Book Giveaway 2 of 5: Don’t Just Send a Resume

I’ve written a blog post nearly every week for the last six years. During that same time, I’ve also written dozens of guest posts for various websites and even a few books. And I love this. It’s not a chore. Most of the time, writing feels like eating ice cream and running downhill.

But after six years, I’m getting tired. I need a small break.

You can watch the short video below for a better introduction, but as a way to get some rest while at the same time show appreciation to my blog readers, I’m giving away physical copies of all the books I’ve written. (If you watched the last video, the first 2:22 is the same; just skip ahead to hear about this week’s book.) For five weeks this summer, I’m giving away five paperback copies of each of the five books that I’ve written. Each week I’ll giveaway a different book.

The only thing you need to do to get a paperback book is sign up for my blog (here) and reply to the welcome email to send me your address. If you are already subscribed to my blog, please share this post with a friend who might like to subscribe and get a paperback book.

This week I’m giving away copies of Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church. In the last 15 years, many books have been written to help a church navigate the job-search process. But only one book—this book—has been written to help pastors. I’m thankful that in the last few weeks the book has been featured by 9Marks, The Gospel Coalition, and Tim Challies (Kindle Deals, Aug. 17).

Don’t Just Send a Resume features short contributions by 12 published authors and ministry leaders, including: 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.

Fine Print:

1. You must subscribe to my email list (here).

2. You must be a new subscriber.

3. You must reply to the “welcome” email with your address.

4. You must have an address in the United States (sorry of you live elsewhere!)

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.

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.  

*    *    * 

Buy on Amazon

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.

Buy on Amazon

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!

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

*     *    *

“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

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

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.

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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.”

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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.

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.

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]