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.

Therefore, you’ll want to talk to people not on the reference list. You have to be careful not to embarrass him with his home church, but be as careful and thorough as possible without violating a confidence.

17. Let those you’ve eliminated know quickly. Elders are often very relational people. They hate to give bad news, and so they procrastinate in telling a candidate that they aren’t going to hire him. Don’t. Swallow hard and let him know just as soon as you’ve decided. It’s kinder that way.

Letting him hang on, hoping for a call, is cruel.

18. Consider hiring an interim minister. There are two kinds –

* You can put a guy on staff to be the preacher temporarily. He’ll visit the sick, plan worship, and do most of the things preachers do.

* You can hire a guy just to preach, and let volunteers pick up the slack in other areas.

Obviously, the second choice is both less expensive and more attractive to more potential interims. After all, since you don’t have any idea how long the search will last, no one will want to move to your town to fill in. But plenty of capable men may be within driving distance for a once-a-week sermon.

* You may already have someone on payroll who is a great speaker. Maybe your youth minister is very gifted this way. If he’s going to fill in regularly, he’s an interim preacher, just one who happens to already be there. The same rules apply.

The interim minister should not be a candidate for the job, and you should get a commitment from him to that effect. The church should be told that he’s not a candidate and that he won’t take the job if offered.

Otherwise, the interim has a conflict of interest. His job is to make straight the path for the next guy. He needs to quietly step aside during the try out weekend and support the new guy. He’ll be interviewed by candidates, and he needs to honestly say good and true things about the church and encourage the candidate to keep an open mind. He can’t be competing for the same job.

We are a people who have an assembly-centered Christianity, and our assemblies are sermon-centered. That may or may not be good, but it’s reality. For a while, the church will be pleased to hear the elders and other members speak, but it’ll get old quickly. Amateurs are amateurs. And the elders will be very, very busy with the preacher search and filling in within areas that were once handled by the preacher. It’s just too much for volunteer, part-time elders to preach and do all that.

Hire an interim about 4 to 6 months after the former minister leaves. (We waited too long.) Don’t let your optimism that the next candidate will work out cause you to procrastinate. Make a firm commitment and do it, even if he’s an interim only for two weeks.

You see, church members fill ill at ease when there’s no preacher. Having a regular preacher in the pulpit is a huge part of the lives of many of our members. When the pulpit is empty — filled with amateurs — the members feel disconnected from the church, they worry whether the pulpit will ever be filled, and they become impatient. Some will leave to attend other churches just for the feelings of stability and comfort that having a familiar face in the pulpit brings.

Hire an interim.

19. Conduct an interim search. While hiring the permanent guy is like getting married, the interim is a fun date. You aren’t looking for the ideal. You just want someone you enjoy being with for an hour or two a week.

He won’t set the church’s vision. He won’t introduce new theology or practices. His job is to provide stability and spiritually uplifting messages but without trying to take the church anywhere new.

By the way, don’t hire a retired minister who is a legend. Some men are just hard to follow — even if they’re only temporary.

Then again, don’t hire someone who’s no good. You want to enjoy and benefit from your time together. You want to look forward to Sunday mornings. You don’t want to starve the congregation of spiritual substance.

The places to look for an interim are the same as for a permanent preacher. In fact, there are many preachers who prefer an interim position to a permanent one. Some may be retired. Others may be working on an advanced degree and not have time for a fulltime job. Ask around.

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.

Do you need a man who can run a huge, complex church organization? Some churches really do.

Do you need a man to head up the ministers and ministry leaders as a mentor and team leader?

Do you need a man who can help accomplish a merger or lead the church through a major building project?

Do you need a man who can help the church move from legalism to grace?

Figure out where the church needs to go and what kind of man is necessary to get you there.

And prepare to be surprised. The woman we marry is often nowhere close to the woman we imagined — and that is often a very good thing. Who knows: you may discover that, while you were looking for a master of doctrine what you really needed was a master of relationships, but you didn’t realize it until you met a preacher who is a master of relationships.

11. Be painfully honest. A good preacher can smell a sales job. He’ll do his due diligence. Be honest about your mistakes and lessons learned. Confessional elders are far more attractive than elders who pretend to be perfect. They aren’t. The preacher knows it. And he won’t be impressed.

