Last weekend I had the opportunity to speak at the Nevada Baptist Convention’s Equip Conference. Kudos to state leadership Damian Cirincione and Bradley Linkins for orchestrating this conference. The conference was intensely practical and successful by all accounts.
Ministry practitioners from Nevada and across the United States gathered to equip local church volunteers serving in different facets of church ministry. The focus of my breakout session was to speak on the mistakes churches make in the search for their next pastor or staff member. The below are just a few reflections from that session for those churches entering that process now or in the future.
The search process for a Pastor or ministry staff member is often fraught with missteps and anxiety. Search Teams find themselves in the difficult position of finding the next person God has for their church without a clear sense of where to begin and what direction to proceed. This lack of understanding often leads to mistakes being made in the search.
God has shown He is capable of using flawed people and processes to find the right answer. And yet, 1 Corinthians 14:40 demonstrates there is still the biblical call to do everything in good order. Further, both the church and the candidate would want to exercise Matthew 7:12’s “Golden Rule” in their relations with each other.
Consider this truth: In most settings, Pastors and their families are the only people asked to join a church after worshiping with them one time. While there is certainly the sense that developing a future leader from within would be beneficial, the reality is this is not the case in most Southern Baptist churches. Lead Pastors are often found outside of the church and the process for finding them can take many twists and turns. Those twists and turns can lead to mistakes, and its those mistakes I’ve outlined below:
#10 Mistake: Having an Unrealistic Timeline
The general rule of thumb is one month of search for every year the previous pastor served. Of course, this rule operates on a curve. A forty year pastorate does not guarantee a forty-month search. Yet, experientially, churches often underestimate how long it will take them to find a candidate. This staffing situation is unlike anything typical in a corporate setting.
#9 Mistake: Starting with an Unclear and Poor Process
Many who serve on search teams are unaware of exactly how to go about the process of finding their next pastor. There is the temptation to launch right into soliciting resumes from an advertisement in the state baptist paper. There is the temptation to view this process through an overly secular lens.
After beginning in prayer, the team must outline the process for finding their next pastor. Who will serve as the chairperson, vice-chair, and secretary for the team? In what order will the search proceed and how frequently will the team meet? All of these questions and more must be answered. Oftentimes, this will be done in consultation with the outgoing pastor, a convention or associational staff member, a transitional pastor, or a trusted local church pastor.
Make wise decisions about who you invite to speak into your search process. Not all consultation is wise, neutral, or aware of your unique church culture.
#8 Mistake: Communicating Poorly
When the search team enters the candidate’s life, the candidate and his family are now riding an emotional roller coaster. Perhaps they were seeking out this opportunity. Perhaps it just found them. But there is an emotional upheaval once the process begins. With that said, great care has to be taken to communicate well.
The process of interacting with a candidate is more dating than job search. You are trying to discern if they are God’s man for you and they are trying to discern if your church is right for them. A failure to communicate regularly with the candidate will almost always lead to a failed search. After all, who would continue to seek out a prospective suitor if they didn’t return your calls or emails?
As a rule of thumb, your chairperson should be the lone individual communicating with them. Which means that your chairperson not only needs to be a person who can lead your team meetings, but he or she needs to have a high-social IQ. After all, the candidate will assume the best (or the worst) of your church based upon their interactions with the chairperson.
Further, the team needs to communicate with the church! Seek the church out to understand their sense of the needs for the position as well as their understanding of the process. Keeping the body informed of your process will often prevent misunderstandings and quell anxiousness.
#7 Mistake: Poor Self-Assessment
Churches are often the worst at fairly assessing their current condition. They often view their physical, spiritual, and financial health through rose colored glasses. And while we all want to be proud of our church, we need to see things as they are, not as we remember them in their glory days.
As a candidate, I’ll ask the church to produce their constitution and bylaws, along with a budget vs. actual financial statement. If I need to drill down deeper, I’ll ask the church to produce their Annual Church Profile (ACP) from the last 10 years. The numbers don’t lie, and those documents will give me a great sense of the church’s health.
Unfortunately, a poor self assessment of the church’s condition will often lead to a misinformed idea of the type of candidate they need.
