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.
Just as they’ll want to meet your wife, you’ll want to meet theirs. You can often tell a lot about how healthy the eldership is by observing the spiritual maturity of their wives. Some elderships are wife dominated. Run!
7. Ask the elders about the last preacher. Do they respond with anger? With class? Do they see both the good and bad in the last guy? Did they treat him as a beloved, fellow servant? Or as a hireling?
How much severance pay was he given — if he was fired? That might seem an intrusive question, but elders who fire with inadequate severance pay are dangerous men. Even preachers who richly deserve to be fired have wives and children, and severance is a key indicator of the elders’ compassion.
8. Ask the elders about how they want to relate to the preacher. Do they want the preacher to be a peer or near-peer? Will the preacher be invited to most elders’ meetings? Will the preacher be part of the visioning process?
Who will oversee the rest of the staff? The elders or the preacher or no one?
Will the elders seek the preacher’s input before firing other ministers?
9. Meet with the staff. No one knows better what it’s like to work in that church and for that eldership. Ask.
Determine whether these are men and women you can work with day to day. Are they team players? Do they work hard? Do they do their jobs well? Do they love their elders and their congregation?
10. Look for friends. Preachers notoriously struggle to make friends at their home congregations. Sometimes, they’re the only college educated person there. Sometimes they just can’t get past the preacher role.
A wise eldership will recognize this and set up a social event where you can meet the members who are your age and who may make up your future social group. If not, ask for such an event. You need friends, wherever you go. If you have a choice of two churches, one with members whom you could easily befriend and the other without, go for the church where you can make friends. You’ll last many years longer.
11. Ask about vacation and hours. In my opinion, the preacher should work at least as hard as the members. And most members will work a 40+ hour job and then do volunteer work at church on top of that. Be prepared to earn your pay and to serve Jesus with as much commitment as the people you lead.
But just like the members, you’ll need vacation — and the elders should expect you to take it. Don’t use your vacation to preach meetings. Go on vacation to be with family and to unwind.
The same is true of holidays and days off. Be prepared to work hard, but make sure the elders won’t complain when you take off family holidays. They need holidays. So do you.
And a wise eldership will want you to take your time off.
12. Ask about the annual review. There are basically three approaches to job performance reviews:
* No reviews at all.
* Badly done reviews — based on incomplete information, such as hallway complaints.
* 360-degree reviews.
Beg your elders to do reviews at least annually and to do 360-degree reviews. That means the elders will talk to your fellow ministers and the people who serve under you in ministry about your job performance.
They’ll ask you for names to interview, and they’ll interview some that you did not name.
It’s a lot of trouble. I hate these reviews, just because they are so much trouble. But my experience is that anything less leads to even greater problems, misunderstandings, miscommunications, etc.
13. Negotiate your pay and benefits before your try out sermon. This is the lawyer in me, you know. The fact is that your bargaining power and your mindset will be better before hand.
In my experience, the decision by the candidate to show up for the try out sermon is a big deal for preachers. By this time, they’ll have told their elders. They may have even told their congregation. They are psychologically committed to leaving and becoming a part of the new church — and that’s exactly the wrong time to talk about money.
14. Be prepared to talk about your sexual accountability practices. Elders go to seminars, too, and they know that an astonishing percentage of ministers will be guilty of sexual improprieties. They’ll expect you to know this, to have thought about it, and to have a serious plan for defeating temptation in this area.
