Pastoral Search Team Process

Step 1 | Selection / Introduction of Pastoral Search Team

  • Review of Church By-Laws / Constitution (does the governance of the church dictate the search Team selection process?)
  • Determining the ideal size of a search Team
  • Profile of search Team members (age, gender, experience, Elder, long time member, new member…)
  • Pros and cons of members voting for the search Team
  • Search team introduced to New Hope
  • Search team commissioned by New Hope

Step 2 | Creating a Search Team Covenant

The need for Trust and Interconnection amongst the Search Team

  • The benefits of a Search Team Covenant
  • Getting to know one another as a Team
  • Acknowledging search Team blind spots (Johari window)
  • Writing and signing a Covenant

See appendix A for sample search Team covenant

Step 3 | Establishing Prayer as the Foundation of the Search

  • Developing prayer guidelines
  • Developing prayer requests which mirror search Team progress
  • Communicating Prayer Requests to the Congregation

See appendix B for sample search prayer requests

Step 4 | Define and Implement a Communication Plan

  • Communication to Congregation
  • Selection of Spokesperson
  • Creating an internet page for search Team updates
  • Using texting technology for search Team updates / prayer updates

Step 5 | Creating a Church Data Information Packet

  • Data pack created in partnership with the New Hope Elders
  • Mission – Vision – Core Values
  • Church History
  • Constitution / By-laws
  • Organizational Alignment
  • Network Affiliation

Step 6 | Creating a Lead Pastor Profile

  • What is the search Team searching for? Senior Pastor, Lead Pastor, Teaching Pastor?
  • Complete profile based on PastorServe’s 24 Primary Pastoral Competencies
  • Identifying the Big Six (what six qualities are essential to the new pastor – for example – has pastored a 2,000+ member church, has led a staff of 20+, extensive experience in missions, particular level of education, particular denominational / network affiliation…)
  • Identifying what we expect to have in a lead pastor (though not essential)
  • Identifying what we would like to have in a lead pastor
  • Communication of profile to the congregation (Essential – Expect – Prefer)

See Appendix C for sample communication to congregation

Step 7 | Creating a Lead Pastor Job Description

  • Allowing the profile to shape the job description
  • Creating a realistic job description (many could not be filled by Jesus)
  • Communicating job description to congregation

Step 8 | Determining the role of Personality Profiles

  • What role – if any – will personality profiles play in the selection process?
  • What role – if any – will the Team require of the candidate’s spouse
  • Determine which of the four types of personality tests will be used in the search process:
  • Horizontal Personality Assessment - These assessments profile aspects of personality that remain relatively unchanged within individual over time (for example – Myers-Briggs)
  • Vertical Development Assessment - These profiles aim to profile development, those aspects of personality that may change over time (Strengths Finder, Leadership Development Framework).
  • Relational Assessment - This type of profile reveals people’s strategies, preferences and tendencies in relationship to others (Prepare – Enrich, Thomas-Kilmann).
  • Competency Assessment – This profile assesses an individual against an ideal set of competencies or skills or capabilities (PastorServe 24 Pastoral Competencies Assessment, Leadership Effectiveness Assessment).

Step 9 | Determining the Role of the Spouse

  • This is an essential discussion as many search processes have been derailed by lack of Team understanding as to the spouses’ role.
  • Determining role – PastorServe spouse profile / assessment
  • Complete the PastorServe Spouse Competency Profile
  • What are spouse deal breakers? (For example – she will be attending the nearly Catholic Church, she struggles with alcohol abuse, severe depression)

Step 10 | Create the Search Team Flow Chart

  • As a Church – are we the Royals, the Rockies or the Yankees?
  • Is the Church going to gather resumes (Royals) or receive resumes (Yankees) or something in between (Rockies)?
  • Flow chart determines an objective response to the flow of information, and applications.

