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When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search

Moody Publishers

Contents

Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................9Introduction................................................................................................................131. With Your Back to the Red Sea............................................................................................212. Lessons from the Bereans.................................................................................................333. Unity Requires a Center..................................................................................................434. More Lessons from the Bereans............................................................................................555. Look for a Shepherd......................................................................................................696. The Recipe for a Biblical Meal "Done Just Right".........................................................................837. Watch More Than Just the Splash I........................................................................................978. Watch More Than Just the Splash II.......................................................................................1099. Watch More Than Just the Splash III......................................................................................11910. Principles for Interviewing.............................................................................................13511. Suggested Interview Questions...........................................................................................149Conclusion: Not in Our Strength.............................................................................................167Frequently Asked Questions..................................................................................................17l1. What are common mistakes that churches make looking for a pastor?........................................................1722. How large should the pastoral search committee be?.......................................................................1763. Should the church pay the candidate's expenses when we do an interview?..................................................1774. We have a number of experienced people in our church; can we do the search without any outside help?.....................1775. Where will we find names or contacts?....................................................................................1796. Should pastoral search committees move forward only if they are unanimous?...............................................1797. Biblically, what should we keep in mind when putting together a compensation package?....................................1798. What areas should be included in the compensation package?...............................................................1809. How much vacation time should a compensation package include?............................................................18110. Is preaching really that important?.....................................................................................182Recommended Reading.........................................................................................................185

Chapter One

Of the two situations that follow, which do you think would be the more difficult prospect for leaders in these two situations? Although you know how one of the two ended, pretend that you don't. Which presents a tougher challenge?

Situation #1: You are Moses leading Israel, and you face a furious Pharaoh and his mighty army. (If you are sketchy on the details of that account, you can read it in Exodus 14.) Pharaoh is unpredictable and has anger management problems. Many of the soldiers are driven by the fury of vengeance for their recently slam firstborn sons. To top it all off, your only escape route is blocked by a very large body of water—the Red Sea.

Situation #2: You are part of a church looking for a pastor. Perhaps you're an elder or part of the pastoral search committee. Or, maybe you are a member of the church. You need to find God's man for your church. This requires identifying a candidate, getting the pastoral search committee to agree, and garnering your church's overwhelming support of the decision. It probably will also require your candidate to leave a church and community where he has built deep ties with people he loves.

So, which is tougher? What do you think?

The goal in this chapter is to persuade you that the search for a new pastor truly is more difficult. A church looking for a pastor faces a more difficult task than Moses and the Israelites faced—at least in one crucial regard.

Of course, you could argue it the other way. After all, with the Egyptians there was potential for fatal violence. Hopefully you won't face that threat with your pastoral search. Certainly, my point is not to minimize God's character and work as evidenced by the Red Sea miracle. As a general principle in antiquity, a large multitude backed up by a powerful army against a body of water didn't have a great future. It is no small thing that God protected and provided for His people in this way.

The Committed Committee

Yet even as we recognize the difficulty of Moses' situation, if we think about it, we'd probably agree that, humanly speaking, the job of calling the right pastor is impossible. To begin with, leaders in your local church face a major time commitment when they say yes to being on a search committee. Many pastoral search committees meet on a weekly basis. Even those search committees that meet less frequently will find their time constrained as they continue with everyday tasks—getting kids to soccer practice, doing household chores, mowing the lawn, and whatever other obligations they already have. For committee members to be able to surrender the necessary hours amid so many demands in life, their hearts will need supernatural softening and strengthening.

Once you've dealt with the scheduling hurdle, your pastoral search committee and/or elders will need to agree about which resources to consult, from where to recruit, what the search priorities are, and most obviously, which candidate to pursue. Coming to an agreement on these sorts of things isn't always easy—even for a small group. Finally your search brings the committee to a pastoral candidate, which will necessitate that dozens or hundreds or, depending on the size of)'our church, even thousands agree that this candidate is the right choice—even though we know that getting a church to come to a consensus is like herding cats.

The Committed Candidate

The pastoral search process is also difficult because it requires a major commitment and faith by the pastor candidate and his family. Most likely, you will be asking your next pastor and his family to leave a place where their hearts are knit together with people. I think about what that would be like for my family right now to go to a different church. We love our church and community. Three of our four children are teenagers, and humanly speaking, it seems impossible to think of moving them at this point in time. If...