More Tips for Getting the Right Job in Ministry, Part III of V

I’ve been writing a series of posts designed to help those looking for a job in Christian ministry (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). But before I share more, let me back up and explain why I’m doing this.

Here’s the deal: it took me five years to get my seminary degree. It was exhausting. It cost thousands of dollars and took thousands of hours to learn the things I needed to help lead in a local church. But eventually, that training was complete. It was time for my classmates and me to look for jobs. But this didn’t go so well for many of us. In fact, there were some—guys I respected and thought would make great pastors—that struggled to find the right church or any church at all. I don’t know all of the reasons for this, but I suspect, in a few cases, it was because they didn’t know the right things to do to find a job.

In the end, I did find a great church to work for, but it didn’t come easy for me either. Struggles were many. This series of blog posts is designed to prevent pastors from floundering while trying to connect with the right church.

To use an analogy, consider an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). An EMT, though trained, eventually needs an ambulance to get him to the location of an accident. After all, he’s been trained to help those who are hurt. But if he can’t get to the accident, he can’t help.

Consequently, I’m writing these tips in order to get those who are trained connected to those who need them. I’m not so interested in helping pastors earn lots of money or find the sexiest job; that’s not what ministry is about. What I really hope to do is connect pastors to local churches.

With that background in mind, here are three more tips for candidates in order to accomplish this.

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7. Build and leverage your personal network.
For whatever reason, I hate the word networking. It feels greasy. When I hear it, I think cheap suits, slick hair, gaudy gold chains, and a guy who points with his finger as he talks.

Even if this is a cliché, at one point or another, we’ve all had the miserable experience of being used, that is, we’ve all experienced networking after Genesis 3.

But what if networking didn’t have to look this way? What might networking have looked like before the fall?

Imagine gathering some friends and family to celebrate what God is doing in your life and asking them to pray for you as you consider future opportunities to serve God? Imagine reaching out to people that you don’t currently know, but who might be able and happy to genuinely help?

In other words, what if networking was more like buying a friend a cup of coffee than trying to sell a used car?

Networking, at its best, should just be purposeful communication with people you care about and people that care about you. Moreover, if this is what networking is, isn’t it something we could do without selling our souls or trampling on someone else’s. I think I can create a list of friends and acquaintances that would love to see me find a job where I’ll thrive. I bet you can too.

So make the list. Make a list of everyone you think would be excited to see you in a the right job in Christian ministry. Some of the people in your network are your close friends and family, people you know pretty well.

Others, perhaps, will be those you don’t know all that well, though they are people who might be “in the know” about potential jobs. For example, you might be able to ask that pastor of a large church in the large city that you want to move to if he’d be on the list. And perhaps you can add someone in the placement department of a seminary, or someone in an administrative role of a denomination who might know about job openings.

Now, I keep talking about a “list,” but let me be clearer because there are really two lists. At first, you’re just brainstorming a list of people who you think could help you in this process. That’s the first list.

The next step is to actually speak with these people and ask if they would mind being on an email list of people that you want to send periodic updates to regarding the progress of your job search. This is your actually networking list.

As you speak to people, be sure you always give a length of time for how long you expect to send emails. For example, you might say something like this: 

For the next 9 months, I’m going to email some friends updates about my job search progress. Would it be okay if I emailed you an update about once a month during that time?

Also, would you be open to sending me any ideas or leads you might have for me, and praying for me as you think about my situation?

That’s something most people will say yes to because they know what they are getting into. Moreover, it’s been made clear to them that you know you’ll be doing the bulk of the work; in other words, you’re not expecting them to find the job for you.

Before moving on, let me mention two more things about networking. First, in your preliminary phone call and in every subsequent email, remember to emphasize the level of confidentiality that is needed. Are they sworn to secrecy? Or are they able to, in fact encouraged to, forward your email around to their friends? The answer will depend on your situation, of course, but make sure it’s abundantly clear.

Second, when you email people, consider using the “Blind Copy” (BC) function. This way everyone isn’t able to see all of the other recipients of the email. This might not seem like a big deal, but here’s what you don’t want: you don’t want your dear aunt Jessica (bless her heart) to keep hitting “reply to all,” to tell you how excited she is for you. Not professional. (But the fault will be yours.)

And if your email list gets really large, you might even want to use a mass email service such as MailChimp (which should be free for the size we’re talking about). The upside of a mass email service is that your email will look professional, but the downside is that it will look too professional, and then you’re back to networking after Genesis 3. It’s a hard thing to balance, but if your motives for networking are pure, people will sense this and be glad to lend a hand.

8. Have a mock interview.
Having a mock interview proved to be one of the most helpful things I did during the job search—yet, as I’ll explain, also one of the least enjoyable.

When I was looking for my first pastoral job, I had participated in interviews many times before but never in the context of a local church. All my experience had been in the business world. There is some helpful overlap, but I can tell you, with certainty, that when I interviewed with engineering firms no one ever asked me to articulate the gospel or explain the Trinity. No one ever asked my opinion on whether all of the small groups in a local church should use the same curriculum or if each group should choose their own. And they didn’t want to know what spiritual gifts my wife had. They didn’t ask these kinds of questions. I needed practice at answering them—lots of practice.

This is why I’m so thankful one of the elders at my local church offered to create a mock interview for me. He recruited several other mature Christians at our church, and for about two hours on a Tuesday night in a classroom in the basement of our church, they grilled me. Then for another hour they gave me feedback.

It was miserable, absolutely miserable.

But why? Were they mean? Not at all. Were they unfair? Nope.

It was miserable because I thought I was good at interviewing but wasn’t. In other words, by miserable, I mean deeply humbling.