Step 11 | Creating a Lead Pastor Application

  • Creating a behavior based application

(The best predictor of future performance is past behavior)

  • Matching the questions to the Lead Pastor Profile
  • Asking open ended questions
  • Creating questions which reveal character
  • Creating questions which reveal brokenness as well as strengths

Step 12 | Creating Standardized Letters

Far too many churches hurt their reputation by failing to respond to candidates in a timely manner. All inquires must be responded to within 7 days.

  • We received your application – thank you. We are at ______point in the process and you can expect to hear from us by ______
  • We received your application – we are requesting additional information
  • We received your application – Thanks but no thanks

Step 13 | Marketing the Opportunity

Position availability along with supporting documents communicated to leading pastor’s / ministry networks / denominations around the country

  • Creating an opportunity announcement
  • Create and distribute New Hope candidate recommendation form (via web and weekend worship services)
  • Using existing New Hope networks
  • Using existing New Hope member networks
  • Using existing PastorServe networks
  • Using appropriate denominations / networks

Step 14 | Celebration

  • The search is on!!
  • Report to Congregation
  • Search Team Celebration Dinner

Step 15 | Collecting and Assessing Pastoral Resumes

  • Collection and Team distribution
  • Establishing review criteria
  • Create Resume Review Teams
  • Resumes received (gleaned from available information – not from candidate)
  • Pass out resumes amongst Team. Use the internet as much as possible

Step 16 | Initial Assessment of Candidates

  • Understanding the PastorServe scoring system
  • Searching the web – sermons, writings, blogs, video
  • Understanding the PastorServe Sermon Evaluation System
  • Profile markers – objective scoring system
  • Resumes received (gleaned from available information – not from candidate)–
  • Pass out resumes amongst Team. Use the internet as much as possible.
  • Have one person compile information and present a 5 minute report. Divide into three categories:
  • Active (high potential)
  • Revisit (not initially impressive – but not ready to dismiss)
  • Eliminate

Working with Active group, listen as a Team to full sermons on the internet. Then, of the active candidates – rate in three groups – top (pursue now), middle, and bottom.

Step 17 | Second and Third Level Recommendations

  • Moving beyond initial references
  • Learning to dig deep
  • Recommendation circle spreads until a negative reference is found

Step 18 | Telephone Interview Guidelines

  • Creating standardized questions
  • Using the PastorServe scoring system

Step 19 | Site Visits

  • Establish search Team travel criteria
  • Decision point - Search Team spouses – involve in site visits?
  • Screening of Candidates on their home turf
  • How not to raise “search Team alarms”
  • The importance of visiting the candidate in his home
  • The importance of engaging the candidate’s family
  • Initial interview of candidate

Step 20 | Conducting Behavioral Competency Interviews

  • Learning to interview

See appendix D for behavior based interview sample questions

  • Interview questions will include the following:

Pastoral Interview / Competency Assessment – Categorizes

  • Commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ
  • Leadership
  • Management Skill
  • Team Management Skill
  • Intrinsically Motivated
  • Creates Ownership of Philosophy / Vision of Ministry
  • Visioning Capacity
  • Relates Effectively to Ministry Team
  • Builds / Maintains Healthy Relationships
  • Diversity Challenges / Sensitivity
  • Committed to Growth (spiritually, numerically and financially)
  • Responsive to Community
  • Flexible and Adaptable
  • Team Builder
  • Resilience
  • Healthy Family Relationships
  • Conflict / Discipline Issues
  • Integrity
  • Exercises Faith

Step 21 | Bringing Candidates to New Hope

  • Determining the maximum / minimum number of candidates to be brought to New Hope.
  • How to put your best foot forward without presenting a false impression
  • Creating a realistic candidate itinerary
  • Staff interaction (staff meeting, EC, one-on-ones)
  • Balance – Is he strong enough to lead? / Is he weak enough to lead?
  • Candidating Sermon (determine maximum number of candidating sermons)
  • Leadership Dinner – with standardized questions

Step 22 | Selection of a Final Pastoral Candidates

  • Search Team unanimity required?