12. Be prepared to discuss the elders’ vision for the church. It would be very helpful to have a vision statement or the like available to give candidates before the first interview. He’ll ask about your vision, and he’ll appreciate anything that gives a sense of the church’s direction.

I don’t mean the one-sentence mission statement so many churches have. They’re fine and all, but they rarely really communicate where you really want to go and who you really are.

Be prepared in the interviews to explain the direction the church is headed, the deficiencies you see (no one is perfect), and your dreams for your congregation. Even if you don’t have a formal document, the candidate will want to see that you have a vision beyond housekeeping and keeping the members happy.

13. You need at least two interviews. We tried not to make a decision without at least two interviews. Three was more typical.

The first interview was often by phone. Before this interview, the elders should have listened to enough sermons (on CD or Internet) to be confident that the candidate has the speaking talent and style that suits the church. The goal is to see whether personalities, theologies, etc. fit.

Normally, the preacher’s wife is not part of the first interview, so that the elders get a clear sense of the candidate — what it would be like to meet with him week after week for many years.

The elders should make sure that time is set aside for the candidate to ask his own questions.

I would make sure that the candidate and elders have no time limits. An interview might last from one to four hours (really). If they click, it could be an evening spent very enjoyably discussing God’s Kingdom.

One of the elders should take notes.

The second interview should be face to face and should include the wife. It’s just reality that the preacher’s wife has a huge impact on his ministry. You need to meet her.

Moreover, they’re not moving unless the wife is happy with the move. She’ll have her own questions and should be allowed to ask them for herself. You want her to be excited about the move.

After two interviews, both sides are likely ready to decide whether to discuss salary and a try out weekend. But never, ever hire with unresolved doubts. If either side is uncertain, keep talking and praying until certainty comes.

You may even need a third interview after everyone has had a chance to pray about it. Don’t hire with any unanswered questions or unresolved doubts.

14. Sort through tough doctrinal issues. Progressive leaders largely find common ground pretty easily. They have far fewer issues to argue over than conservatives. But we progressives have our issues; and every congregation has its hot-button concerns.

Be honest. If you’re not ready for solos, tell the minister. If you’re planning on a major shift, let him know. You’ll expect him to be part of it. He needs to know and be sold on the idea.

Make certain that you have no major disagreements on the role of women, divorce, and such like. And ask whether his wife and family are comfortable with his views.

Many preachers are very progressive in private, but a few lack the courage to admit they believe in the personal indwelling of the Spirit because they have to face criticism from their spouse or parents or siblings. Make sure the preacher in private will be the same man in the pulpit.

(He should ask the elders the same thing, and the elders must be honest. If the elders aren’t in sync with church, they should admit it and discuss how to deal with that.)

I love preacher interviews. Every preacher and every preacher’s wife we interviewed is a delightful person, and the elders learned a great deal from these interviews. It’s just great fun sharing ideas about God’s kingdom with people with a passion and gift for serving in the Kingdom.

15. Interview his wife. If the wife doesn’t want to move, it’s over. If the wife is not theologically compatible with your church and where the elders want to lead it, it’s over.

The elders’ wives should get to meet the candidates’ wife at a social event — a dinner or house party. Women read other women better than men read women. Let your wives use their giftedness to help.

(A wise candidate will also want to know his wife’s take on the elders and their wives.)

16. Meet the kids. If a preacher with young children isn’t a good parent — as revealed by bad attitudes in his children — you’re going to have a problem. If he and his wife don’t agree on discipline and child rearing philosophies, you’re going to have some serious problems.

Now, I’ve known of cases where a preacher had serious problems with his children and the elders and other wise members of the church were able to help the preacher and his wife become better parents. The kids turned out very well.

It’s tough on any parents to put their kids on display, but that’s the nature of being a minister. Like it or not, a preacher will be judged by his parenting skills — in part because preachers are expected to be good parents and to help coach the congregation’s parents. It’s just the way it is.

In any event, the elders should do their homework and not be surprised. Kids will be kids, and so the kids will do stupid things. But wise parents can tell the difference between kids acting like kids and kids reflecting poor parenting.