Invariably, my answers were too long, and at times, unrelated to the actual question at hand. I had a lot to learn. Likely, so do you. As humbling as the process was, I am so thankful for it. I’m thankful I had friends who cared about me enough to help prepare me for ministry, even if that meant giving some honest feedback.

Before you begin the interview phases of a job search, I highly encourage you to have a mock interview. The best people to conduct it are those in your church who’ve sat on search committees before and, perhaps, even have hiring responsibilities in their job. If you don’t have this, recruit some friends to do this for you. With a quick internet search you can find good interview questions so that those conducting the interview don’t have to do too much legwork. Regardless of how you get this done, I could not recommend it more.

9. Send the best samples of your work.
I recently had coffee cups made with our church logo on them. We give them to newcomers. But before I bought 300 coffee mugs, I asked the company that made them to send me a sample. This was helpful. It helped me make an informed decision. 

However, the company keeps sending me stuff: pens, water bottles, tote bags, and brochures—lots and lots of brochures. This has not been helpful.

Candidates can learn something from this. At the right time, and in the right amount, sending samples is helpful. But sending too many samples, or sending them at the wrong time is not helpful—in fact, it’s harmful.

Early in the hiring process, your cover letter is probably enough, but as the process continues, you’ll likely want to send a few of the best samples of things you have worked on. This does not mean you should send a complete series of handcrafted small group curriculum from the last five years. Don’t do that. But it might mean that you send your favorite lesson or two. That’s helpful.

If you are a worship leader, it might mean you send a sample of a devotional you lead your worship team through, or a few favorite worship sets with an explanation of why you enjoyed them so much. If you are in youth ministry, perhaps you have videos from events or mission trips or material from a favorite Wednesday night teaching series. If so, send them over.

Again, sending high-quality samples of your work, at the right time and in the right amount, is helpful. It’ll help you stand out from the crowd.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for three more tips. They’re important. Churches are full of hurting people, and God means to help them. These tips are an ambulance designed to get EMTs to the place where they can do what they’ve been trained to do.

[Photo by sv1ambo / CC BY]

More Tips for Getting the Right Job in Ministry, Part II of V

Recently, I’ve posted several articles designed to help pastoral candidates get the right job in a local church (1, 2, 3, and 4).

Over the next month or two, I will continue to unroll my remaining 12 tips (three tips at a time). Here are next three.

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4. Get and send a recommendation letter.
My wife and I read books differently. Let’s just say that she has been known to skip a preface or two, and maybe even a few other pages along the way. I, on the other hand, won’t ever skip a page. I’m anal like that.

But there is, however, even for me, an exception to this rule. I never read the pages at the very front of a book titled “In praise of _________.” If you ask me, these pages aren’t even meant to be read, not closely. They are just there to make a point, namely, several well-known people think this book (or author) is hot stuff.

To me, a recommendation letter is sort of like that. They are nice to have because, at a glance, they give legitimacy to a candidate but, in my opinion, that’s about all. If you do decide to send one, however, and I’m not against it, here are a few ways to make the most of it.

First, realize that a reference letter doesn’t have to be from a Christian celebrity for it to be helpful. If John Piper or Rick Warren or Bill Hybels want to write you a recommendation letter, sweet. But don’t worry if they don’t. The other people applying for the job don’t have one either—probably.

It will likely be more helpful if you get a letter from a former supervisor or someone you oversaw (such as a small group leader you trained or a musician on your music team).

The most helpful letter, however, would be from someone who is already known by and has the respect of the church at which you are applying.

Recently, we hired a full-time youth and music director. He didn’t have a recommendation letter, but he did have on his reference list two men whom we already knew very well and greatly respected. Again, he just had these men as references, but each of them would have been great candidates for recommendation letters.

Second, if you don’t have someone famous to endorse you or someone who knows both you and the church, find someone interesting to write one for you.

When I was transitioning from a career in engineering to  one in pastoring, I asked one of my former pastors to write a recommendation letter. That’s not very interesting. But I also asked my Muslim engineering co-worker to write a recommendation letter. That is.

Obviously, my Muslim co-worker couldn’t speak to my preaching abilities or how well I could lead a small group; but, since we had worked closely on projects for several years, he was able to comment on my character and teamwork, and even how we had engaged each other in conversations about religion. Churches seemed to find his letter helpful. Not everyone has a Muslim co-worker, but if you do, or if you have someone like this, consider asking them to write a recommendation for you. They might do it.

Finally, don’t lead with your recommendation letter. Remember, you’re not hot stuff simply because you have one. When you send your information to a church put everything in this order: cover letter, resume, family bio, references, and, finally, the recommendation letter.

5. Keep track of everything.
The level of complexity of your job search will depend upon your context. If you are currently established in a ministry role, and only casually looking for a job, your search will likely not be too complex and you’ll manage it without much effort.

If, however, you are in a transition stage, say, about to graduate from seminary, then at some point in the job search, you’ll start to get overwhelmed. The job search may start simple but become complex quickly, and you’ll want to track everything before it gets there. At some point, you’ll forget which church you sent which piece of information, which church has a deadline coming up, and which church has a senior pastor that prefers to be called Steve, not Steven.

Let me give you an analogy. During the last year, I developed a food allergy that caused a lot of discomfort when I ate certain foods, and some days it even left me unable to work. I don’t know why this happened and I’m not happy about it, but it did happened. And to figure out what I’m allergic to, I had to track everything I ate for several months.

At first, I would convince myself that I could wait until the end of the day, or even wait several days, to record everything I had eaten. I thought this would be more efficient.

Big surprise: this doesn’t work. I always forgot the details.

It’s the same in the job search. You think you can keep track of it, but you can’t. Make a folder for every job, electronic or otherwise, and keep track of every interaction. Don’t wait a day or two. You’ll forget.

