Like this:

True story. One day I received this email:

Dear Mr. Beckett:

Thank you for expressing interest in the position of Senior Pastor of ________ Church. We received your resume and entered you into our database of applicants.

We are asking all applicants to comment on the following questions:

1.   Why are you interested in this position?

2.   What is your philosophy of pastoral ministry?

Please send your responses to ________search@gmail.com

Your prayers for our search team and church are appreciated. Thank you again for your interest.

Sincerely,

___________ Church
Search Committee

I was stumped. Yes, they gave me the name of the church and an email address but I didn’t know who they were and they wanted me to answer the question, “Why are you interested in this position?”

So I wrote back, “Thank you for your note. I am very glad to answer the questions but need a bit of help. This is embarrassing to ask but would you please send me the city & state in which you are located. I can then find your website again….”

Their response was interesting as they noted they were new to the search process. From now on they would put their address in their emails!  By then I had connected the dots and figured out who they were.

Just figuring out who sent me the email was a challenge. Then there were the questions, starting with “Why are you interested in this position?” In this case I had visited their church once to hear a friend speak. Also I had looked over their website. Other than that, I had almost no knowledge of the church. Yet I was asked to answer the question why I would want to become their senior pastor. (Note the second question was a pretty wide open one as well!)

My answer, based on the limited information I had, did get me to the next level of their process–which was a questionnaire, which is a topic I’ll address later. When it looked like it was going to move to the level past that, which was another questionnaire, I raised a question. Basically I pointed out that they kept asking for information about me but were not telling me anything about themselves. The good thing is that my note had the result of kicking in a process of putting together information about the church.

When a search committee makes a contact, it should be one in which they tell about themselves. It is easy for the prospect to start feeling like a piece of meat. (Tough analogy there but wait till we get to the Project Runway one!) As a potential candidate you are poked, prodded, examined, interrogated, investigated, measured, weighed, analyzed…and so is your spouse. As a candidate we are making a huge decision as well, one that may involve selling a house and relocating a family. The potential pastor/staff member needs to know about the church/position. It is not possible to make a good decision without that kind of information.

So put together a basic information packet to send in conjunction with your initial contact. Include the basics of church constitution, annual reports and financial statements. Do more than that though. Help the person see the life and personality of the ministry. Include informative brochures, publications and newsletters. Include information about the facilities and even about the community itself.

And especially include information on the position itself. Make that information specific enough that the person you contact can get a basic feel for if they are qualified, interested or willing to consider it.

A good search process is going to be facilitated by two way conversation. Don’t do your interview process looking through a one-way mirror.

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