Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Questions to Ask the Church Search Committee

Really, you should read the whole excellent blog post that inspired this (by Bruce Reyes-Chow) - but I'll whet your appetite with my personal top ten (or so) from his list of twenty-five. These are in no particular order
  • What has been the most imaginative thing that the church has done in the past year?
  • Are there any topics, issues, situations that have been treated, intentionally or unintentionally, as “off-limits” and if so, what are they and why do you think they have been avoided?
  • What have been the congregation’s behavior patterns when dealing with conflict?
  • Where in the church do you see the most life and energy and where has the church become a little stuck or calcified?
  • If the church closed its doors tomorrow, would the community miss its presence and if so, how?
  • Over the past 10 years how have most people found this church and if they have visited, why have they chosen to stay or not?
  • How does the congregation approach the use of technology and social media in the life of the church: communication, pastoral care, evangelism, administration and/or worship?
  • What are your expectations, spoken and unspoken, about how your next pastor will balance church and family time and energy?
  • With what church tasks and activities is there is agreement that the pastor should NOT be involved?
  • What about my gifts, experience and perspectives have lead you to think that there may be a call between you and I?
Bruce closes with this wonderful quote from Frederick Buechner:
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

article found courtesy of churchjobs.tv 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you don't want to rename this post "how to eat a sacred cow during a job interview"

-Jimbo

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

Jim: moo. :-)