon, letters have a particular audience in mind. Therefore, tailor at least one paragraph to demonstrate the following three things to the church.

First, demonstrate you actually read the job description. No job is exactly the same, even if they both share the title “youth pastor.” Someone, or likely several people, spent significant time wording the job description, and it will serve you well to show them you cared enough to read it closely. . .

Audiobook in Production: Don’t Just Send a Resume

I’m excited about the production of the audiobook for my recent book to help pastors in the job-search process, Don’t Just Send a Resume. The audiobook will be available for purchase in the next 8–10 weeks. The narrator is David K. Martin. I’ve listened to the first part a few times, and he’s doing a fantastic job.

You can listen to a 5-min sample of the preface below.  

*    *    * 

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It took me five years to earn my seminary degree. It was exhausting. It cost thousands of dollars and took thousands of hours to learn what I needed to learn so I could help lead a local church. Eventually that training was complete, and it was time for my classmates and me to look for jobs.

This didn’t go well for many of us. In fact, some students—men I respect and thought would make great pastors—struggled to find the right church or any church at all.

In a word, they floundered.

Why? Because they didn’t know how to find a job. They didn’t know what they were doing. I suspect there are valid reasons why this was the case.

First, they forgot—or they never learned—that the business world is different from the vocational ministry world. These differences startled me when I began interviewing for pastoral jobs. For example, during the interview process with one church, the pastors visited my home for a meal. They met my entire family and even saw my laundry room during a tour of our house. Trust me, this never happened during my former career as a mechanical engineer.

Second, pastors struggle to connect with the right local church because many seminaries don’t have margin to teach students how to transition from the classroom. For every book a professor includes, there are ten others he or she wanted to add but couldn’t.

If you’re a seminary student about to graduate, it’s no guarantee you’ll have a pastoral job in a few months. You know the feeling—and it’s terrifying. In his book to help pastors during transitions, John Cionca writes, “Occasionally, I meet seminarians who view a Master of Divinity degree as a union card. They figure that someone owes them a church upon graduation.” I’m not sure I’d go this far, but I understand the sentiment. All that effort, time, and money—in addition to a sense of calling that’s been confirmed by others—creates certain expectations, or at least certain hopes.

So, when the end of the tunnel starts to look more hopeless than hopeful, disillusionment and panic ensue. It’s overwhelming to think about all the steps involved in finding the right job, especially if you’ve never done it before. Where do I start? Who do I talk to? What do I send them? It’s no less terrifying when you’re currently in a church but considering a new role. How do I know my family and I will fit at the new church? How do I tell people I’m leaving?

For all those questions, we pastors need solid coaching. We need processes that are theologically informed and practically oriented. We need anecdotes from real hiring processes, and we need strategies for every step of the way.

This is what Don’t Just Send a Resume is about. Consider for a moment an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). An EMT, though trained, needs an ambulance to get him to the accident. He’s been trained to help those who are hurt, but he needs a ride to be able to do so. If he can’t get to the accident, he can’t help. In the same way, I’m not interested in pastors earning a lot of money or finding the flashiest job. I simply want to get those who are trained to help—pastors—on the path to those churches who need their help.

This whole project started with two e-mails. Joel, a friend from seminary, emailed me to ask for advice about finding a job in a church. That was three and a half years ago. Joel was about to transition from one church to another, and he was looking for help. I sent him an e-mail with ten suggestions. Who sends a ten-point e-mail? I guess I do! Anyway, Joel found my thoughts, as well as the subsequent coaching I gave him, helpful. After that, my e-mail to Joel grew into a series of blog posts. Then came eighteen months of research with my nose in books on the topic, both church-specific and business-specific books. Then came over fifty interviews with pastors of all different ages and roles and denominations who’d recently made a pastoral transition. Then I reached out to other pastors and authors who have thought deeply about pastoral transitions, asking them to contribute to the book. And finally, this book—or, rather, this ambulance.

Let’s go for a ride.

Thank You, New Life Bible Fellowship

While driving to the Mexican restaurant Qdoba, I got my first phone call from Pastor Greg. I pulled over to take the call. He and I didn’t talk but a few minutes. I remember telling him that I wanted to make sure I answered to say hello, but also that I couldn’t talk because I was on a date with my wife. Brooke and I had just dropped off our three children at Megan and Allen’s house for babysitting.

That phone call was exactly 8 years ago, the Valentine’s Day of 2011, which simultaneously feels like yesterday but also like another lifetime ago.

At the time, we lived in St. Louis. But Pastor Greg was calling from Tucson, where a growing church called New Life Bible Fellowship was looking to hire a new pastor. And I was looking to be hired as a pastor, my first full-time job in ministry.

To be candid, the search process wasn’t going well for me. My lack of experience was part of the problem. Another factor was the recession; churches simply weren’t hiring. I’ve since learned many pastors had similar experiences during these years. If a church had three pastors and one left, they were learning to get by with two. And if a church was growing and needed to add staff, most didn’t.

My first day of work at New Life Bible Fellowship in Tucson, AZ on June 1, 2011.

At some point in this search process, I remember saying to my wife, “You know that list we made, the one with our dream job in the dream city? I’m throwing it in the trash. I just need to find a job—forget the right job.” That’s how bad it was.

But then Greg called, and a flicker of hope was kindled. It seemed like a long shot, though. I’d never been to the Southwest, let alone Tucson. And when I had first applied for the job, sending my cover letter and resume and references and recommendation letters, I called New Life to see how the process was going and to let them know I was interested. The kind woman who answered the phone—who I now know as the lovely Cindy Carpenter—said, “It’s so nice of you to call. The search is going great.” When I asked how many people had applied, Cindy replied, “Let me look . . . Oh, I think it’s up to three hundred.” See what I mean by a long shot.