Step 23 | Presentation of Candidates to Elders

  • Elder Interview
  • Interviewing so as not to undo months of hard work by search Team

Step 24 | Calling a Candidate

  • Is there a standard package – regardless of candidate’s background?
  • Creating appropriate boundaries
  • Determine pastoral expectations
  • Determining an appropriate package
  • Determining appropriate benefits

Step 25 | Presentation of Candidate to Congregation

  • Congregational vote (determined by New Hope by-laws)
  • Congregational reception

Step 26 | Installation of a Candidate

  • Installation worship service
  • Reception

Step 27 | Assimilation of New Pastor into New Hope

  • Ongoing support - Build in transition process - how will new pastor assimilate into process?
  • How to keep new pastor from being initially overwhelmed
  • How do we help to make him successful?

Step 28 | Celebration

  • Publically thanked before congregation
  • Disband Search Team
  • Celebration Dinner

Appendix A – Sample Search Team Covenant

Pastoral Search Team Covenant

We recognize that the members of New Hope have placed their confidence in us personally and spiritually. In response, we approach our task with a sense of solemn responsibility.

We covenant that in all matters our first concern shall be to seek our Heavenly Father’s will and submit to His direction.

We covenant to understand our work as service to the Lord and to do it prayerfully and joyfully.

We covenant to pray regularly for each other.

We pledge to speak plainly, accurately, honestly, and responsibly on all matters.

We will not knowingly withhold information that bears on our task, but with careful attention to the honor and testimony of our brothers and sisters, we will offer fair and factual statements to the Team for its deliberation and counsel. We will guard against inaccuracies, carelessness, bias, and distortion made through either emphasis or omission of information.

We pledge to receive, discuss, and consider all information with confidence that each speaker has spoken for the common good, without intent to hurt persons present or absent. We will look for common encouragement in each challenge, and we will resist any temptation to think less of one another.

We will hold confidential all information about prospects and candidates. We will not reveal their names or any information about prospects and candidates before or after the Team completes its work, except through appropriate channels in the process of moving a candidacy forward. While we may choose to share information with our spouses, we recognize the right of the chair to designate which information is to be shared only within the Team.

We undertake this as a spiritual challenge and recognize our personal and corporate need for prayer and wisdom in order to accomplish our task.

This Covenant can only be fulfilled by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We acknowledge that we will be unable to perfectly adhere to the above commitments. We solely depend upon the strength of the Lord. We joyfully acknowledge that as we desire to live as obedient children of the King, the Lord will enable us as a Team to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and advance the Kingdom of God.

Appendix B – Sample Search Team Prayer Requests

Prayer requests are written by the search Team. Prayer requests are disseminated to the congregation through bulletin, pre-service announcements, texting technology and other means. The prayer requests will mirror the progress in the search progress.

The Pastoral Search Team – Early Challenges

Pray that the Pastoral Search Team will be Biblically focused as they begin to define the search process.

Pray for wisdom as the Pastoral Search Team begins to prioritize the issues the Team needs to address

The Pastoral Search Team Covenant

Pray that the Pastoral Search Team will be faithful to the covenant to which they have pledged.

Pray that they will not knowingly withhold information that bears on their task, but with careful attention to the honor and testimony of others, they will offer fair and factual statements to the Team for its deliberation and counsel. Pray for them as they guard against inaccuracies, carelessness, bias, and distortion made through either emphasis or omission of information.

The Pastoral Search Team Seeks Outside Wisdom

Pray now for us as a congregation as we prepare to make the transition to the next pastor.

Pray for the person God is preparing to serve as senior pastor. Pray for his wife and family, if he is married. Pray that he will be fruitful in ministry and responsive to the Holy Spirit where he is serving now. Pray that God will equip him in unique ways to meet the needs of this congregation, and for the extreme challenge of following a pastor of long duration.

Qualities to be looking for in Senior Pastor

Pray for a pastor who is able understand the Word of God deeply, engage the truth of scripture profoundly, and bring it to bear on life in the 21st century.

Pray for a person of who possesses the rare combination of sterling character and brokenness, who keeps his word, who says clearly what he means.