Until a few minutes ago, I had a huge table in the right column listing all the articles in the Gospel of John series, completed a few weeks ago. I kept it there to make it easy for teachers in my church to find the materials, because we’ve been covering those notes during the last 5 months.

The series is now over at my church, and that massive table was slowing load times for everyone. Therefore, I’ve moved the lessons to the links at the top of the page under “CBS Bible Classes.” Click that link and you’ll be immediately taken to a choice of three Bible class series. One of those will be the Gospel of John series.

Don’t go too fast. Remember, the elders have likely known about the minister’s departure longer than the congregation. They’ve had more time to get used to the idea. The church will have had less time to acclimate to the change.

Even if you have the perfect candidate ready to replace the former minister, if you bring him in too soon, the church will identify him with the departure of the old minister, perhaps even blaming him — consciously or unconsciously. Wait four to six months before bringing in the next guy.

7. Most ministerial candidates already have a job. Most ministers have families and mortgages. They may be interesting in relocating, but most will not quit and then look. Rather, they’ll look and notify their eldership when and if they decide to leave.

Therefore, if you try to have the three best candidates preach consecutive Sundays, well, it’s just not going to happen. A candidate with a job is not going to preach a try-out sermon until the eldership is ready to hire him subject only to a favorable try out. Otherwise, he risks being fired by his old church or alienating his congregation with no assurance of having a new job.

There are a few preachers who will quit and then look for a job. There will be some who were fired, placed on severance, and therefore free to try out. Of course, a preacher coming straight out of college will not have a job. But most others will have a job and will not put their families at risk until they’re confident they want to be hired by the new church and the new church is likely to want to hire them.

As a result, regardless of what the elders or deacons or congregation or search committee want, you’ll almost certainly only be able to be serious with one candidate at a time.

8. A preacher search is like dating. I prepare employment contracts for executives, and the executive employment world is very, very different from what church members experience. An executive will not move to a new town and take a new job unless he is very confident that the arrangement will work out. After all, if it doesn’t, he’ll have moved his family to a new town, sold his house, left behind friends, and be stuck in a town where there’s only one job that suits him — and it didn’t work out.

Just so, a preaching minister isn’t going to commit to your church because of the pretty brochure and attractive lobby. He won’t be sold by the deacons or the search committee. Rather, his biggest concern will be the elders. He’ll want to get along very well with them.

He can likely survive anything but a bad relationship with the elders. Therefore, he’ll want to spend hours interviewing and being interviewed by the elders. It’s like dating, because hiring a preacher is like getting married — and losing a minister is like a divorce.

A preacher hire is a long-term commitment, entered into with great expectations, even romanticized expectations. And when it doesn’t work out, it’s devastating just as a divorce is devastating.

And just as young people today are slow to marry for fear of suffering a divorce, preachers are slow to agree to be hired, for fear that it won’t work out.

They’ll want to talk to the other ministers on staff, if any, at length. They’ll ask the staff about their elders — in detail. They’ll talk to former ministers. They check out the elders’ reputation among denominational leaders (more on them later). They’ll do their homework.

If the elders approach a hire arrogantly (“Aren’t you happy to have been considered by us?”) or if they show a lack of concern for the staff, the search process will fail. If the staff speaks poorly of the elders, they’ll have a problem hiring a new minister.

9. Finding candidates. It’s fine to run ads in Church of Christ periodicals and all that, but most hires will be by word of mouth.

There are basically four places to find a candidate –

* There are websites where churches looking to hire and preachers looking to be hired can post their names. But most candidates have a job, and they won’t post their availability in a public place. Nonetheless, the church can post at these sites. Just beware that you’re likely to receive a lot of résumés.

* There are professors at the Church of Christ universities who serve as informal job brokers. Call the universities that are theologically compatible with you and talk to the head of the Bible department. Ask him who at the university keeps up with ministers looking for a position. It may be him or someone he’s assigned the task to.

Be honest about who you’re looking for and what happened to the last guy. They’ll have heard rumors (it’s a very small denomination). Be absolutely straightforward.

* There are preachers who are centers of informal preacher networks, that is, who speak at lectureships, hire many associate ministers who go on to be pulpit ministers, and are just well connected with the progressive ministers in their part of the world. Ask around.