Later in the interviewing process, Greg and John flew out to visit our home. When we gave them a tour of our house, I showed them my laundry room, which is a bizarre thing to do, but for some reason I did. We also took a walk around the block. John, the worship pastor of the church, was kind enough to give my young children piggyback rides as we walked through my neighborhood.

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I know, I know, I know. I’m rambling. I’ll get to the point. The point is I’m really thankful to New Life Bible Fellowship. And I’m really thankful to God. My first job as a pastor didn’t come without a few bumps, even a few bumps in that interviewing process. But I’m glad for it—all the good and all the hard.

Today, 8 years after my first phone call with Pastor Greg, my book to help pastors in the job-search process comes out. On the dedication page I wrote:

To New Life Bible Fellowship
for taking a risk on a rookie pastor
whose calling was clear but gifts were raw

If you want to buy the book, that’s great I guess. But today I’m not so worried about getting more sales. I’m more concerned about saying “thank you” to everyone in Tucson who we met during the interview process and everyone who loved us while I pastored at New Life. There were many of you, far too many to name. (But if I were to mention just a few names, I’d be sure to say the Lavines, Grandma Sandy, all the Tramels, and Jordan Carpenter; they loved us beyond what could ever be asked.)

New Life was the perfect place for me to learn and struggle and grow. It was the perfect place to develop my gifts, which admittedly were very raw. It was a perfect place to give and receive love.

So thank you, New Life Bible Fellowship.

* Church photo from New Life’s welcome video.

A book to help pastors and other ministry leaders in the job-search process.

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!

Help Me Choose the Book Cover (Feedback Please!)

While many books have been written to help a church when their pastor leaves, nothing has been published in the last 10 years to help the pastor in the job-search process. I hope to change that with my book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church.

But nothing will change if people don’t buy the book. And a big part of buying any book is judging books buy their covers. When I work with Photoshop, I feel like I’m drawing with big, fat crayons. So, I hired a pro: Matt Higgins. I love the early design work Matt has done, but now we need to narrow the options. This is where you come in.

The two leading concepts are below. Please let me know in the comments which cover design would most compel you to buy the book. You can simply share a “1” or “2,” or you can explain a bit. It’s up to you.

Thank you for your help,
Benjamin

View fullsize

Design Concept 1

View fullsize

Design Concept 2

“Don’t Just Send a Resume” is on Amazon Pre-Order

We can speak of relationships and job changes as being “Facebook official.” Well, after four years of working on a book to help pastor’s in the job-search process, my book Don’t Just Send a Resume is now “Amazon official.” It’s also “Barns & Noble official,” which is fun to see.

I’d love for you to check it out. Right now the hardback edition is for sale. The ebook pre-order will arrive in mid-October, and the paperback edition will show up right before the book’s launch on January 15, 2019.

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Below is some more information about the book and the contributors. Thanks for all the support along the way!

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When God says, “Follow me,” do you know how?

If you work in Christian ministry, it’s likely that at some point in your career God will call you from one church to another. Do you know how to make this transition effectively? Moving can be scary and full of questions: Where do I start the job search process? Which people do I talk with, and what do I send to them? How do I know if my family and I will fit in at a new church? And how do I tell people I’m leaving?

This book is intended to help you answer those questions so that the hiring process goes well. And when the hiring process does go well, a lot of pain can be avoided—for the pastor and the church.

What we pastors need is solid coaching that is theologically informed and practically oriented. We need to know how the gospel empowers us to interview with both humility and confidence. We need anecdotes from real hiring processes, and we need detailed strategies for every step of the way, so we can transition with excellence, protect our families, respect the church, and honor God.

Don’t Just Send a Resume also features short contributions from 10 published authors and ministry leaders, including:

David Mathis | executive editor for desiringGod.org, pastor at Cities Church, and author.

Sam Rainer | lead pastor of West Bradenton Baptist Church, president of Rainer Research, the co-founder/co-owner of Rainer Publishing, and author of several books.

Chris Brauns | senior pastor at the Red Brick and author of several books, including When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search.

Jared C. Wilson | director of content strategy for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of several books, including The Imperfect Disciple, The Prodigal Church, and Gospel Wakefulness.

Cara Croft | director of Women’s Ministry for Practical Shepherding, co-author of the book The Pastor’s Family, and wife to pastor and author Brian Croft.

J.A. Medders | lead pastor of Redeemer, author of several books, and host of the Home Row podcast for writers.

William Vanderbloemen | CEO and Founder of Vanderbloemen Search Group and author of Next, Search, and Culture Wins.

Jeremy Writebol | pastor at Woodside Bible Church and the Executive Director of Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Dave Harvey | Executive Director of Sojourn Network, the teaching pastor at Summit Church, author of several books, and founder of AmICalled.com.

Kristen Wetherell | coauthor of Hope When It Hurts, a Bible teacher, content manager at Unlocking the Bible, and wife of pastor Brad Wetherell.

When a Book Is an Ambulance

The updates, the emails, the posts—it all ends tonight.

After one month and half a dozen email updates, my Kickstarter campaign for Don’t Just Send a Resume ends tonight at 11 pm EST. Thank you to everyone who helped and prayed for the project. It was a huge success.

If you’d like to still help, go for it. Every extra $15 raised will help me get the book to a job-placement coordinator at new seminary.

As a final email, I thought you might enjoy reading the current preface to the book to see how I believe it will prevent pastors from floundering.

Thank you,
Benjamin

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“Preface” to Don’t Just Send a Resume

It took me five years to earn my seminary degree. It was exhausting. It cost thousands of dollars and took thousands of hours to learn what I needed to learn so I could help lead a local church. Eventually that training was complete, and it was time for my classmates and me to look for jobs.

This didn’t go well for many of us. In fact, some students—men I respected and thought would make great pastors—struggled to find the right church, or any church at all.

In a word, they floundered.

