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“Interviewing” a Pastor Candidate has got to be one of the most bizarre spectacles we have created in ministry. We are in the middle of one right now.
On one level - it’s ridiculous. I mean most of us pastors are posers anyway. We fly by the seat of our pants, we’re trying to trust God, we’re too busy to be a mystic, and we have a huge need to be liked by other pastors. (Are engineers this way?)
On another level - it can be awesome. If someone chooses to be vulnerable enough to…well, disagree. Can someone pound on the table and say - “I don’t know if this job is for me but I do know that relevancy, authenticity, small group ministry, edgy worship, and communal leadership are such core values to me that they HAVE to be part of the culture I move to.”
Maybe it’s not those values - but if you don’t know yourself well enough to know what you want….maybe you shouldn’t move. maybe you should figure that out first - then go on the journey. Maybe.
Then again, maybe not. I’m just rambling.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Buggy-Buggy // Sep 14, 2005 at 1:53 am
Can you even imagine a candidate honest and open/transparent enough to open himself up to a search committee? Find one - keep him. He’ll set the tone for your church.
Still . . . can you imagine it?
2 Wayne // Sep 14, 2005 at 8:48 am
arrrgh!!! I’ve like typed and deleted three long comments trying to answer “Are Engineers this way?” and I can’t make it flow…guess I might have to blog about it later tonight.
ARRRGGGHHH!!! Right brain overload alert!!!
3 gene // Sep 14, 2005 at 8:54 am
yep, then there’s the search committee who is not representing the church as it really is and the poor candidate–if elected–lands in Cuba when he thought he was moving to Florida. Odd. But like with everything else we have done to make church like corporate america, God still gets the work done…resting in that
4 simmerdown // Sep 14, 2005 at 10:43 pm
i can’t speak for engineers but travelling salesmen are always transparent in front of their firing squads. hmm…is that lightning.
Yes, it’s definitely a two-edged sword on showing the cards…who goes first?
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