I recently went back and looked over the computer folder entitled “placement” from when I was preparing to graduate from seminary, and there were 17 different folders in it! Granted, some were threadbare because I only had one or two interactions with a church, but other folders were chalked full of details.

Additionally, along with folders, create a calendar (again, electronic or otherwise), to remind you of important deadlines and when you need to follow up with a church.

6. Know where to find job openings.
Having a professional resume, cover letter, family bio, references, and a recommendation letter makes for a good start. Yet, if you don’t know where to send them, you’re not going to get a job. Somehow you have to connect your information with the right employment opportunity.

But where do you find these opportunities?

Lots of places. Broadly speaking, here are a few of them.

Job Search Websites: As I’ve mentioned before, ChurchStaffing.com tends to be a good place to look, as it seems to be the most populated. (Note, their tagline is “The Site for Church Employment,” not “A Site for…”.) But there are others, for example, Church Staff Search or ChurchJobsOnline.com, but the quality goes down pretty quick after these. Something to keep in mind, though, is that the strength of these websites, at least ChurchStaffing.com, is also the challenge: lots of traffic. If you find a job you’re interested in, you’ll likely have to be aggressive. Additionally, The Slingshot Group and Vanderbloemen Search Group, which are primarily recruitment firms (i.e. headhunting firms), have job postings (here and here), and even The Gospel Coalition, a favorite organization of mine, has an online job board (here). You’ll have to look pretty hard to find it, but when you do, you’ll see it’s stuffed with opportunities.

Denominations: Often church denominations have resources for connecting candidates and churches. They have a vested interest in doing so. And when I say denominations, I have in mind official denominations such as the Presbyterian Church in America or the Southern Baptist Convention (see their respective job postings here and here). Yet, I also have in mind movements such as Harvest Bible Fellowship which now has over 100 churches and also posts jobs openings (see those here). I can’t speak with authority on every denomination or movement, but I can speak to my own, The Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). In our denomination, the country is broken up into 17 districts, each district with its own staff who, on average, resource just under 100 churches each. When, fresh out of seminary, I was looking for a job, I sent cover letters and resumes to someone in each district, and followed that up with a phone call. For me, this didn’t generate all that many leads, but I think if I had already been serving fulltime in an EFCA church, especially if had I already been ordained (and not fresh out of seminary), it would have opened up more doors.

Church Planting Networks: If you are interested in church planting, then you probably already know about organizations such as Acts 29, Converge Worldwide (formerly the Baptist General Conference), and Sovereign Grace. However, if not, you can read more about planting within in these organizations here, here, and here. And there are others. You’ll find them if you look.

Bible Colleges and Seminaries: Some of the best places to find jobs are through Bible colleges and seminaries. The upside to these is twofold. First, by virtue of each institution’s theological DNA, to some extent the theology of the churches posting has already been vetted. This is helpful to both you and the churches. Second, a church will often have one or more of the current staff who are positively biased to hiring candidates from their alma mater. There’s nothing wrong with this. For both candidate and church, the hiring process is a risk, and anything one can do to mitigate that risk, including connecting people who shared theology professors, is a good thing. The downside of finding jobs through Bible Colleges and Seminaries, however, is that often access is only granted to current students and alumni. Under certain circumstances, perhaps the gatekeeper would give you access, if, say for example, you graduated from another likeminded seminary and are currently looking to relocate to the city that the particular seminary is in. It’s hard to say, but you won’t know until you ask. To find this person, just call the seminary and ask to speak with the person overseeing placement.  

Other Ministry Organizations: I won’t list any specifics here, but likely every major mission agency, camp, and parachurch organization has their own job postings. I know that’s true for places like Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ), and Gospel for Asia (see those here, here, and here).

Direct Marketing: And finally there is direct marketing. This is the most targeted approach, which means you are reaching out to a specific organization or church within a certain region. Yet, don’t get your hopes up since this is unlikely to be successful. If you have constraints, however, on the region, or even city, where you need to live then it might be worth a try.

[Photo by Jakob Nilsson-Ehle / CC BY]

More Tips for Getting the Right Job in Ministry, Part I of V

Recently, I posted several articles designed to help pastors find the right job in a local church (1, 2, and 3). I hope you’re not tired of them yet because there’s still more to be said.  

Over the next month or two, I have 15 more tips that I plan to share in subsequent blog posts (three tips at a time). Here are the first three. Stay tuned for the rest.

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1. Pray without ceasing.
Many people know that the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” But this is only the shortest in English Bibles; this verse is actually three words in Greek, edakrusen o iēsous.

The shortest verse in the Bible, in the original languages, comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Paul instructs us to “pray without ceasing.” That’s three words in English, but in Greek it’s only two, adialeiptōs proseuchesthe.

Now this is mostly just silly Bible trivial, but the point I’m leading up to isn’t; Paul’s point isn’t trivial in the least. As Paul ends this letter to the church in Thessalonica, he does so by reminding the church of the gospel. He writes, “For God has not destined [Christians] for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (5:9).

And after this gospel reminder, he then gives a host of short, but important commands related to how Christians should live in light of the gospel message. One of these commands is to “pray without ceasing.”

As you look for a job, because you are a Christian who has not been “destined for wrath,” but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, you ought to be someone who prays—someone who prays without ceasing to the God who saved you. This doesn’t mean that Christians don’t do other things besides pray. Of course we do. But it does means in and around, before and after, and throughout everything we do, we pray.

In the job search, it will be easy to overlook this kind of persistent prayer, even neglect it. There will be plenty of other things to do: make cover letters and resumes; collect references and recommendations; research websites, both church websites and job boards; build a network of people who will help you along the way; prepare for interviews; and so on. In the midst of all these tasks, there will always be pressure to do “just one more thing.” Consequently, prayer can easily fall by the wayside. Don’t let it.