Why? Because they didn’t know how to find a job. They didn’t know what they were doing. I suspect there are valid reasons why this was the case.

First, they forgot—or they never learned—that the business world is different from the vocational ministry world. These differences startled me when I began interviewing for pastoral jobs. For example, during the interview process with one church, the pastors visited my home for a meal. They met my entire family, and even saw my laundry room as I gave them a tour of our house. Trust me, this never happened during my former career as a mechanical engineer.

Second, pastors struggle to connect with the right local church because many seminaries don’t have margin to teach students how to transition from the classroom. For every book a professor includes, there are ten others he or she wanted to add but couldn’t.

If you’re a seminary student about to graduate, it’s no guarantee you’ll have a pastoral job in a few months. You know the feeling—and it’s terrifying. In his book to help pastors during transitions, author John Cionca writes, “Occasionally, I meet seminarians who view a Master of Divinity degree as a union card. They figure that someone owes them a church upon graduation” (Cionca, Before You Move, 35). I’m not sure I’d go this far, but I understand the sentiment. All that effort, time, and money—in addition to a sense of calling that’s been confirmed by others—creates certain expectations, or at least certain hopes.

So, when the end of the tunnel starts to look more hopeless than hopeful, disillusionment and panic ensue. It’s overwhelming to think about all the steps involved in finding the right job, especially if you’ve never done it before. Where do I start? Who do I talk to? What do I send them? It’s no less terrifying when you’re currently in a church but considering a new role. How do I know my family and I will fit at the new church? How do I tell people I’m leaving?

For all those questions, we pastors need solid coaching. We need processes that are theologically informed and practically oriented. We need anecdotes from real hiring processes, and we need strategies for every step of the way.

This is what Don’t Just Send a Resume is about. Consider for a moment an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). An EMT, though trained, needs an ambulance to get him to the accident. He’s been trained to help those who hurt, but he needs a ride to be able to do so. If he can’t get to the accident, he can’t help. In the same way, I’m not interested in pastors earning a lot of money or finding the flashiest job. I simply want to get those who are trained to help—pastors—on the path to those churches who need their help.

This whole project started with two e-mails. Joel, a friend from seminary, emailed me to ask for advice about what a pastor should do to find a job in a church. That was two and a half years ago. Joel was about to transition from one church to another, and he was looking for help. I sent him an e-mail with ten suggestions. Who sends a ten-point e-mail? I guess I do! Anyway, Joel actually appreciated my advice, as well as the subsequent coaching I gave him. After that, my e-mail response to Joel grew into a series of blog posts. Then came eighteen months of research with my nose in books on the topic, both church-specific and business books alike. Then came over fifty interviews with pastors of all different ages and roles and denominations who’d recently made a pastoral transition. And finally, then came this book—or, rather, this ambulance.

Let’s go for a ride.

* Photo by Zhen Hu on Unsplash

We Made the Kickstarter Goal, Thank You!

I’ve been on vacation in Iowa with my family for the last few days seeing extended family. We’ve been playing in creeks and ponds and the woods and catching frogs. And I’ve had my phone off nearly 23 hours a day. That’s a vacation in and of itself.

But it was fun to turn on my phone two days ago and see that all of you helped me reach my Kickstarter goal for my book Don’t Just Send a Resume! I’m profoundly thankful for that. I’m almost done posting about it. Seriously. I’m getting tired too. Hang in for there for just one or two more posts.

I mentioned in the last post that every dollar I raise above the goal will go to hiring a professional cover designer. I’ve been winging it as I’ve made covers for the books, and I’m hoping to get out of the way and let a pro finish this book right.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the previous covers I’ve made for the book over the last two years. You can see the title even changed twice. Each cover has gotten a little better, but I’d love to see what someone who does this for a living could do.

No matter where the final Kickstarter number reaches, please know that I greatly appreciate all the help with this project!

Thank you,
Benjamin

Click the picture to watch the video.

A Book Both Awesome and Ignorable

I’m confident that my book Don’t Just Send a Resume, which is a book to help pastors in the job-search process, will be highly ignorable to many people, even many pastors. Lots and lots of people won’t read my book because lots and lots of people don’t need it.

This might seem like a strange thing to say. But as the saying goes, “a book for everyone, is a book for no one.” This is because a book for everyone is a book too general and too broad to be helpful and interesting.

And in my experience of giving Don’t Just Send a Resume to pastors, I’ve learned that most pastors are not interested in the book . . .

 . . . except for when they are!

When I bump into a pastor who is contemplating a potential transition—or a pastor who was unexpectedly thrust into one—my book becomes precious to them. Right now there are thousands of these pastors across the country, and there really is no other contemporary book on the market like it.

In fact, just last week someone reached out to me on Facebook and wrote this:

Hey man, this book looks great. Is there anyway I could get my hands on a copy now? How might I pay you for it? I’m heading into transition out of my current call and I believe this book may be of great help . . .

I know a dozen pastors who feel the same way. They are the pastors I’ve been able to coach as they transition from one church to another. I love being helpful in this way.

I don’t expect you to read the below endorsements for my book. But I’m sharing them this week to let you know why I’m doing what I’m doing and why I’d love your help getting this book into the hands of those who need it.

If you haven’t had a chance yet to help with my Kickstarter campaign, PLEASE check it out today. There are only two weeks left. Every $15 that’s pledged will help me market the book to another professor or placement coordinator at a seminary, which will have the potential to get it to many more pastors.