* Word of mouth. It’s likely that every progressive minister in the Churches of Christ is only one or two relationships removed from someone in your church. Encourage your members and ministers to put forward names they recommend. (There may be seven degrees of Kevin Bacon but only about two degrees of a Church of Christ preacher.)

Many of these men won’t be looking for a job or won’t be what you’re looking for, but you just might find the perfect candidate this way. There’s nothing like having a personal relationship with a member who can recommend your church to a candidate.

Many of these I learned the hard way. This was not my first preacher search, by any means, but the Churches of Christ are changing, and every search brings new lessons.

And so, some of these I learned a long time ago. Others, I should have learned a long time ago, but didn’t. And a few are brand new, just because times change and so you have to learn as you go.

1. Immerse the search in prayer. We got this one right. It sounds trite to modern ears, but if you believe in prayer at all, this is one time you need to begin with prayer. Don’t wait until human efforts fail and then only turn to prayer in desperation. This is a bigger task than humans can handle alone. Get on your knees and pray — and do so often.

2. Beg the church to do the same. Spend time in prayer for the search with the congregation. Devote Sunday morning assembly time to it. Do it often.

3. Preacher searches take longer than you expect. I’m told that the typical search time for a pastor in a Baptist Church is two years. Many internet articles warn pastor search committees to expect the search to take more than one year. I have no idea what the statistic is for Churches of Christ, but I imagine that the time frame is getting longer.

You see, as the denomination fractures, the pool of talent gets smaller. The odds of finding a match go down.

Moreover, progressive Churches of Christ are, on average, larger than more conservative Churches, on average. Therefore, the talent pool of young ministers ready to move to a larger church is smaller. There aren’t as many smaller churches within the progressive ranks — comparatively.

Also, many talented progressive preachers have left the Churches of Christ, relocating to nondenominational congregations and Christian Churches.

Ministers that have left the Churches of Christ denomination may well be very happy to consider relocating to a progressive Church of Christ, but many have left the informal networks through which churches find preachers. And, of course, even many progressive congregations would be challenged to hire a minister who’s left the Churches of Christ for part of his career.

In short, don’t be surprised if your search takes more than a year.

4. Salaries are being bid up. Wrap it up in all the church-talk language you like, the laws of supply and demand apply to preachers, just like gasoline and apples (and lawyers). If you compare the year-to-year salary surveys conducted by Abilene Christian, you’ll see a definite upward trend in salaries for ministers. Presumably, the churches that participate in the survey lean heavily toward the progressive end of our denomination.

This confirms that there is less supply than demand, as noted above, and explains why searches will often take longer than they did 10 or 20 years ago.

This is a good thing. We in the Churches of Christ have long underpaid our ministers, and I’m glad to see wages moving up to be more comparable to the pay of the membership.

Here’s a summary from the most recent survey that’s been completed, 2011 –

Total compensation includes health insurance and other like fringes. And pay varies a lot in each category.

Pay varies more on church attendance and contribution than education, age, experience, or years with the church. In other words, churches tend to hire as well as they can afford.

5. Prepare your congregation for the wait. Those of us who grew up in church remember 6-month preacher searches — or less. And we expected to have the three best candidates put before us to select among. Nowadays, it’ll take longer, and you’ll be very unlikely to be able to court three ministers at a time. (I’ll explain in a bit.)

Tell the congregation to expect a long search at the very beginning. It’ll take 3 or 4 months, at least, for the church to be emotionally ready to even consider a new candidate. They’ll have to spend time letting go of their old minister.

And then it just takes time to identify candidates, listen to their sermons, interview them, check references, etc. Plus, they won’t all come to your attention at once. It takes time for word to get out and for candidates to respond.

Even then, not everyone you call will be interested, and many you interview won’t be a good fit. A few will seem like great fits and break your hearts by turning you down.

It’s like dating. Sometimes you marry the first girl you date. Sometimes it takes a few false starts and broken hearts. Be patient.

So here’s the plan –

1. I have most of the comments stored in Outlook as emails. It’s a whole lot of trouble to put them back on the system …

2. But I figure the comments on the recent series on homosexuality should be preserved. After all, those posts were more of a conversation than a series.

