Joy in the Journey: Progress in Our Senior Minister Search
Our Senior Minister Search Committee has been busy this summer. Our networking activities are ongoing, and we continue to get leads from our many church friends and supporters around the nation. To date we have contacted (or been contacted by) over 45 people who have helped generate 70 referrals to us. Not all are interested in applying for our position but 25 have applied so far. We consider this phase of our search to be a success and it’s not even over yet. Referrals and resumes continue to come in, and they are a diverse group including Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ, and even a Quaker! Both male and female candidates are applying.
As previously mentioned, our selection criteria are strict as our church circumstances are unique. And remember, you helped develop these criteria through your participation this past spring in our Congregational Survey and April Congregational Meeting.
The Center for Healthy Churches recommends that a search start with 8 to 10 qualified candidates. Our starting number will likely be within this range. While we are continuing to add to our candidate pool, we have already begun our first round of interviews. We are excited about the candidates we’ve talked with so far.
Our first-round interviews are focused on the candidate’s history. We have a list of questions that are designed to help us identify if they have the qualities and experience we need. We don’t ask hypothetical questions. We ask about their actual experiences. As is said in the business world, past performance predicts future behavior.
I can’t convey to you how excited our Committee is to finally be interviewing candidates. All our prep work is starting to pay off and we are experiencing JOY! It is so interesting to hear our candidates tell their stories. Some of them young and full of youthful energy and others more mature and full of wisdom and experience. A few - the ones we are most interested in - have both.
As I’ve said before, this is the best church group I’ve ever been associated with. You may recall we were selected by a team of Deacons and leaders led by Scott Crowder. We were picked to be representative of the Congregation and I believe we are. This means we don’t always agree on everything but each of us is motivated by our love for the church and the desire to see it thrive. We prepared a list of short bios of our Committee that we give to candidates so they can know us a little better prior to their interview. You can view it here.
And we are living out something we all agreed to at our Congregational Meeting in April: each of us is willing to compromise on some of the things we personally want in a Senior Minister to get those things we know the church needs for this time in its history. There is no turning back the clock. Our focus is on the future. The Gospel never changes but how people related to it and how the church teaches it needs to constantly adapt.
We are committed to finding a new Senior Minister who can partner with us in this bold endeavor and we are excited! We hope you are too. Continue to pray for us and our church.