Praise for Don’t Just Send a Resume

“Anyone looking for a ‘job’ in a local church will want to read this book, and all of us who already have found one will wish we had it back then. With his happy, humorous, and friendly writer’s voice, Benjamin Vrbicek deftly blends the relevant theological truths with truly helpful tips for making the most of the search process from the candidate’s end. I keep giving away copies to my friends."
Matthew Mitchell
Pastor, Lanse Evangelical Free Church; Author of Resisting Gossip: Winning the War of the Wagging Tongue
Lanse, PA

“Don’t Just Send a Resume is a needed resource, and it is a helpful resource. It is needed because I simply am not aware of another book tackling this specific issue that is so common in ministry. It is helpful because the author has labored to provide pastoral and practical advice. I can see taking all my staff through this book to prepare them for the eventual day they transition from one church to another church.”
Scott Zeller
Executive Pastor, Redeemer Church of Dubai
Dubai, U.A.E.

“Benjamin’s prose is clean and engaging. I love the overall gospel foundation that undergirds this book, and the practical focus that stems out of it. I think it could be helpful to people!”
Gavin Ortlund, PhD
Author and Fellow at The Henry Center
Deerfield, IL

“This book is fantastic! I will heartily recommend it to my sphere of influence as required reading. I love Benjamin’s writing. In fact, I just finished reading the chapter on money to my wife. We thought it was excellent!”
Keith Krell, PhD
Senior Pastor, Fourth Memorial Church; Professor of Biblical Exposition, Moody Bible Institute-Spokane
Spokane, WA

“Benjamin’s book is full of practical wisdom, and I highly recommend it. As a pastor recently looking for a church position, I didn’t know what questions to ask in my search. Benjamin provided me with helpful advice and also with the reassurance that I’m not alone in this process—others have navigated these waters before me.”
Dustin Tramel
Associate Pastor, Redeemer Church
London, England

“Benjamin Vrbicek combines the heart of a pastor with the savviness of a recruiter. With great conversational style, he provides the great gift of insightful, practical advice into the job-search process—a topic that can be woefully under addressed for those entering the ministry. It’s a valuable book from an insightful leader.”
Eric Herrenkohl
Business Consultant and author of How to Hire A-Players
Philadelphia, PA

“I still remember the frustration, pain, and confusion I felt as a young aspiring pastor right out of seminary looking for the perfect church. Now I am on the other side helping aspiring missionaries and church planters discern God’s calling and timing for ministry placement. This book will be a great encouragement and practical help to anyone pursuing full-time ministry.”
Scott Dunford
VP of Mobilization at ABWE International
New Cumberland, PA

“As a district staff member with the EFCA, I help pastors and churches in their placement. Sometimes it is like a hand in glove fit, but often it can be an arduous game of putting your best foot forward, prayer, sweat, wait and see. Benjamin Vrbicek has masterfully woven the threads of pitfalls and fears of looking for a job, along with offering wise counsel for finding the proper fit as a pastor in a new church. This book should be read by every pastor looking for a new ministry position.”
Peter Johnson
Associate District Superintendent
Eastern District of the EFCA

“I’m thankful for Benjamin, his writing ministry, and this new book in particular. Here, he wisely shepherds Christian leaders through some of the most important transitions we will ever make. It’s grounded, sensitive, and exceptionally helpful.”
Jeremy Linneman
Lead Pastor, Trinity Community Church; Author of Life-Giving Groups
Columbia, MO

“Exceptional writing. The main themes are introduced and expounded. Don’t Just Send a Resume has a strong biblical basis to it as well as concrete advice. A pastor can read this and know just what to do.”
Jeff Davis, PhD
Director, Child Evangelism Fellowship of Eastern PA, Inc.; Adjunct Professor, Capital Bible Seminary and Graduate School
Harrisburg, PA

“The process of finding a church home to minister in is one of the more difficult things about pastoral ministry. The process is long and arduous. Benjamin Vrbicek’s book is filled with theological and practical help for the pastor who is searching.”
Jason Worsley
Preaching Pastor, Grace Bible Church
Grapevine, TX

“This is the book that every seminary student needed to read and didn’t get to. Simple, practical, yet detailed and insightful, this will serve as a great go-to guide for pursuing a new position in ministry, whether it be the first call or a later one. Most importantly, this book helps the pastor consider the entire process through a biblical framework.”
Stephen Morefield
Pastor, Christ Covenant EPC; Author of Fierce Grace
Leoti, KS

“Benjamin writes on this subject with a personal transparency, theological richness, and attention to detail that is really compelling. As a lay elder who has led a couple pastoral search committees, I found the book accessible, helpful and practical, and, though it was not written for this purpose, I would use it as a reference if I was called on to lead another committee. I highly recommend the book to you.”
Michael Grenier
Manager at TE Connectivity, lay-elder, and veteran of pastoral search committees
Harrisburg, PA

“As pastors we are taught to faithfully handle God’s word and shepherd his people and not be self-promoters in a job search process. I’m grateful for the practical helps this book offers but I’m more grateful for the heart behind all the words. This process can be hard emotionally and spiritually and can impact your family and marriage. Benjamin seeks to pastor other pastors as they engage their own process of seeking God’s calling and placement.”
Simon Kim
Associate Pastor, Desert Hills Presbyterian Church
Scottsdale, AZ 

“Benjamin Vrbicek’s Don’t Just Send a Resume is a thorough and systematic guide for any pastor seeking to move to another ministry. Benjamin’s book is biblically grounded, principled and true to the minister’s experiences while aptly answering the hows and whys of seeking to serve in another corner of God’s kingdom. It has proven to be a great tool for this seasoned pastor.”
Paulo Freire
Pastor, Hope Evangelical Free Church
Wantage, NJ

* Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Will You be My First Kickstarter Backer?

I’d love for you to be the first person to contribute to the fundraiser I’m doing for my new book.

But you can’t be the first. Someone beat you to it. I’m sorry.

Let me explain . . .

Why Write a Book to Help Pastors?

For several years I’ve been working on a book to help pastors in the job-search process. It’s called, Don’t Just Send a Resume. The idea is that pastoral ministry is an embodied process (you go all-in), which means you don’t want to do the bare minimum in the interview process (i.e., just send a resume) because that’s not what you do when you pastor a church.

