One In Jesus

6. Talk to the elders at length. I’d think you’d need at least four hours talking with the elders to really come to understand them. Maybe more. If they won’t give you that much time, look elsewhere.

Ask them about their vision for the church, about their prayer lives, about their Bible study, about their understanding of the role of elders, about their relationship with the staff, how much time they spend on church matters. That is, ask them the same kind of really hard questions they asked you. Continue reading →

I’ve never been in fulltime ministry. For that matter, I’ve not searched for a job since, well, ever.

I practice for a law firm that’s a successor to a firm I clerked for while in law school.

So I’m hardly an expert on how a minister (or anyone else) should go about searching for a job. But I’ve been involved in many, many minister searches. I know something about that process, and so maybe these few observations will be of help, even though surely very incomplete. Continue reading →

22. Don’t shut down; don’t try to do too much. You can’t install a new church vision during a preacher search. You really shouldn’t ordain new elders during a search. After all, the new preacher will want to have met and be very, very comfortable with the new elders. You can’t do that and be in the midst of an ordination process.

But don’t stop doing church. Send short-term missions off. Institute new mission efforts. Have energetic campaigns for the new adult ed program. Give the sense that things are happening — because they really are. Continue reading →

20. The search committee. I have mixed feelings about search committees. I’ve had good and bad luck with and without one. I’ve been on search committees, and I’ve been part of an eldership that hired without one. I’ve had great successes and great failures both ways.

My misgivings derive from the unique relationship a preacher should have with his elders. The search process is kind of like this — Continue reading →

The Christian Chronicle has published a helpful list of addresses of churches active in the relief effort.

Note:

Right now, one of the least effective things you can do to help Oklahoma tornado victims is load up your car with tools and bottled water and head toward the city of Moore.

As police continue search and rescue operations in Moore, just south of Oklahoma City, they are turning away people trying to get into the area to assist, church members report. At least one relief team from a Church of Christ was turned away early today. Instead, the volunteers are working on relief efforts for other parts of the state hit by recent tornadoes — including Shawnee, Luther and Edmond.

16. Check references. It’s a pain and often complicated. If the preacher has a job, he will be reluctant for you to talk to his current elders.

However, we’ve sometimes had preachers offer to let us call a particular elder — usually the chairman or an elder charged with working especially closely with the minister. The preacher lets the elder know he’ll be called, and then the search committee or elders can call for a recommendation.

Sometimes those who make recommendations lie. In fact, church people routinely lie to help a beloved former employee get a job. Evidently, it’s the Christian thing to do.

Yep, in the Churches of Christ, elders and fellow ministers routinely bear false witness to help a beloved friend or former member get a job. Continue reading →

10. Don’t prepare a job description so much as a person description. Job descriptions are canned, boring, and unhelpful, in my experience. You aren’t hiring someone to do a job. You’re hiring someone to be in close, long-term relationship with your church.

You wouldn’t write a job description for your future wife, would you? No, what we men all do is imagine what attributes she’d have — her passion for God, her sense of humor, all sort of things. Continue reading →