We are always dependent and desperate people—dependent upon God and his grace, and thus desperate for him to move on our behalf. Sometimes we feel our dependence more acutely than at other times, but it’s always there. Prayer acknowledges this dependence, and it is the God-appointed outlet, or channel, for our desperate need.

And when you feel the most overwhelmed and the job search looks anything but promising, you don’t have to pray alone. Get some friends to join you. Just make sure you do it. And besides, if you don’t depend upon God when finding a job in ministry you’ll likely not depend upon him once you’re in ministry, and that begs the question whether or not you should be in ministry at all.

You see, prayer doesn’t “work” because God is a giant piñata and prayer is the stick that whacks him until he gives us goodies. Prayer works because God is gracious and good, and because he is sovereign.

This leads to my next tip.

2. Trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God.
When looking for a job, it’s imperative that you keep a vibrant trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God.

But perhaps you’re thinking,

The “goodness and sovereignty of God”? Benjamin, I thought you were going to give me lots of juicy tips for finding a job in Christian ministry. Now you’re going all Mr. Systematic Theologian on me. Where’s the practical stuff?

Here’s the deal: there will likely be low moments during the job search and hiring process, very low moments. There were for me. To make it through these moments, you’re going to have to commit yourself now, before the low moments, to the belief that God is good and he is in control.

Consider what you’ll do if a church you really like, maybe even the one that you think could be the perfect fit, says, “No thanks.”

What are you going to do?

And consider what you will do if this same church does something worse; what if they say nothing at all—silence. No returned calls, emails, letters—either because they lost your resume or because they were not considerate enough to close the loop.

Or maybe, at some point, you’ll realize that you have to take “that list”—you know, the list you made of the details about your dream job in your dream city with your dream church—and you’ll find yourself throwing it in the trash. You’ll throw it away because the job search has become so difficult and the rejections so frequent that you no longer care about finding your dream job; you just want a job.

Or maybe this will happen. Maybe you do get a job, even a good job, but when you move to the new city, your old house doesn’t sell—for another 18 months. Now all of your savings are gone and you’re not sure if you should sell your car. Then, to make things more difficult, the role you were promised at the new church doesn’t turn out to be exactly what you expected, or even what they expected.

I’m not making this list up. These things can happen. (They all happened to me!)

Yet God has his purposes for these times as well, even though it may feel like he’s trying to shake you, or even break you. As Tim Keller writes in his book Counterfeit Gods, “Sometimes God seems to be killing us when he’s actually saving us” (p. 20).

I think when we as Christians sing about the faithfulness of God (e.g. the classic hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” or a host of contemporary songs that major on this theme), what we are singing about are primarily two things:  the goodness and sovereignty of God.

God is good in that he never does evil or ultimate harm to his children. This is a wonderful thing, but if he were not also sovereign, his goodness wouldn’t be much help to us because he couldn’t act upon it; in other words, without sovereignty, God’s goodness would just be a platitude. But he is sovereign.

Sovereignty is having absolute control over everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future. God has this type of sovereignty. Scripture tells and shows us this.

We can see it in the overall narrative of the Bible, namely, the overarching story of a sovereign God acting in history—across all nations and generations—through the smallest of details that he governs (such as a fish swallowing a coin) as well as the largest of details (such as the geopolitics at work in the book of Jeremiah).

And we can see God’s sovereignty explicitly affirmed in Scripture in many verses. For example, consider just this one verse from 2 Chronicles: “O Lord, God of our fathers… you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you” (20:6).

It’s true that for some people, the goodness and sovereignty of God is primarily a thing of controversy. But I hope that before these doctrines are controversial to you, they are beautiful to you. Because it’s only a vibrant, gospel-empowered trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God that will sustain you in the low moments… and it’s also what will fill you with humble gratitude in high moments.

3. Speak to former employees.
Okay, after all this deep stuff on prayer and God’s sovereignty, let me end with something a little lighter.

You won’t always be able to, nor will you always want to, but it won’t hurt to ask the church (or organization) if you can speak to former employees.

And when you do speak to them, you might ask questions like these:

What were your favorite things about working at the church? Least favorite?
If you feel comfortable saying, what were the circumstances for your departure?
Would you work there again? Why or why not?

Also, if you know former employees are still in the area, you might want to know if they plan to still attend the church or not. This is especially helpful to ask of a former senior pastor. You’ll want to know if the guy who planted the church and pastored it for 25 years is still living down the street and showing up on Sundays in the front row. The shadow of this pastor’s leadership will be strong enough as is, and to have him still among the church could potentially be divisive.

And as you speak with a former employee, be as discerning as you can. Remember, he or she is likely a former employee—not a current employee—for a whole matrix of reasons including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If at any point the person is hesitant to answer specific questions, and you are unsure why, perhaps you could just say something like this: “If you were me, what questions should I be asking the church before I committed to them?” This allows the former employee to offer suggestions of things you can pursue together without the former employee having to spell out all the issues.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Stay tuned for 12 more tips. Oh, and be sure to leave me a comment below if you have a tip that you think should be included.

[Photo by peasap / CC BY]

101 Questions a Pastoral Candidate Can Ask in the Hiring Process

One of the most important things a candidate can do during the hiring process is ask good questions—lots and lots of good questions. Asking questions allows candidates a better understanding of what they are getting into with a potential church, and it also shows the church that potential candidates are truly interested, that they are taking the job, and all of its entailments, seriously.