Even though right now several thousand pastors are contemplating a transition from one church to another, almost no books have been written to help them since before Facebook was invented. That’s too long. We need to change this.

As of this morning, there are 676 job postings on ChurchStaffing.com. I’d guess that for every opening there are several dozen applicants—in some cases many more. These numbers do not even consider the many other pastors who will do most of their job-searching through seminaries, denominations, or church-staffing firms.

This winter I made the decision to self-publish Don’t Just Send a Resume, which requires investing more money into the book for editing and marketing. I’ve already spent around $2,500 and 600 hours on it. Doing interviews with 50 local church pastors and recruiting a dozen top-notch contributors to the book (like Jared C. Wilson, Chris Brauns, and William Vanderbloemen) took a lot of work.

But to see the book launched successfully, it will take another $2,000. I’d love your help with that.

How Does Kickstarter Work?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website. It’s used by inventors, videographers, entrepreneurs, authors, and other creatives to share their plans to make something that they believe will help others. Participants in the community who get excited about the project are called “backers.”

I did a lot of research about Kickstarter beforehand, and here are two things I learned. First, Kickstarter fundraising is all or nothing. If you make your goal, you receive what was pledged. If you don’t reach your goal, you get nothing.

The second thing I learned is that you need to get a good, early jump on your fundraising, even if your campaign lasts a month as mine does. All the late comers to the project, want to see that the project is a “winner” before they’ll give.

So, to be very blunt, I’d love your help today. Or tomorrow. Or soon.

How Can You Back This Project?

Let me come back to where I started. Yesterday I finalized the project on Kickstarter and hit the launch button before breakfast. I wanted everything ready—no mistakes, no glitches—for when I let you, my blog readers, know how they could help get my book into the world.

However, two people already beat you to the chance to become the projects first backers. Someone on Kickstarter pledged $1 and another $25. But you can be the first FAN AND FLAME reader to give. It would mean a lot to me.

I typically only post once a week on Tuesdays at 2pm. However, you might see a few extra emails from me this month. Rather than getting frustrated by that, I’m praying that you’d be excited.

You can click here to see the campaign and watch the video I made. Thanks for your support!

I’m Super Excited about These Contributors to My Job-Search Book

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When a pastor is looking for a job in a local church, one of the most frustrating things he might experience is how poorly churches communicate with those they are considering for the position. That was true for me as I looked for a job. But I don’t just know this from personal experience. I also know this because I’ve spent the last 3 years studying the best practices for pastoral transitions, researching the literature on the job-search process, and interviewing over 50 local church pastors.

While many books have been written about helping a church to form a pastoral search team if their pastor leaves, nothing has been published in the last 10 years to actually help the pastor in the job-search process. I hope to change that with my book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church.

In the coming months, I’ll tell you more about the book. I’ll even be doing a Kickstarter campaign to give you the opportunity to help launch the book.

For now, I wanted to share about several of the people who have agreed to contribute to the book. I’m asking 10 published authors to share what they’ve learned during the job-search process. These are people who know both the fear and the euphoria involved in a transition from one church to another. Each short contribution will be included at the end of a chapter in my book.

I hope to be able to announce the complete list of contributors in May. Here are a few of them:

Jared C. Wilson
Long-time local church pastor, author of over 15 books, content strategist for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and one of my favorite authors.

William Vanderbloemen
An expert in the job-search field, runs the largest church-staffing firm, and has written extensively on the topic of transitions.

Chris Brauns
Local church pastor, author of several books, including a go-to book for churches who are looking for a pastor, When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search.

Jeremy Writebol
Local church pastor, author, and the Executive Director for Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Cara Croft
Coauthor of The Pastor’s Family, wife of pastor Brian Croft, and mother of four.

Sam Rainer
Local church pastor, author, cohost of the Established Church podcast, and co-owner of Rainer Publishing.

Kristen Wetherell
Author, content manager for Unlocking the Bible, and wife of pastor Brad Wetherell.

Again, I need your help to launch this book and to get it into the hands of those who need it. Look for those details about how you can help next month.

Let me close by saying this: This book isn’t about me. I believe that when churches are healthier, the gospel of Jesus Christ shines brighter. And I hope that in some small way this book will improve the health of pastors and churches, causing the good news of Jesus to shine even brighter.

I’m Looking for Help from Pastors

From the very beginning of this blog post, let me be upfront. I’m looking for help. Let me explain.

I’ve written a book to help pastors in the job-search process. The book does not exist yet, not officially anyway. This is where you come in. For the next few months I’m recruiting 50 pastors and other thoughtful Christians to comment on the manuscript and to spend time with me on the phone about their own job-search experience. As you can see from above, right now I’m 26 interviews short of my goal.

In exchange for the 30-minute phone interview and your comments on the manuscript, I'll send you a free copy of the book. You can click here to sign up. It takes just a few seconds.

And if you are not a pastor, but you know someone who is in full-time ministry, PLEASE share this post with him or her.

One last thing. I’m not just asking you to do this work for some selfish goals of mine. I’m asking you to share a gospel vision. This book began with the belief that helping pastors transition effectively from one church to another would, in turn, help churches be healthier. And the love of God spreads across the earth through healthy churches. Together, let’s help this book play its part in God’s grand purpose of loving more people.

To get a copy of the book, click here.

Pastor, Over Prepare for Job Interviews

During the last 12 months, I’ve been posting some tips to help pastors find the right job in a local church. This post is a continuation of the series. In it, I discuss “why” and “how” to get ready for job interviews.

*     *     *

However much time you think that you need to prepare for a job interview, double it. I don’t say this because you need more busywork. Preparing for job interviews isn’t busy work; it’s mission critical.