#6 Mistake: The Pendulum Effect
Given a poor assessment of their own condition, churches will choose a pastor to remedy a perceived problem instead of an actual problem. They will choose a candidate to “offset” the perceived weaknesses of their previous pastor. This is the pendulum effect.
Each church has a DNA. And while the previous pastor may have had issues, the church need not overreact. If the previous pastor’s ministry was unsuccessful or the church has been struggling in his waining years, you may need to go a very different direction; to swing the pendulum. But, if the previous pastor’s ministry was largely successful, and the church is in relatively good health, then DON’T pick a candidate radically different from him! If he had a strong pulpit presence and believed in on campus groups–and it was successful–pick someone with that same methodology. In that situation, the last thing you want to do is pick a candidate who’s an average preacher and an off-campus group advocate. In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
The church needs to create a candidate profile BEFORE they begin soliciting resumes. Not an overly specific checklist, but a rubric of what is important and in what order. And in creating this profile, prioritize character over gifting. Look to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 for the scripture’s profile. Once you begin looking at resumes and listening to sermons, the process becomes emotional. Build the profile before it becomes emotional.
#5 Mistake: Unfair Compensation Packages
Churches are often guilty of forgetting 1 Timothy 5:17 and the biblical truth that a worker is worthy of his wages, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. And while 1 Timothy 3:3 makes it clear that the Elder should not be greedy, there is no reason to equate that verse to mean that a pastor should be poor.
Some churches take pride in keeping their pastor humble by keeping him poor. Churches want a unicorn candidate who is 35 years old with 10 years of ministry experience, a doctorate in hand, a loving wife who plays the piano and 2.2 kids. They want a candidate of value, but they don’t want to compensate him commensurate with his value.
Pay your pastor as well as you can!
Here are some things to consider in your compensation packages:
- Base Pay + Housing: Take into account the mean salary of your church members, coupled with the pastor’s family obligations, education, and experience.
- Insurance: Health, Life, AD & D, Dental, Vision (For whole family)
- Social Security Offset: Your pastor is required to pay both halves of the social security. Help him by picking up the half a normal employer would.
- Cell Phone Reimbursement: He’ll spend most of his time talking to the church members or conducting church business. Help offset these costs.
- Conference Expenses: If you expect him to represent you at the Southern Baptist or State Conventions, then provide for his expenses to do so. And consider additional help to provide him and his wife with a Refresh Retreat sponsored by the North American Mission Board.
- Hospitality Expenses: Your pastor will host members and prospective members for coffee and lunches. Consider an allowance in your budget to help him defray those costs.
- Book Allowance: At a minimum, this will help your pastor defray the cost of purchasing commentaries for his preaching.
- Tech Allowance: There is the periodic need to have a laptop or iPad in the course of his duties. Perhaps the need to upgrade their Logos bible software. This tech allowance provides for those types of needs.
- Retirement: Guidestone offers ministers a variety of retirement investments. Consider contributing towards your Pastor’s retirement and/or matching his personal retirement contributions.
- Vehicle Use or Mileage Reimbursement: Your pastor will travel extensively on behalf of the church. Consider providing him with a vehicle to accommodate those travels or reimbursing him for his mileage.
- Theological Education Assistance: If a church desires their pastor to continue to grow academically, then they should be a part of helping in that endeavor.
To Pastor Candidates, the Lord will never call you to a place where you cannot provide for your family. Where God guides, He provides. There is no promise that ministry will ever bring wealth, but you and your family should not lack for your daily bread and normal needs.
#4 Mistake: Not Asking Hard Questions
As a member of a search team, you represent the larger body in finding their next pastor. It is incumbent upon you to exercise your due diligence in the hiring process. Unfortunately, many churches don’t take the necessary care in this process.
There is a failure to check the accuracy of the resume.
There is a failure to do credit and background checks.
There is a failure to check the references.
There is a failure to check the references provided by the references.
But beyond the normal things expected of any human resources hiring process, there is also a failure to ask the difficult questions. There is a failure to ask the right theological, methodological, and chemistry questions upfront. Further, many don’t look at the candidate’s social media history to determine any red flags in doctrine or character.