In fact, asking good questions might determine whether or not you get the job, or it might determine whether the job you finally get is the one you actually want. A pastor recently told me this was true for him—that one reason he did not get a job was, in part, because another candidate asked so many more questions than he did. Ultimately, it became clear that that particular church wouldn’t have been the right fit for him anyway; but, he explained how thankful he was that the church which didn’t hire him actually cared enough to give him this feedback since he was then able to learn and ask more questions in his next interview—the interview with the church at which he now pastors and has proven a great fit for him.

If you need some ideas to get started, below are 101 questions you can ask a local church. And if you are looking for a job in Christian ministry, but not one necessarily in a local church, they are questions, with a little modifying, which you might ask of a parachurch ministry, organizations like Fellowship of Christians Athletes, Young Life, or a local rescue mission.

Some of the questions I created from scratch, others I adapted, and still others have been asked of me by candidates as they looked for a job. I organized them by categories so that they are easier to use (e.g. General, Theology & Practice, Church Health & Planning, etc.). However, before I list them, here are a few things to keep in mind.

First, not every question is the right question for you to ask. Some won’t work at all, but others, with a slight tweak, can be fitted to your context (i.e. your particular church or organization; your particular role; your particular experience; etc.).

Second, and I hope this is obvious, the goal isn’t to ask every question. That would be painful—for both church and candidate. The goal, rather, is to pick a few that seem appropriate for that stage of the interview process (whether the beginning or middle or end), and to ask those. For example, early on you might ask questions such as, “What are some hobbies among the staff?” and “What are the expectations for a pastor’s spouse?” Then, later in the process, ask about putting the compensation package into writing. If you switch the order, at best you could seem cold and insensitive to the process. At worst, you might not make it to the next round of interviews where you could have asked the more difficult questions.

Finally, as you look at the list, also keep in mind that certain questions must be addressed to certain people. Some questions are better for the search committee, some for other staff members, some for people in the congregation, and others for the elders. For example, don’t ask the current staff if there are problems or if someone on staff needs to be terminated. (Please tell me you know not to do this!) However, if you’re a senior pastor, it is a question you might ask the elders near the end of the process.

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General

1.             Can you give me a 3-4 minute history of the church?

2.             How long have you been planning to fill this position?

3.             What are the circumstances that created the need for this role?

4.             What is the sequence and timeline of the hiring process?

5.             When do you expect to call references?

6.             When do you hope to have someone in place?

7.             How many candidates are still in the running?

8.             As I read the job description, I’m wondering how much time you expect to be allotted to the various items listed. Could you help me understand what a typical week might look like?

9.             If I am called to your church and it turns out to be a great fit, after a year or so, what sort of things would make you say, “Wow, this is a great fit”?

10.         What (if anything) made my resume, application stand out? Why do you think I will help this church?

11.         In what ways (if at all) do you think my age might affect my reception both in the church and among the leadership?

12.         May I have an unofficial visit to your church to see what things are like before the official interview/candidating weekend?

13.         Your website states ____________. What does that mean?

14.         How does a person move from “random attend-er” at your church, to member, and then to leader?

15.         If “exciting things” were happening at your church (and they likely are), what would they be?

16.         What are some of the hobbies of the other staff? What do you do for fun?

17.         May I have a copy of a recent newsletter? Church bulletin? Financial statement? Congregational meeting minutes?

18.         Does your church have a policy manual? May I have a copy?

19.         Please describe your worship style. What are some of the congregations favorite worship songs?

20.         How would you evaluate a successful worship service?

21.         What qualities did you appreciate about the person who had this role previously?

22.         In which ways are you similar to other churches in your community? In which ways are you different?

23.         Do people in the community, generally speaking, have a positive or negative view of your church?

24.         What ministries in your church seem to be most successful? Why?

25.         When did the most recent round of new members join?

26.         What do visitors often comment on?

27.         Who is responsible for putting together orders of service?

28.         Who is responsible for the website?

29.         Does your church have expectations for pastors regarding social media?

30.         This is hard to predict, but about how many weddings and funerals might this pastor be expected to officiate in the next year?

31.         What missionaries and parachurch organizations does your church support?

Theology & Practice

32.         What is the church government structure?

33.         Does the church have a statement of faith? How was it created? Is it ever re-worked? If so, what is the process?

34.         Does your church haven an official position on the end times? Or on God’s sovereignty and human responsibility? Or the charismatic spiritual gifts? The age of the earth? Alcohol? Divorce and remarriage?

35.         What is the church’s view of male and female roles?

36.         How is baptism practiced at your church (frequency, format, who leads, who can participate)?

37.         How is communion practiced at your church (frequency, format, who leads, who can participate)?

38.         Are you open to making changes to how baptism and communion are practiced?

39.         Let’s say I move there and my neighbor wants to check out our church. He is gay. What will his experience be like? Or what would you hope it to be?

40.         Does your church have a favorite Bible translation? Do you prefer one to preach from?

41.         How do you prefer to preach/teach the Bible: topically, book studies, another method?

42.         If a pastor at your church was asked to officiate a wedding, can you see him or her ever saying no? What circumstances might legitimately bring that about?

43.         What doctrines excite the leaders of your church? What doctrines do you prefer to avoid?

44.         How would you counsel a person who accepts Christ but remains in a sinful lifestyle?

45.         Are there particular authors and pastors that you admire? Who?

46.         What theological trends, broadly speaking, create concern among your church and leaders?

47.         How is church discipline practiced? Can you give me a few examples?

Church Health & Planning

48.         May I please have a copy of the annual budget and some information on monthly giving from the last year?

49.         How many attend your church each week?

50.         What is the total church membership vs. regular attendance?

51.         Do you have a small group ministry? If so, how many people are currently in small groups?

52.         If it was decided that more people could be reached for Christ by changing the name of the church, would you be open to that?