As a candidate, you need to make sure you are truly prepared for interviews, and to become “truly prepared,” I advocate getting to the place where you feel as though you have almost over prepared. In my experience, if you get to the place of feeling “over prepared,” in reality, you’ve probably prepared adequately.

I learned this principle during my experience as a young engineer, not necessarily in the context of interviewing but the principle still applies. At the construction company where I worked, we billed every hour of design directly to a particular project. For my first year or two, this led me to feel tremendous pressure to complete my jobs as quickly as possible.

When it came time for installation, however, let’s just say that the union construction workers were pretty good at letting me know that I hadn’t tried hard enough. Not only was this humbling, but it was not even a good use of company money. It didn’t help the bottom line for me to “save” one hour only to have ten guys stand around for that same one hour while they fixed my mistake. This happened often enough that finally I got so frustrated that I began to “over engineer,” as I called it, all of my designs.

And what was the result? Adequate engineering.

So, to get to this place of adequate readiness for your job interviews, focus on “over preparing” in these four areas.

1. Over prepare to know the particular dynamics of your interview type

The first thing you need to know is what type of interview you are about to experience and what are the potential pitfalls of it. Here are some of the typical interview options for pastors in a local church.

1. Paper application with short answer essays

2. Telephone interview with one person

3. Telephone interview with more than one person

4. Video conference interview with one person

5. Video conference interview with more than one person

6. One-on-one interview, in person

7. Group interview, in person

8. Candidating weekend

For any job that you interview for, if you continue in the process all the way to the end, likely you’ll experience all eight of these types of interviews—some of them more than once. Therefore, think through what issues might arise with each and be ready for them.

For example, with a phone interview, if their call surprises you, which it might, plan beforehand to ask if you can call them back in 30 minutes, or whatever time makes sense. This extra time will prove valuable, especially if you are pursuing several jobs simultaneously, because you’ll want time to refresh to make sure you’re keeping them straight. Typically, requesting to call them back won’t be an issue to the potential employer, but if you haven’t planned for this scenario, you’ll likely just take the call when it comes and stumble through it on the fly.

Here’s another example of a potential challenge inherent to a certain interview format. In a video conference interview (often done with Skype, Google Hangouts, or FaceTime), expect slight delays due to poor internet connections. Trust me when I say from experience that these delays often cause people unintentionally to interrupt each other. “You go first—” “No, no, you go—” “Okay, okay, I’ll start…” Know as well that these delays often make attempts at humor difficult.

Over-preparing will help you foresee these types of challenges before they trip you up.

2. Over prepare to make your interview answers short

If you are like most people, including me, when you are not adequately prepared, you tend to ramble. Your answers are not crisp and clean; rather, they meander. This isn’t good for interviewing. It makes you look indecisive, like you are guessing. Rarely does anyone improve their answers through length (whether on written applications or in verbal interviews).

Besides looking indecisive, long answers don’t help for another reason, perhaps a surprising one. Frequently I have observed that those who are asking the questions in interviews are almost always more interested in asking their next question than they are in listening to you drone on and on about the current question. This is especially true in group interviews when the questions are asked from different people. It’s selfish, I know, and it’s a reflection of our hearts, but it’s just how it is. So remember, shorter is better.

3. Over prepare to nail the expected interview questions

When you know that something about you will likely generate questions from the employer, make sure you are ready for them.

These can be neutral things. For instance, if you are accustomed to living in southern California and the potential job is in Maine, the search committee will want to know if you have really thought through what it would be like to live with four months of heavy snow. Now, maybe you lived in Maine as a child and are excited to get back, or maybe you have no idea what it will be like, but before they ask, anticipate the question and prepare a response.

Some things about you might generate questions that are, shall we say, less than neutral. For example, were you fired from your last job? Or have you been previously married? Or are you currently in a liberal denomination (or seminary) but looking for a job in a conservative church—or vice versa? Or are you unable to move for six months because of a contractual agreement with your current employer? Or are you far younger than other people applying? Or not as formally educated?

If any one of these is true of you, or a hundred other possibilities that only you know, then prepare for the associated questions; have your answers ready.

Often, any potential concerns a church might have will be assuaged with a good explanation, if there is one. And if there isn’t, say so. The gospel, which teaches that Christians are sinners saved by grace, allows us to take ownership of our past because, in the end, our past doesn’t define us—Christ does.

4. Over prepare to end the interview well

Of course you should close the interview by thanking people for their time, but beyond this, you may have questions for them that you don’t want to forget. Perhaps you want to know when you might expect to hear back from them, or when they expect the new hire to begin employment.

It sounds silly, but if you haven’t prepared for how you’ll end the interview, you might just keep talking and talking and talking. I’ve seen it happen. In the moment, people get excited and just keep going on and on. You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to end the interview rambling about this or that, telling an anecdote about your new puppy or your new car or maybe about how you were recently injured while training for a half-marathon—which by the way was your first half-marathon—but this injury isn’t gonna stop you from being a great new hire and preaching great sermons, that’s for sure, because you’ll be ready for that, just like the time when… Yet all the while, everyone else in the interview will be thinking to themselves, “I wish he knew when to stop.”

[Photo by Jeff Sheldon/ Unsplash]

Smoke the Curve

Recently, I’ve been posting some tips to help pastors find the right job in a local church. I’m currently working to compile all of the posts (and more) into a book. Here is the proposed introduction to Chapter 2. It’s a story from my track and field days.

*     *     *

Chapter 2: Smoke the Curve

In track and field, the 200m race is a sprint. It’s only half a lap. It takes the best men in the world just under twenty seconds and the rest of us somewhere in the twenties. You start the race on the curve and finish on the straightaway.

When I was in high school, my sprint coach was Coach Grosso. He was a short, intense Italian man. He could bench press all of the weights in the gym, and he perennially wore a tank top, even in winter (at least inside). I remember many of the things that Coach Grosso taught us but especially how to run a 200m race.