3. However, for some odd reason, WordPress doesn’t send me emails of my own comments.

And so I’m hoping one of my readers has a copy of my comments from the last few weeks — just the series on homosexuality — and can send them to me. Please?

Once I get them, I’ll put the comments back up for each post of the series.

(And I’d really like to find a copy of my comments, especially since I was thinking of turning a couple of them into future posts.)

For those of you who don’t play Zelda — or have kids who do (my situation) – the picture is a sculpture of Link, the hero of the videogame Zelda, imagined as much older — ElderLink. Really.

I’m thinking of getting T-shirts made.)

So my fellow elders, two of our ministers, and I attended ElderLink in Atlanta a few weeks ago. The program is jointly sponsored by ACU and Lipscomb University. (Thank you!)

It’s always a worthwhile trip. It’s good to spend some time with my fellow elders and ministers away from church.

This year’s program was focused on supporting and encouraging elders in their work. The idea is an extension of the efforts being made to support and encourage ministers — to help protect them from burn out. It’s a clear need.

But afterwards, my fellows elders and I talked about the program and the suggestions for how to help keep elders from burning out. And here’s what we concluded: It’s not about setting aside time for prayer (which we should do), or spending more time in the Bible (always a commendable habit), or seeking solitude to hear the voice of God (does God speak most clearly in solitude? I’m not so sure …)

Rather, the burden of the eldership is loneliness — and lonely spiritual disciplines are therefore not the cure. Rather, what elders need is encouragement from other people. And they need other people with whom they can share their burdens in confidence — people who aren’t part of their congregations. And they need the expertise and wisdom that come from other elders’ experiences.

I deeply miss and continue to mourn the late Charles Siburt – or as I liked to call him, Archbishop Siburt. You see, Charles had many years of experience as an elder as well as years of counseling elderships, making him an invaluable resource of wisdom – and someone you could talk to who’d really understand, even if he disagreed.

You see, in our zeal for congregational autonomy, we’ve created congregational isolation. Our elders generally don’t know the other elders in nearby towns in similar congregations. Therefore, we all have to make our own mistakes. It’s not a good plan.

I understand that youth ministers and campus ministers have formed fairly structured mutual support networks, where they meet periodically for mutual encouragement. That’s a good thing.

Why are there no such networks for elders? Is there no need? Is it too hard to figure out? Is it not worth the trouble?

So here’s my thinking — and this is very, very preliminary –

* Pick a state (say, Alabama).

* Similarly sized congregations, with similar theologies, are likely to have similar problems and needs — and can best benefit from sharing with each other. And problems likely differ with distance. Texas churches aren’t like Alabama churches.

* For the sake of simplicity, we start with the bigger churches. There aren’t as many and they have more resources — more networked connections with each other, with the universities, etc. They’ll all know or know of each other.

Later, the circle can be expanded — after the kinks are worked out and experience gained.

* The elders and ministers of those churches share ideas internally. For example, how do fulltime ministers set up mutual-encouragement networks? What elements of that pattern would serve elders well?

* What expertise do we need to borrow from outside sources? I’m thinking mainly of the universities. Including some of their folks in such a network would surely be tremendously helpful. I’m a big fan of what Lipscomb and ACU are doing to support elders. I know other universities are involved in other places.

* Is this a network made up merely of phone numbers and offers to help if needed? I think not. You can’t really reach out to someone if you’ve not met them. There has to be a meeting that the elders attend and use to network.

* Is this unstructured time? A seminar? A workshop? Sermons? Classes? Games to break the ice? (We’re probably too stuffy for that.)

* Do ministers participate? Wives? (Do we risk being accused of letting our wives run the church — while denying them the same sort of support we know we need and they likely need even more so?)

* There’s no sense in replicating ElderLink. This would have to be different — because the emphasis would be on personal connections and dealing with more targeted needs. Every state is different.

* Nor is there any point in replicating the lectureships. Lipscomb, for example, puts on a great program each summer, within easy driving distance of anywhere in Alabama. But it’s not a place where elders can readily meet each other and share stories and problems — not without some sort of structure designed to do that. If we’re not careful, we’ll drift into familiar patterns and just build an Alabama lectureship that does nothing more than we can already get at ACU, Lipscomb, or Pepperdine.