53.         Do you own your church building/property?

54.         What are the limiting factors to growth with respect to facilities (e.g., parking, sanctuary size, class rooms, other)?

55.         Is there adequate funding in the church budget for your leaders and staff to accomplish the tasks placed before them?

56.         Where do you see the Spirit of God working in your church?

57.         Have any former staff members left the ministry? May I contact them?

58.         Are there regular times of prayer among the staff?

59.         What mechanisms are in place to help the staff avoid burnout?

60.         What are the demographics of your church? How reflective are they of the local community?

61.         If your church continued to grow for the next 5 years, what changes would do you anticipate?

62.         In regard to ministry style, can you give an illustration of another church that you are trying to model this church after?

63.         What ways do you see teamwork taking place among the staff?

64.         In which areas would you say your church is “understaffed”?

65.         How long have the other employees worked here?

66.         Besides calling a pastor, what other items are top priorities in the next year?

67.         Has the interim period been healing? In what ways?

Leadership, Structure, & Conflict

68.         What has been the most controversial thing in your church during the last year?

69.         What issues have regularly caused friction in this church? Among staff? Among the elder board?

70.         Do you have weekly staff meetings? If so, what do they look like?

71.         What is your church polity? Are there elders, deacons, ministry leaders, etc.? How do they relate to each other?

72.         What is the relationship of a staff pastor to the elder board and congregation from the perspective of authority and structure? Does your church have an organizational chart? Is so, may I see it? If not, could you explain it to me?

73.         Is this church affiliated with a larger movement or denomination? If no, what are some means and methods to cultivate healthy, structural accountability?

74.         To what extent are the non-staff elders involved in the planning of sermons and sermon series?

75.         Can you recount a time of church conflict that resulted in a form of discipline?

76.         Have you had to let someone go in the last two years? If so, what were the circumstances?

77.         What current leaders in your church, staff or non-staff, are considered indispensable? Why?

78.         What happened to the previous pastor or staff person in this role? What were the circumstances for their departure? May I contact them? What are they doing now?

79.         How many previous staff members have been terminated? What were the circumstances for their departure?

80.         If you could go back and change how a situation was handled in the last year, what would it be and why? What would you do differently?

81.         Are there issues among the current staff that once the new hire arrives, will need to be addressed? Or are there even staff members that will need to be (potentially) terminated by the new hire?

82.         How is the annual budget prepared and approved? Who is responsible for keeping spending in line with the budget?

Family

83.         What are the expectations for my spouse?

84.         What roles do the spouses of other staff at the church play?

85.         What are the expectations for my children?

86.         How many nights a week do you expect the person who is hired to be away from home?

87.         If my children were to attend a youth group at a neighboring church, would that be a problem?

88.         If I had a Christmas party (with neighbors, friends, church people) and alcohol was served, would that be an issue?

89.         Among families with children, is there a particular mode of education most common (public school, home school, private school, Christian school)? Is it an expectation?

90.         Is there a certain proximity to the church that, though unspoken and unwritten, the pastor should live?

Money & Job Performance Reviews

91.         Do you do performance reviews at the end of each year? If so, what do they look like?

92.         Can you please write up the salary package (including things like salary; health, life, and disability insurance; 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; etc.)?

93.         Is there a church parsonage? If so, and if the candidate desired not to use it, would compensations be adjusted accordingly?

94.         If in 3 years I felt called to pursue an advanced educational degree (perhaps an MDiv or DMin or something else), how would that be received? What support, if any, could I expect from the church?

95.       Does your church have a sabbatical policy? If so, what is it? If not, would you be open to creating one?

96.       Does the congregation have a policy of reviewing the pastor’s salary package each year?

97.         How will success be measured, formally or informally? And by whom? And how often?

98.         If I have to move to take this position, what, if any, moving costs are covered?

99.         What are the time expectations in the areas of preaching/teaching, counseling, visitation, office hours?

100.      Is there any allowance for a pastor preaching/teaching “away,” whether at another church, a conference, a seminary, or somewhere else? If so, what support might a pastor receive for this (e.g., help with travel expenses, time to work on the messages)?

101.      The question of who “owns” the material produced by pastors (sermons, curriculum, etc.), is a complex issue. Some feel it belongs to the pastor because he or she is technically self-employed (per tax code). Others feel that the church owns everything in the same way that when a business hires a consultant, at the end of the day, the business owns the work produced by the consultant. Have you thought about this before? Do you have an opinion about this? Would you be open to a discussion about it?

[Photo by Bernal Saborio / CC BY]

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RELATED POSTS

13 Tips for Pastoral Candidates in the Initial Hiring Process, Part II of II

[This Part II of II; for Part I, click here]

Getting a job in Christian ministry is difficult and time-consuming. This is true whether you are applying for a job at a church doing a large, national search or whether you are applying for a job through your network of friends and ministry contacts, and thus competing against a much smaller pool of candidates (or no other candidates at all). Regardless, it’s hard work. But if you are serious about finding the right job, here are a few more tips to help you during the initial phase of the hiring process. (For “tips” 1-6, click here.)

7. Only send PDFs (not Microsoft Word documents).
Never send your information in Microsoft Word documents (or the Mac equivalent). You can’t control how it will look on another person’s computer screen. You can, however, control how a PDF looks. When I’ve been on search committees, every time I’ve looked at a resume with messed up formatting, it’s proved a distraction. Look, if you spend time getting the formatting perfect, especially on the resume—which typically has difficult spacing—don’t assume the person getting your email has the same version of Word. Rather, send it as a PDF to protect your hard work. If you do not know how to save as a PDF, Google it or ask someone for help. Don’t be lazy with this. It’s important.