And what was his secret?

Coach Grosso would pull us in close and in a raspy, passionate voice he would say, “Boys, if you want to run a fast 200m, ya’ gotta smoke the curve.”

Smoke the curve is track-speak for “start fast.” What he meant is that you need to get out of the blocks clean; don’t hold anything back because if you hold back at the start, it won’t matter how fast you can finish.

I don’t know if this remains the best coaching advice for running the 200m or not. I wasn’t ever very good at the 200m, but that’s because I was slow not because I was poorly coached. Regardless, this is what you’ll need to do if you want to find a job in Christian ministry: ya’ gotta smoke the curve. When the gun goes off, you need to be ready to run because if you don’t start strong, you won’t get a chance to end strong; the process will be over.

When I was looking for my first pastoral job, I thought I knew how important the initial contact would be. However, I wasn’t ready for what I experienced.

After I sent my cover letter and resume to one church, I called to see how the process was going and to let them know I was interested. The kind woman who answered the phone said, “It’s so nice of you to call. The search is going great.” When I asked how many people had applied, she said, “I think it’s up to 300.”

A few weeks later, I applied to another church, and in that search, I later found out I was one of 600 candidates from eleven different countries! See what I mean? If you don’t start strong in this process, you might be a great candidate, but they are moving on—without you.

Now I’m several years removed from these experiences. Now I can say (both as a candidate and someone who has been on search committees) that the size of those searches is on the high end of the spectrum. But they are not unheard of, especially for the large church that posts a well-crafted job description on a major website. In Chapter 2, I’ll show you how to get ready to run this race and maybe even how to take a few quick steps around the curve.

Always include a short, custom cover letter.

To start off, we need to talk about cover letters, resumes, references, family bios, and recommendation letters . . .

[Photo by Thomas Brasington / CC BY] 

When to Play the Field and When to Date Exclusively

Recently, I’ve been posting some tips to help pastors find the right job in a local church. This post is a continuation of the series. In it, I encourage pastors looking for a job to think about when it is appropriate “to play the job field” and when they need to “date a job exclusively.”

*     *     *

Know when to play the field and when to date exclusively.

I don’t really like the dating analogy, but to a point, it fits.

There is a time when it’s acceptable, even expected, to be in simultaneous conversations with multiple churches. If you are a graduating seminary student, people expect this. But even then, you’ll need to know when to cut those many conversations off so that you can focus on just one church at a time.

There’s not an exact formula to figure this out, but there are some boundaries which I believe most would agree upon. If you are sending cover letters and resumes to churches, especially those doing open searches, then it’s probably fine for you to be in conversation with several churches at once. It’s like having casual conversations in the cafeteria, anyway, not like holding hands in a fancy steak restaurant over a candlelight dinner.

But on the other end of the spectrum, you certainly don’t want to be in the place where one weekend you have the final candidating interviews at one church, and then, on the next weekend plan to do the same thing at another church. This type of promiscuity helps no one, and more importantly, it doesn’t please God.

The further into the hiring process you are, the more hearts (both yours and those searching for a shepherd) will become invested, especially as the prospective church introduces you to more people. And if you continue to play the field, at some point it becomes like cheating.

Our role as candidates, throughout the hiring process, is both to trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God, and at the same time, to practice the golden rule—doing unto churches what you would want churches to do unto you. Think about it like this: I know you don’t want to be on a candidating weekend at a church, only to find out later that on subsequent weekends, three other candidates are doing the same thing at the same church. Churches and candidates shouldn’t choose each other the way the groom on the television show The Bachelor chooses his bride.

Finding a job in Christian ministry is a spiritual endeavor, an endeavor that requires godliness and trust. It’s not the “Miss Universe” competition. If you are unsure about where to draw the line, between talking with many churches and talking with just one church, ask trusted friends. You shouldn’t have to figure this out alone, for as Proverbs teaches, “In an abundance of counselors there is safety” (11:14; cf. 15:22).

When in doubt, err on the side of too much disclosure with a church, not too little. Rarely will this hurt your chances of future employment anyway.

And, if it does, so what? You did the right thing. That’s the important part, because God will be pleased.

On Telling People You Are Leaving

Recently, I’ve been posting some tips to help pastors find the right job in a local church. This post is a continuation of the series. In it, I encourage pastors to think about who, when, and in what order to tell people you are taking a new job.

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Know who, when, and in what order to tell people you are taking a new job.

Few things have the potential to harm relationships like finding out important information from the wrong person and at the wrong time. For example, if your girlfriend decided to breakup with you, but she told a bunch of other people first, you’re not going to forget this.

Likewise, in the church, it’s important to think through the details related to announcing your transition. When done well, more often than not, transitions can and should be celebrated—not simply endured, or worse, become harmful to the church.

Therefore, when you know you’ll be taking a new job (or that you very likely might be taking a new job), you’ll also want to know whom to tell, how soon to tell them, and in what order to tell them. This means you’ll have to understand your current ministry context and what is appropriate in that context. Are you about to graduate from Bible college? If so, who you tell and in what order you tell them, will look very different than if you are the lead pastor of a mega-church about to leave for another pastorate.

When I was completing seminary, figuring out who to tell and when to tell them wasn’t difficult. The church I attended was a good church, but it didn’t have a full-time position open, nor would it in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it was easy for me to talk openly about job opportunities. In fact, it made for an encouraging season; I could share prayer requests and job updates publicly.

If your context doesn’t allow for such openness (and most won’t), I would encourage you to consider telling others in terms of concentrically expanding circles. The first circle, the inner circle, might consist of key leadership figures. Perhaps this is your senior pastor and the elder board. The next circle may include ministry friends and those in whom you have invested or worked closely with in ministry. Finally, in the last circle, there are those generally in your congregation and those outside your church.

