MIM Ezine, April 13, 2009

-- Purpose-Filled Ministry: So, You're Looking for a New Pastor: Part III--Kicking Off Your Search Committee,by Teena Stewart.

-- BOOK REVIEW: Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, by Frank Viola and George Barna, reviewed by Jeff Stewart.

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So, You’re Looking for a New Pastor: Part III--Kicking off Your Search Committee

My article series on looking for a new pastor so far has covered how to begin a pastoral search and determining a church’s needs and direction prior to starting the search process. Once you have made your preliminary preparations, you are ready to gather your search committee and put them into action.

Many churches struggle with choosing their pastoral search team. A team of varying ages and ministry experience often works well. Your selection should be less about your team members’ ages as it is their Christian maturity when choosing team members. Avoid tunnel vision. For instance, a committee consisting of only Baby Boomers will most likely focus on issues that matter most to their generation and will overlook ministry needs for younger adults.

Limit the number of committee members to no more than five or six. The more people you have on a team, the more difficult it will be for the team to conduct interviews and reach a consensus. I will never forget the phone interview my husband, Jeff, and I participated in while he was being interviewed for a senior pastor position. The search committee consisted of twelve members from a variety of ministry areas in the church. During the phone interview with Jeff, a committee chair informed him he had two minutes to answer each question posed. Then he methodically went from one member to the next allowing them to ask their prepared question. (I could almost hear the Jeopardy music playing in the background.) As if that wasn’t bad enough, the committee chair made sure we knew the team had an interview with another pastoral candidate scheduled right after ours.

The rushed manner in which the interview was handled created a stressful environment. Jeff had no time to respond in-depth to questions. To complicate matters, the questions each committee member asked showed a lack of cohesiveness in focus for their church as whole. Each person seemed to have his/her own agenda. Needless to say, Jeff was not selected for the position and I can’t imagine how that committee ever agreed on a final candidate.

Your search team will need to designate a team leader who is both spiritually mature and is a strong administrator. This leader must pull the team together and help them focus on candidates who match the predetermined criteria and job description you are seeking to fill. The leader also guides the selection process.

The search committee will determine how pastoral candidates are selected and weeded out. Will the team leader look at all job applications/resumes first and eliminate the least likely candidates or will the team as a whole look at all applications?

Committees are typically composed of volunteers who divide their time between full or part time jobs, church commitments and community related activity. Consequently, time has a way of quickly slipping away, days turning into weeks.

Setting a time line for when the committee chair will get back to pastoral candidates during the review process is important. If while conducting an interview with a candidate a committee member tells the candidate he/she will call back in two weeks that member needs to make sure it happens within the time frame stated. My husband and I associate with many clergy persons. One of the biggest frustrations they express regarding the pastoral search process is that search committees often promise to get back to candidates in a timely fashion, but it rarely happens.

Many a candidate has waited expectantly for a call that comes weeks (sometimes months) after the date they were told they would hear back. To avoid this, an appointed search team member can keep a calendar, tracking when candidates are told they will receive a call back, then making sure timely follow up occurs. When it doesn’t happen expediently, it reflects poorly on the church and may even be a deal breaker for some prospective pastors who see the lack of communication and lag in time as an integrity issue on the church’s part.

One way many churches save on costs during the interview process is by conducting phone interviews rather than face-to-face interviews. Once you have narrowed your choices down to one or two candidates, then it’s probably time to fly the candidate out to interview in person.

Remember that you are hiring the pastor, not the pastor’s spouse. It’s perfectly appropriate to include the spouse in social “meet and greet” times for candidates. This lets the spouse get acquainted with your members and your church leaders, and gives clues as to the character of the church’s character. Some churches are even comfortable including the spouse in the interview. Rather than put the spouse on the spot, you might want to leave it up to the spouse as to whether he/she wants to attend the interview or not. What isn’t appropriate (and I’ve been on the receiving end of these types of interviews) is interviewing the spouse in such a fashion that you appear to be hoping to hire two people—the pastor and his/her spouse - for the price of one.