8. Only send one attachment.
If you’ve paid close attention so far, then you realize that you’ll be sending several documents—a cover letter, resume, bio with picture(s), references, and possibly even a recommendations. That’s a bunch of documents.

However, do not send an email with a bunch of attachments! Multiple attachments are the pits, especially for the person who is receiving these emails. And there’s a good chance he or she could accidentally not print one of them or not staple or paperclip them together. As I said above, your one attachment should be a PDF.

But you might be asking, “What if each of the documents is in a different Word document—how do I make them one PDF?” This is not a problem. Save each as a PDF and then merge them into one PDF. If you don’t own a program that can do this, you can use one for free here.

9. Send from your personal email account.
Whatever you do, do not send all of this information through the mechanism provided by some job-search websites, such as ChurchStaffing.com, even if that feels like an easy button to press. As a candidate you might not realize this, but when you send your info in this way the final product looks lousy. Instead, try to look up the church’s website to see if the job is posted there. If so, follow those instructions on who to email. Related to this, don’t have a cheesy email address. For example, don’t haveIAmSoOnFireForJesus@aol.com. And I’d suggest not using your student or current work email, as well. This is true for multiple reasons, but mainly because people might try to contact you after you have left your current school or employer but won’t be able to. Therefore, what you want is an email that will stay with you after you leave. If you don’t have an email like this, just create one at Gmail with your first and last name.

10. If you are in a different country, work extra hard. Don’t take this the wrong way, but when my previous church hired people, we posted the jobs on all of the major websites and our favorite seminaries. And each time we received a dozen or more resumes from people out of the country, and almost every time, what these people sent looked sketchy. I have no idea if the people applying were actually sketchy or not—but it was difficult to tell.

If you are applying for a job not in your own country, please know that you have a massive hurdle to overcome, even if only from a financial standpoint on the church that hires you (i.e. it will cost more to fly you in for the interview and to move you). That’s not to say you won’t have much to offer. In fact, you probably do, especially by way of perspective.

Here are a few tips to overcoming this hurdle. First, have someone from the country you are trying to move to look over your material before you send it. Second, if you have references in the country you are trying to move to, put them down. And if you have worked in that country before, or have education there, highlight that as well.

11. Make the follow-up phone call.
If you like the job, after you send your email, call the church to tell them. In fact, I’m tempted to say you should call even if the paper says “don’t call.” I say this because you want to stand out. The search team could be reading two hundred packets and when they come to yours, you want them to have heard from someone, maybe the church secretary, “Hey, this guy called a few days ago and sounded really nice.”

When you make the call, don’t do what I did once. I was so excited about the job, so excited to tell the search team or the receptionist or the pastor or whoever answered the phone that, when someone did, I rambled and mumbled and paused awkwardly because I hadn’t thought through what to say beforehand. Don’t do this. I ended up getting that job, but afterwards, they had a good laugh with me (or was it at me) about it. Here’s what you want to do: know what you are going to say on the call and then keep it short and sweet. You are just saying a quick hello to let them know how interested you are and what specifically attracted you about the job and church. If you want, you might even ask a question, such as “Why do you love your church so much?”

12. Stay positive regarding previous job transitions.
When writing or speaking about previous transitions, keep them positive. I’m not saying you should lie. Don’t do that. If the church is any good, when the time comes they will ask for more details. What I am talking about is in the initial stages choose to stress the positive reasons that you are looking for a job. For example, if part of why you are leaving your current church is because there was a change in the senior leadership and you no longer fit in as well, don’t go into all of that on your cover letter. Anytime there is a transition, we all assume—or should assume—there were reasons. It won’t help anyone involved if you complain about it, especially in the initial contact.

13. Be intentional on your social media, blog, and website.
Finally, as soon as you begin to contemplate a transition, only post content online with this potential transition in mind. As soon as anyone takes you seriously as a candidate, they will Google you, and when they do, they will follow the online breadcrumbs to your social media, and if you have them, your blog and website.

Think about this every time you post something. If you are inclined to post to Facebook pictures of the steak dinner that you are about eat, that’s probably fine. But if you are given to posting links about your love for the Tea Party or, on the other end, how awesome Keith Olbermann is, scale it back. And if you tend to re-tweet people with theological differences than you in order to mock them, don’t. I follow a guy on Twitter who does this, and I enjoy it. He’s good at it, but he’s in a role where it makes sense. You’re probably not.

The general principle is this: anything that you don’t want a search committee to see, don’t post. Remember, the search team doesn’t get your inside jokes. They weren’t there that one time when… Responsible online participation should be true all of the time, simply because you are a Christian, especially a Christian pursuing full-time ministry, but it’s worth the reminder when looking for a job.

[Part II of II; for Part I, click here]

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13 Tips for Pastoral Candidates in the Initial Hiring Process, Part I of II

People often say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. While that’s true, it’s also true that in many job searches, if you don’t make a good first impression, you’ll never even get a chance to make a second.

With this in mind, when I was looking for my first pastoral job, I knew the initial contact would be important. However, I wasn’t ready for what I experienced.

After I sent my resume and cover letter 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 11 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 pastoral-search committees), that the size of those searches is on the high-end. But they are not unheard of, especially for the large church that puts a well-crafted job description on major websites, such as ChurchStaffing.com.

Below are 13 tips to help candidates differentiate themselves from the dozens—and maybe hundreds—of other candidates in the early stages of a pastoral job search.

1. Always include a short, cover letter.
Include a cover letter with each submission. Much of your cover letter can be boilerplate (this is who I am; this is where I worked; this is where I went to school; this is where you can listen to my sermons; this is what I’m passionate about and why you should hire me; blah, blah, blah). But, you should definitely tailor at least one paragraph to demonstrate two things: first, that you actually read the job description, and second, why you think you would be a good fit. To do this, make sure you spend time on the church’s website. Perhaps you can even comment on something on their church calendar, or some connection you have to their particular city or state, if you have one. But don’t get wordy; your cover letters should be short—certainly less than one page.