If you tell people in this order, I believe God will be honored.

The only caveat I’ll add to this concentric, expanding circle principle is that there might be a few people—though they won’t be many—who you tell before you tell the senior leadership, perhaps your closest friends and a mentor or two. These might even be, in fact will often be, people outside your church system. These people are the ones who will coach you all along the transition, perhaps even before you’ve identified a new calling.

And when it does come time to make the announcement public, if you have time, go out of your way to tell as many people as you can in person, especially those with whom you were close. The last thing you want is someone in whom you’ve invested (and they in you) to find out you’re leaving when they open the weekly church bulletin.

When I left my last church, there were some constraints on the timing of how we were going to announce it to the whole church body. There always are. As I worked with the church leadership about when to make the announcement public, it turned out that I had merely 48 hours to tell friends and ministry partners before it was publicly announced at our weekend services.

But that was okay; I was so thankful I even had that. And I used it well. I made a list of everyone that I thought might be hurt by hearing the announcement cold, and then I called or met with as many as possible. It made for a busy two days, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Again, I can’t prescribe exactly how this should look in your context. But what I’m stressing is that love and respect for individuals, for the Church (with a capital “C”), and for God’s reputation must be your motivation for how and when you inform people. If you have the goal of only protecting your own interests, you’re in sin (Philippians 2:4-5). But if you seek to love others and honor God, as I said above, more often than not, your transition will be a season of encouragement for yourself, your family, and the churches involved.

Don’t Be Shy About or Afraid to Talk About Money

Recently, I’ve been posting some tips to help pastors find the right job in a local church. This post is a continuation of the series. It’s about why you shouldn’t be shy or afraid to talk about money during the hiring process.

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The Bible is replete with stories of those ensnared by the power of money.

Consider the famous Levite in Judges 17-18. “Young man, do you want a better preaching gig?” he is asked. “Well, come on up. Don’t be a priest to a family; be one to a whole tribe.” When the Levite heard this, “[his] heart was glad” (Judges 18:20).

 Or consider Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts 5, Gehazi in 2 Kings 5, and Zacchaeus in Luke 19.

We don’t know the specifics of why they were so captivated with money. Was it status or security? Power or pleasure? We just don’t know.

What we do know, however, is that money ensnared them.

Greed can be a slippery and hidden thing. Tim Keller writes in Counterfeit Gods about the way it sneaks up on people.

Notice that in Luke 12 Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” That is a remarkable statement. Think of another traditional sin that the Bible warns against—adultery. Jesus doesn’t say “Be careful you aren’t committing adultery! He doesn’t have to. When you are in bed with someone else’s spouse—you know it. Halfway through you don’t say, “Oh, wait a minute! I think this is adultery!” You know it is. Yet, even though it is clear that the world is filled with greed and materialism, almost no one thinks it is true of them. They are in denial. (pp. 57-58)

This is a good observation. Maybe the last line, however, should not read, “They are in denial,” but “We are in denial.” I know I often am.

The potential for money to become an idol makes it difficult for pastors to talk about compensation during the hiring process, especially when you add to the equation how taboo discussing one’s income is in our culture. (Consider this: Of your friends, how many know your annual salary? Or how many of your friends’ salaries do you know? Probably not many.)

But the private nature and the potential misuse of money, should not negate its proper use. God’s not uncomfortable with the material world. Again, he made it. Thus, our aim is proper use not misuse or avoidance, with the latter (avoidance) being only a specific type of misuse.

Therefore, in the final stages of a job search, don’t shy away from talking about money. If you are unable or unwilling to talk about money, it’s not because you are godly. Godly people can talk about money in godly ways.

Think about this for moment. The church you are interviewing with has been talking about money for many months. Likely, they locked in a salary range for this position well before you even heard about the opening, which means they had to get comfortable talking about money. And it means they shouldn’t be surprised when a candidate wants to talk with them about it, too.

Early in the hiring process, it will probably suffice to talk in generalities, but at some point, you’ll want to talk in more detail, even asking the church to put the entire compensation package into writing. When you ask for the church to do this (which they should be glad to do), here are some of the benefits (besides the salary) that you’ll want to ask about:

• health, life, and disability insurance
• a health savings account
• continuing education and conference money
• money for ministry “tools” such as books and computer software
• cell phone
• moving expenses
• vacation
• retirement
• contribution to FICA
• a parsonage, if one exists
• sabbatical policy, if one exists
• performance reviews and associated yearly pay increases
• cost of living differences if moving from one region to another

Not all of these will be provided, of course. And some that aren’t, might be provided in the future. I’d encourage you to ask about all of them, however, because you are not simply negotiating for higher pay. What you are doing by asking—or what you should be doing—is seeking to arrive at clarity regarding compensation. Few things will cause more bitterness to you and your family (and the church!) than misunderstandings about compensation.

If you need resources to help you determine what is a reasonable compensation package, there are several places to turn. First off, if you know any senior or executive pastors, talk to them. Often, they can give you good advice on what they might pay someone with similar experience and education.

Also, you can Google “pastor pay” (or “youth pastor pay” or “worship pastor pay,” etc.) and you’ll get lots of leads. Of course, these will have to be vetted for reliability; nonetheless, it will give you some reference points.

Finally, if you want a resource based on more data (lots and lots of data!), you might try the Compensation Handbook for Church Staff by Richard R. Hammar. It’s the definitive book on the topic, and has been for years. The most current edition is the 2016-2017 one. It’s only sold on his website, although previous editions can be found elsewhere.

But whatever you do, don’t ignore discussing money simply because it’s awkward.

During pre-marital counseling with engaged couples, when we discuss delicate subjects, I repeatedly say, “It’s only awkward if we make it that way.” The same will be true for you as you talk about money with a church.