* Or it could be that the network happens to meet just before a nearby lectureship — allowing the elders to meet and network beforehand and then attend classes in the elder-track later. Maybe?

So that’s not quite an entire idea — just the beginnings of an idea.

Readers,

– Those of you who are ministers who participate in mutual encouragement networks, can you share with us how those work? And maybe how you see that structure working (or not) with regard to elders?

– Those of you who are elders, do you see any virtue in such a pursuit? I know it’s really vague, but are these seed thoughts worthy of investigation? Would you participate in such a program if one were offered? What needs do you see that aren’t being otherwise met?

Is masturbation a sin?

I do get emails. [For some reason, I couldn't find a suitable picture to lead this post.]

So one reader suggested that it is not, based on this thoughtful article by Jim McGuiggan (and Jim is always worth reading or hearing — I’m a big fan).

The opposing (mixed, really) view is famously articulated by Mark Driscoll, pastor of the Mars Hill church in Seattle. Typical of Driscoll, he leaves little to the imagination. As unconventional as he can be, he is quite conservative on some points and always thoughtful — even when he makes you mad. I enjoy his writings.

I should also mention this article from the Lavista Church of Christ site, which tends to be very conservative.

So what do you think?

PS — I’m done with talking about sex. After this, we’re moving on to other things.

It was short notice, and so I picked up what would surely be the most unreadable book I’ve recently received — a commentary on Ezekiel.

Worse than that, the commentary is 368 pages long and doesn’t include the text of Ezekiel. I found myself wandering the newsstands at the airport looking for something more readable. After all, this was supposed to be a reference book — not a book to be read cover to cover like a novel.

But nothing in the newsstand appealed me. Maybe that’s because I don’t find much appealing in the news. Maybe.

And so, I sat in the plane reading The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit by Christopher J. H. Wright. And I loved it. Every word. It was like … reading a novel.

Indeed, Wright may be the most readable author among commentators I’ve ever read. He has this incredible gift to take a very challenging text and to explain its depths and difficulties in brilliant prose. I was just blown away. He made Ezekiel understandable, meaningful, and powerful — and enjoyable to read about. Wow …

In my own writing, I find myself constantly referring back to Ezekiel, but I’ve never had the chance to study the book on a standalone basis — and what a wild and crazy book it is. It’s an overlooked treasure — but it takes a rarely gifted writer like Wright to bring out the genius of Ezekiel in all its glory.

Speaking of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, Wright writes,

Television pictures of the aftermath of war are the nearest we can get to the horror of what confronted Ezekiel in his vision. Unearthed mass graves, bodies in gas chambers and concentration camps, piles of skulls and skeletons, severed limbs after street explosions, bloated corpses after earthquakes or tidal waves — all modern images which fill us with revulsion and shudder of witnessing human death on a mass scale. None of these, of course, is quite what Ezekiel saw, but the impact of a whole vast plain covered in unburied human bones must have been equally appalling. As a priest, he was not allowed to touch a human corpse. Yet here the hand of God actually takes him for a walk, to and fro, through the grisly scene, until he can see for himself two things about these bones. First, that there were a great many of them. Later, we learn that there were enough to constitute a vast army (10), so this really is the remains of a catastrophic battle in which thousands of people have died. Second, that they were very dry — people long dead. Scavenging animals and birds have done their job and sun had baked and bleached them. Not only is there no trace of life; there is no trace of the recognizable individuals they once were on this earth. Just dry bones in a valley.

(Emphasis in original).

Want to know what happens next? Wright is a story teller commenting on a book of stories. And he’s brilliant.

Buy the book — and unlike most commentaries we buy, read it cover to cover.

Unfortunately, the last 6 months of comments are in limbo. The webhosting service is hoping to retrieve them tonight.

The comment database was pretty badly corrupted due to a plugin installed to protect against malware. Well, we got no malware … just a plugin that corrupted the comment database.

I’ll post something as soon as I know whether we can recover the last several weeks of comments. And, yes, I’m pretty upset because we had an incredible conversation going on that we were just completing.