2. Choose the right resume style for you.
There are two basic approaches to the resume: the traditional, business style or a skill-based style. In the traditional style, you state “I worked here and did X, Y, Z; and then I worked here and did X, Y, Z.” This style will appeal to those on the search team who are in the business world and accustomed to these types of resumes.

The other approach is a skill-based resume. In this approach, you highlight three or four skills that you have (say preaching, administration, and leading short-term missions), and then you explain when and where you’ve used them. It’s not a rule, but people that work in a church tend to like this style; it helps them quickly see your strengths. Additionally, the skill-based style resume helps a candidate highlight his skills even if he has had minimal church ministry experience, and/or developed his skills in non-ministry jobs, such as education or engineering. One other thing to think about: as with the cover letter, tailor the verbiage on your resume to the specific job description you are applying for—but of course, do this only within the bounds of integrity.

3. With audio and video samples, suggest a few of the best but give them several.
If you are a preaching pastor, pick your best two sermons and tell people where they can listen to them online. If you are fortunate enough to have your sermons available on video, pick your favorite two-minute clip and post it somewhere online like Vimeo(not YouTube, which tends to be cluttered). As I said, churches often receive more inquiries than they want, and a solid two-minute clip is all they need at the start of the process. You can always give them more later. But keep this in mind: if the only video footage you have is lame, don’t show it to people. Video of you preaching in a seminary classroom, if it’s anything like mine was, definitely falls under this category. In this case, just give links to audio.

Speaking of audio, early in the hiring process, only give your best sermon or two. Later, if you’re a preaching pastor, encourage the search team to listen to at least a dozen sermons, a dozen sermons that you don’t hand pick. For their sake—and for yours—a diet of your typical preaching should be sampled. Sure, we all have that one great sermon, that one we’d preach at conferences (if we ever got asked), but such sermons aren’t reflective of our norms, and hiring expectations need to be grounded in the typical, not the exceptional.

But what if I don’t have sermon audio? This is common for seminary grads, but there are easy ways to avoid it. When you do preach (in your own church or as a guest in other churches) make sure you get a recording. If you preach at a country church that doesn’t record, as I did for a few months in seminary, you’ll have to do it on your own. You can use your iPhone, or if you want to improve the quality, without spending much money, I’d suggest an entry-level handheld digital recorder such as the Samson Zoom H1.

If you’re a worship leader, what I said of video and audio applies to you as well; except, at some point, you’ll very likely have to find a way to show video. Thus, if you don’t have this already, find a way to get it even if it means recruiting some friends with the necessary skills and equipment, even if this means “leading worship” when no one is in the sanctuary. Be careful, however, as this will be dicey if your potential transition is not public knowledge. In another post I’ll say more about when and who to tell about a transition. For now, suffice it to say this: tell your senior leadership early and certainly before the transition is public. The point to make here is to say that when preparing some early documents to give to churches, you don’t want the senior pastor walking in the sanctuary after youth group only to ask why you are making a music video! Awkward.

4. Include high-quality pictures and a family bio.
You should include pictures of yourself, and if you are married, pictures of your family. Generally speaking, in the business world you don’t want to do this (and it’s often not even allowed), but ministry is different. In fact, because ministry is about relationships and knowing one another, I’m tempted to say it’s wrong to not have a picture, though you are free to disagree. Be careful not to overdo it, though. You don’t want lots of pictures, one or two professional photographs should suffice.

You may be asking, “Where do I put these pictures? In the email? On the cover letter? Where?” Good questions. Here’s what you do. Write a short bio sketch of your family and put the picture at the top of the page. The writing should be informal and conversational. Look at it this way, it’s another chance to display your writing and people skills.

5. Select quality and diverse references.
It’s common for candidates to write that references are “available upon request.” I understand why people do this; either they don’t want to overwhelm churches with lots of paper, or they want to wait until the job search has progressed before they gather this info. However, I say provide them right away. It shows you have nothing to hide, and if you are serious about the job, you’ll have to provide them at some point anyway.

I would suggest picking a diverse group of three to four references. You don’t want them to all be from the same place. For example, you might choose a seminary professor, a former pastor, someone in your congregation that works in the business world, and the parent of a child in your youth group. If you are brave, you might even include a non-Christian who knows you well. This—in fact—is a requirement for pastors since Paul tells us we must “be well thought of by outsiders [to the church]” (1 Timothy 3:7).

In addition to your references’ contact information, make sure you include a short sentence about your relationship to each person. For example, “Tom has been my neighbor for the last ten years. He’s not a Christian, but we are good friends and have had many conversations about the gospel. He has also visited my church several times.” Or, “Steve is the worship pastor at our church. We work closely together, and our families are dear friends.”

And this leads to my last point, namely, as the process moves forwards, it is appropriate to give your references a heads up that they may be getting a call soon.

6. Use simple, professional formatting.
Simple, professional formatting is essential if you’re going be taken seriously. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at resumes with goofy margins or fonts. Make sure to keep all the fonts consistent. The resume, the cover letter, the family bio, and the references should all have the same font. This feels silly to say, but trust me, it matters.

My preference is to use serif fonts, that is, fonts with the little lines on the edges of most letters (in contrast to the font in this blog post, which is a sans-serif font). Serif fonts, like Times New Roman or Garamond, while bland, look more professional. Also, even among serif fonts, don’t get cute. Choose a simple, standard one. If you choose to use a weird, artsy font, you’ll definitely stand out, just not in a good way.

[Part I of II; tips 7-13 here]

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