Pastoral Candidate Profiles

[BLB]

It has become a trend today for churches to poll the congregation & then develop a profile of what their church is looking for in the "perfect" pastor for them. Recently, a long time pastor friend related to me that he feels that most churches no longer seek the guidance of, or rely upon God or the Holy Spirit to lead them to the man that He has selected for them but rely upon their own initiative or understanding.

I'd like to hear some opinions on this, especially from search committies. Do you rely too much on profiles or do you trust in God to pick your next pastor?

Pastor Search Committee Report

In our search for a suitable pastor, the following scratch sheet was developed for your perusal. Of the candidates investigated by the committee, only one was found to have the necessary qualities. The list contains the names of the candidates and comments on each, should you be interested in investigating them further for future pastoral placements.

Noah: He has 120 years of preaching experience, but no converts.

Moses: He stutters; and his former congregation says he loses his temper over trivial things.

Abraham: He took off to Egypt during hard times. We heard that he got into trouble with the authorities and then tried to lie his way out.

David: He is an unacceptable moral character. He might have been considered for minister of music had he not 'fallen.'

Solomon: He has a reputation for wisdom but fails to practice what he preaches.

Elijah: He proved to be inconsistent, and is known to fold under pressure.

Hosea: His family life is in a shambles. Divorced, and remarried to a prostitute.

Jeremiah: He is too emotional, alarmist; some say a real 'pain in the neck.'

Amos: Comes from a farming background. Better off picking figs.

John: He says he is a Baptist but lacks tact and dresses like a hippie. Would not feel comfortable at a church potluck supper.

Peter: Has a bad temper, and was heard to have even denied Christ publicly.

Paul: We found him to lack tact. He is too harsh, His appearance is contemptible, and he preaches far too long.

Timothy: He has potential, but is much too young for the position.

Jesus: He tends to offend church members with his preaching, especially Bible scholars. He is also too controversial. He even offended the search committee with his pointed questions.

And, our choice is:


Judas: He seemed to be very practical, co-operative, good with money, cares for the poor, and dresses well. We all agreed that he is just the man we are looking for to fill the vacancy as our Senior Pastor.

Thank you for all you have done in assisting us with our pastoral search.

Sincerely,
The Pastoral Search Committee.

[BLB]

I canot believe that this has been posted here for 13 days and has had 21 views without anyone expressing an opinion.

[DrJ]

It appears to me that your analysis is correct. It seems that more time is spent on profile analysis than on prayer. Sometimes that works out very well (because God often blesses us despite ourselves), and other times it only ends in frustration born of years (not months) of searching until a congregation is ready to take the next breathing candidate who'll send in a resume'. (Fortunately, most don't act on that kind of desperation, but they get to the point where they sure "feel" like doing so.)

We too often forget that it's God's place to determine the leadership of a congregation, not the place of a committee or even the place of a majority. We seek to know His will, not to determine it for Him.

On the other hand, do we start "casting lots" like the Apostles when they wanted to replace ol' Judas? (Since he left the group to become Sr. Pastor of the Church you mentioned.) Even then, they had a criterion to determine whose names would be in on the "lot toss". All that is to say that it's difficult to be critical of a congregation that "seems" to spend too much emphasis on pastoral profiles when I don't have an alternative method beyond a prayerful lot toss.

The "problem" today is that most congregations have too many candidates from which to choose, thanks to the internet. We're no longer left with choosing between Aunt Bertha's cousin's pastor whose leaving his church and comes highly recommended by Aunt Bertha--between him and Jacob Marley's ex-business partner, Scrooge. It's harder to flip a coin between 200-300 people than it is between 2 or 3. At the same time, because of the large numbers, a whole lot of candidates are rather randomly sorted out of those considered based upon some fairly frivolous reasons (or so it seems to me)--rejected because they didn't fall into an age range, or didn't go to the "correct" school or one of the "correct" schools, or their last congregation didn't grow as much as we would have expected (expections based upon no real knowledge of that congregation), etc. etc.--rejected without REALLY knowing them. That's not a criticism. It has to be that way because of the large numbers. No committee can look at 200-300 candidates and give each one a completely fair and reasonable consideration. I suspect in all that a lot of incredibly great pastors are passed over, because they missed the criteria. Still I don't know how to fix the process. Do you?

[Shiloh]

Recent surveys state that 41% of all who go to church are not born again and 35% of all born agains do not read their Bible or share their faith. Do you really expect them to use spiritual discernment to call a pastor? They are business people and call a man like they are hiring a CEO and they are the stockholders and the Board.