Finally, let the Spirit, not desperation lead you. I know of several churches who, because they were in a hurry to fill their pulpit, made poor decisions. This often happens when churches are short on money or in a hurry. After interviewing several candidates face to face they may feel none of the candidates are a match, but because they want to fill the vacancy without footing more expense, they settle for someone who isn’t a good fit. When this happens the repercussions can be catastrophic. It’s okay to say no to a candidate. God’s timing is much slower than ours. Anytime we try to rush Him we often suffer the consequences. Enlist your prayer warriors and church leadership in praying for the selection process so that God will make it clear as to His choice for your leadership. When you follow this suggestion you will see some amazing results.

My next article will focus on “The Dos and Don’ts for Candidates Searching for a Ministry Position.”

I have a confession. There is a form of art that I love that may get me into some trouble with my readers. Are you ready? I love graffiti— no, not the sloppy tagging, but the beautiful, elaborate, mind-blowing stuff. I am continually amazed that these amazing artists can do this work with spray cans in the dark. As I look at some graffiti, I realize I couldn’t reproduce a lot of it with proper art supplies, in a proper studio. It’s amazing. That being said, I find graffiti perplexing. You see, if I had the money, I might pay to have a piece of graffiti to hang in my home (I don’t have the money, so don’t write me) but were someone to paint it on the outside of my house for free, I would be among the first on the phone to the police. I, like most property owners, want the choice in how my property is decorated. I’ve never understood why these talented artists would rather sneak around in the dark, unable to take credit for their work, signing their work only with cryptic names in undecipherable (though admittedly cool) typography. Why not place their amazing work on something that can be moved and hung in galleries to be purchased by people like me, but with money. It never made sense.

Fast forward to a few days ago. My church district held a “lock-in” for about 300 Jr. High students. Because I try to practice what I preach in this column, I am usually tapped to do the evening’s crafts. This year, I decided to include a drawing project with my other offerings. About three AM, I noticed a young man working on a drawing and I went over to speak to him. As I approached I could see he was drawing graffiti and that he is quite gifted. I went up to him and admired his gift, told him I really like graffiti and suggested that he put his work on canvasses rather than walls so he could sell it and probably earn a decent living. His reply has haunted me since I heard it. He said “yeah but if you do it illegally, you get fame.” I wanted to argue with him. I wanted to say, “yeah and arrested,” or “no, your pseudonym gets fame, if anyone can read it.” But I didn’t say anything, because in this young man’s response, I saw myself and my motivations for so much of my life. I mean I may never have put my work on anyone’s wall (illegally), but I think most of us, as artists, do what we do to leave our mark on the world, don’t we? I mean there are a lot of museums out there that sort of prove my point. Which of us would not want a piece of our work to hang in the Louvre (or to win a Tony, or a Grammy, or a Pullitzer, or an Oscar)? Be honest.

Is there anything wrong with wanting to leave your mark on the world? That’s a matter of heart and motivation and I really don’t have time to cover it here. It would probably require writing a very lengthy book (I wonder if it would win a Pullitzer?). What I will say is this, if we are artists who follow Jesus, the mark we should really be concerned about leaving is the mark of Jesus. Does that mean we will labor and struggle in anonymity, maybe, maybe not, but that is not up to us. As Christ following artists what really matters is not the recognition of men, but rather that we one day hear our Master say, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Do what you do to the glory of God, be faithful you’re your gift and let Him handle your fame. Work to make Him famous.

DC (David) Weiss is pastor of New Creation Fellowship in Reading, PA and has been a professional in the graphic communications/visual arts field for over 20 years. A few years ago, he felt led by the Spirit to combine his love for art and ministry and A.M.O.K. Arts Ministry Outreach for the Kingdom was born. A.M.O.K. is a ministry dedicated to helping people of all creative disciplines and ability levels to use their God given gifts to serve the Lord in preaching, teaching and reaching. More information on A.M.O.K. including free and low cost resources for preaching teaching and reaching can be found http://www.amokarts.com.

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I just finished replacing a piece of loose siding on my house and it only took me about a year to do it. How did I accomplish this miracle of efficiency and home-repair savvy? By applying the time-honored suburbanite-male’s system of home maintenance.

The following is the simple 14-step process I use to ensure quality workmanship and timely results.