Pray for a strong work ethic, good work habits

Prayer for the Pastor Search Team in their work

Pray for the Team to be clear-minded as they develop a profile of the lead pastor

Pray that the Team, and later the church, will be able to discern the difference between the core values and commitments of a person and personality factors.

Cautions about the New Lead Pastor

Pray that the pastor will be confident of his beliefs, but be able to function well within the latitude of our statement of faith, understanding how to articulate the truth without being rabid about forcing a particular point of view

Pray that the pastor will have built into his life safeguards against the temptations and potential ministry pitfalls of money, sex, and power.

Appendix C – Sample Search Team Pastor Profile Communication to Congregation

To: The Congregation of ABC Church

From: The Pastoral Search Team

After much prayer, biblical reflection, and consideration, the Pastoral Search Team has agreed on the following profile for the next senior pastor of ABC Church:

The Senior Pastor will manifest

  • Godly character
  • Devotion to Bible study and expository preaching
  • Vision for ABC’s ministry locally and globally
  • Ability to lead the staff and church together with the Council of Elders
  • A heart for pastoral care of the congregation

To fulfill his duties, the Pastoral Search Team expects that the next senior pastor will

  • Hold to historic evangelical faith with a generous spirit toward those with whom he differs on non-essentials
  • Be committed to the centrality of preaching, making it a priority in his ministry
  • Understand and value theology and the theological disciplines
  • Understand and value the history of Christianity
  • Be a team player
  • Have a holistic philosophy of worship
  • Be driven by convictions, not trends
  • Be a person of world awareness
  • View the church’s mission as holistic, local, and global, with outreach central to the church’s health
  • Support children’s, youth and adult ministries and hold them as vital to the successful carrying out of the church’s mission
  • Support wholeheartedly ABC’s ongoing ministries and offer vision for their development and expansion

He is likely also to have

  • An advanced or professional degree in one of the theological disciplines with proficiency in biblical languages
  • Experience as a senior pastor, including staff leadership
  • Ability to speak to ad hoc issues facing the church—scriptural, cultural, theological
  • Ability to speak about theology clearly to lay people
  • Humility, stature, and gravitas and be one whom people respect and want to follow

Appendix D – Sample Behavior based Interview Questions

The following interview questions are designed as an outcome based assessment of the candidate. The assessment is based on the 12 Foundational Principles of Selection developed by Charles R. Ridley. Dr. Ridleyʼs principles are built on the premise that the best predictor of future performance is past behavior. Likewise, the best assessment of pastoral leadership is examples of pastoral leadership in past behaviors.

  • Describe an experience when you were conscious of God’s loving control in your life.
  • What has been a big personal failure or disappointment? How did God use this situation to build your spiritual life?
  • Give an example of a group you formed or led. What evidences can you give of how well the group followed your leadership?
  • If you left your current role, what would you miss most about your current position and what would you be glad to be rid of? (Are you at peace with others in your present employment position? Explain.)
  • What are the next 5 things you need to do in order to thrive in your present position?
  • Talk about two people whom you helped to equip or develop. What was your role?
  • Tell about your last unplanned staff adjustment. What happened and how did you handle it? (If you have fired someone, before you released them – what did you do to rescue them?)
  • What has given you the greatest feeling of accomplishment in your professional ministry life? How was that effort initiated, and what obstacles did you overcome in carrying it out?
  • Give some specific examples of how you have integrated biblical truth into your professional life?
  • Share about a time when you had a vision for a God-sized project that you pursued despite pessimism or objections from significant other people. What was the vision? How did you gain this vision? Develop it? Communicate it?
  • Give an example of how you seek to personally build relationships with people who are different from you ethnically, racially, generationally, denominationally and socio-economically?
  • Share how you have displayed self-management disciplines (getting work done on time, keeping commitments, consistency, honesty) that encouraged followers to trust your leadership?
  • What convictions do you and your spouse share regarding boundaries and the demands of a pastor? How did you arrive at these convictions?
  • Tell about a time when you had to stand alone for a conviction.