To the search teams, questions go both ways. And a search team needs to be prepared to answer those difficult questions. Any candidate worth his salt is going to ask good questions and attempt to understand the church he is possibly going to covenant with. In the same way you will be asking invasive questions to determine his suitability, you should expect the same from him.
Here are some possible questions you may expect to get:
- Has there ever been a church split? What were the issues involved?
- What has been the biggest conflict in the church in the past 5, 10, 20 years?
- What is the biggest conflict in the history of the church?
- In your opinion, what was the best quality about the former pastor? What was the worst quality about the former pastor?
- Why did your previous pastor leave? How long did he serve the church?
- Over the last 30 years of the church how long is the pastors average tenure?
- What do you think he would say was the biggest difficulty in pastoring this church?
These are just some of the questions a worthy candidate will ask of his search team.
#3 Mistake: Ignoring Red Flags
As you look at resumes, examine their social media accounts, and listen to their sermons it is very possible you will come across red flags. DON’T ignore them. God has given you a conscience and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Trust God’s leading in this process.
A Red flag is not an automatic disqualifier, but it should not be ignored. Dig into that area of concern with well asked questions and transparent discussion. Consider how they respond to the questions asked in both honesty and temperament. Perhaps there are extenuating circumstances that offer a reasonable explanation to your concern. Or perhaps there is a character issue that disqualifies the candidate. But in either case, don’t ignore the red flags.
#2 Mistake: Neglecting Prayer
Churches and search teams are often guilty of launching into the search process without bathing it in prayer. The beginning, middle, and end of the process should be prayerful. And not simply the cursory prayers to open the meeting, but a deep and purposeful plea to the Lord to aid in the process and in finding the right person.
Trust the promise of Philippians 4:6 and “Pray about everything.” The Lord will help you to find the right candidate even with an imperfect team and imperfect process.
#1 Mistake: Choosing the Wrong Team
Oftentimes search teams are selected like political campaign tickets: on the basis of their influence within different spheres of the church.
Some old and some young.
Some long time members and some new members.
Some power brokers and some “Yes” men.
All with the purposes of representing the desires of their various constituencies in the candidate selection process. And all with the purposes of going back to their various constituencies and influencing them for the final approval at the church vote.
To which I say, is this a church or a political campaign? Are we trusting in the Lord or leaning on our own understanding? The promise is that trusting in the Lord leads to him making your path straight.
Arguments can–and have been made–for congregationalism expressed in both a single or plural elder models. To say, single elder is to mean a model which often functions with a staff of associate pastors, ministers, and directors. A model which utilizes ministry teams for church governance, to include a search team for pastoral searches. And while my purpose is not to rehash the existing arguments, let me submit to you that there is goodness in having a plurality of elders who lead the church.
To say plurality is not necessarily to imply parity. The person who has the primary preaching duties on Sunday will always emerge as the first among equals. Yet, there is reason to believe that a plurality of elders is the normative pattern in the New Testament. Further, there are many practical benefits to having an eldership. And in the context of this post, there is a goodness in having your Elders function as the church’s search team.
There’s an old adage: It takes one to know one. One who is already making disciples, exhibiting the ability to teach, and is living a life above reproach will know a peer when he sees one. The downfall to having a congregationally sourced search team is there is often the occasion to have a person on the team who doesn’t meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 evaluating a candidate who needs to have those qualifications. From the candidates perspective, “Who wants to be evaluated by people who don’t meet the qualifications they are asking you to meet?” If an elder is above reproach, he is in a better position to evaluate a prospective elder.
Further, an eldership will already be read into the physical, spiritual, and financial affairs of the church and be able to answer the candidate’s questions with accuracy and honesty. Additionally, true elders will have the ability to bear the teaching and preaching load during the season of interim. This gives the church a greater flexibility in conducting the search and in determining if interim or supply preaching is even necessary.
The church body should have the FINAL say on their future pastor. But that doesn’t mean it has to have the FIRST say. Allow your elders to conduct the search process and present to the body a candidate worthy to be a peer among them.
*Photo by Clem Onojeghuo
Adam Mallette is the Lead Teaching Pastor at King’s Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is married to Heather and a father of four. Adam is currently a Doctor in Philosophy (ABD) student in Pastoral Ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a former commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps. More can be found at kingschurchlv.com.
Adam Mallette 