1. Walk by the thing that needs to be repaired for about three to six months. Glance at item in disrepair and think “Man, I need to do something about that

2. Six months later, walk by item again – this time noticing that the situation has reached critical mass and can no longer be put off. Resolve to take decisive action and act immediately to repair item.

3. Three weeks later, take initial step in repair by examining damage. Briefly look at damaged area of house. Go back inside house, turn on TV and watch This Old House program, in hope that they might offer some clue as to how to fix problem.

4. Come to the happy realization that the repair will necessitate the use of tools (maybe even power tools)!

5. Go into garage and rummage through piles of tools in search of specific gizmo needed for this repair. Find a completely different, really cool tool that I didn’t know I owned. Become overwhelmed with desire to use really cool tool. Go find something to use it on. Forget all about original project for the rest of the day.

6. Come back the next day and rummage through tools again and come to the conclusion that I don’t own the necessary gizmo for project.

7. Go to Home Depot and walk around in store for four or five hours looking at all the neat stuff I don’t have the money to buy.

8. Finally get around to purchasing proper gizmo needed for this home repair project.

9. Go home and commence home repair. Spend 10 minutes gleefully tearing out old, damaged part of home. Experience brief feeling of elation, fantasizing about hosting This Old House.

10. Have massive panic attack, realizing that I am now committed, and have reached the point of no return.

11. Spend the next 12 hours attempting a repair project that is clearly over my head. Briefly consider suing Home Depot for their advertising campaign leading me to believe that:

B] They can help. (No one wearing an orange apron showed up at the house to help me fix the thing.)

12. Go to garage to look for a hammer so I can beat the living daylights out of my house. Rummage through piles of tools. Find one-year-old gizmo identical to the one I just purchased at Home Depot.

13. Call carpenter-buddy of mine and beg him to come “help” me repair house.

14. Greet friend at door and show him where botched repair job is. Pepper him with annoying questions and advice until he begs me to leave. Go watch This Old House in my living room until repair is completed.

It’s amazing how often I encounter obstacles – about which I know little or nothing – that I have to create solutions out of thin air to overcome. In these situations, I often find myself bowing my head and asking the Lord for help.

Tell me, where did we ever get the notion that being a Christian means knowing everything and having all the answers? My experience, coupled with what I read in the Bible, leads me to believe that a big part of following Jesus is recognizing our own moral, mental, physical and spiritual bankruptcy, and choosing to rely on him instead. In short, I’m not perfect, but I know Someone who is.

But it’s time for me to get back to work. I have another home repair that I have my eye on and I want to get right on it. I’ll let you know how it went in about a year.

Book Review -- Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, by Frank Viola and George Barna, 2008, 295 pages, ISBN #141431485X

You've heard the cliché "You can't throw the baby out with the bathwater." It usually means that there is an element of truth embedded in a statement that has to be parsed out in order to become useful for application.

This book doesn't take such caution. The authors are courageous enough in their tossing to include the proverbial water, tub AND baby. The book is similar to the classical illustration that has been told numerous times. If you've heard it, it's worth repeating. If you haven't it's insightful and worthy of perpetual consideration. It goes something like this.

One Sunday afternoon a newly married wife is in the middle of preparing a meal for her husband and herself. The menu calls for a baked ham. As she is preparing the meal, she takes a butcher knife out of the drawer and cuts off both ends of the ham. Her observant husband asks, "Why are you cutting the ends off?"

The next time the couple visits the wife’s mother, the man asks, "Why do you cut the ends of the ham off when you bake it?"

The first time the man meets his grandmother-in-law, he asks, "Why did you cut the ends of the ham off when you baked it?"

Pagan Christianity covers a lot of territory in areas of how and why the conventional church does what it does. Like the husband in the illustration, the writers ask the pointed questions that require rewinding back to the beginning of the reel to see how we got to the point we are at presently. There is often (we discover) a "distortion of the concept" (p. 108) on the part of our Western culture perspective. The book analyzes many common areas such as church buildings, order of worship, the sermon, the tithe and salaried pastors, Sunday morning costumes, Ministers of music, baptism and the Lord's Supper.... many more.

I highly encourage you to read and mark up this book. Your mind-set will be seriously challenged as you dissect it. It's a sobering ride!

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DBMIM April 13, 2009

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