May/June 2005 Issue

Avoiding the ZigZags of Searching for a Pastor
By Karen Stiller

Searching for a new pastor doesn’t have to be a cruise through choppy waters

Wanted: A strong, humble, meek, mighty servant leader, not too young, not too old, speaks Hebrew and Greek (but not to us), spends 40 hours a week studying and 30 visiting. Great kids and great hair an asset.

Will this church find its dream pastor? Probably not. But every year in Canada countless churches, large and small,  search for a new pastor. The task can seem overwhelming at first—especially when there is a myriad of emotions to work through over the departure of the current pastor.

Whether the congregation is reeling in grief or dancing a jig of joy (or maybe a bit of both), the ship will soon be left without a captain and a new one must be found. The good news is that most congregations are not left to sink or swim. Most denominations have a reliable structure in place to help congregations find a new minister.

The actual level of involvement by the denomination varies from a congregation simply being instructed to follow a “how-to” manual, to head office being present every step of the way. Whatever the specifics of the process, there are some principles that can help any church set the right course through the potentially rough waters of searching for a new pastor.

Fare Thee Well

It’s all about the goodbye, says David Shepherd, a district superintendent with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC). “We get to the church quickly to prepare the pastor and the church for closure,” he explains. “How this happens is very relevant to the future.” Shepherd stresses the importance of the church releasing the pastor to his or her new work, and the pastor letting go of the spiritual bond he or she has made with the congregation. This can be in the form of a service that symbolizes that both the church and pastor are moving into a “new season.”

But Not Before We Talk

Bill Fietje, a district superintendent of the Associated Gospel Church of Canada (AGC), says part of an excellent sendoff is an exit interview with the departing pastor. “We listen and record.” He and his coworkers also listen to the congregation. “People are more likely to say what’s on their mind after the pastor leaves,” says Fietje. He watches for what works well in the church, but also the “skeletons in the closet, the bodies in the back yard.” In both the PAOC and the AGC, the time between pastors is viewed as an opportunity to diagnose and attempt to treat any unhealthy tendencies that might plague a church.

Prepare and then Prepare Some More

Whether they call it a parish profile or a church survey, every congregation looking for a new pastor will need to figure out what they are about as a church—the good and the bad—so they know what they are looking for in a pastor. “The hard work is telling the story of the church,” says Fietje. “They need to understand their own church. The best way to find a good wife is to be a good husband.” Fietje considers this process, which can take months, as helping the congregation “create the ability to make a good decision.” He says the “more we put up front in the process, the healthier the outcome. It’s almost directly proportional.” In many denominations, that work of self-analysis and preparation is often done under the leadership of a team of church members who agree to serve on a committee to find a new pastor.

Committee Life

Russell Sketchley was a member of the “transition team” for his Baptist church in Dartmouth, N.S. He stresses that the committee’s work should not be rushed.

”We took the time to research and read. We took two months to begin preparing ourselves to even start to look.” Their team consisted of board members, people who had been in leadership roles and church members nominated by the congregation. But be sure to include enough board members on a search committee, advises David Macfarlane, a pastor and director of national initiatives for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. “Often the search committee is a totally different board than the actual board. The new pastor has to work with the actual church board, a board that may have had just one voice out of 12 on the search team,” says Macfarlane. “You can all talk the same language, but mean very different things.”

The Tricky Work of Communication

Sketchley knows all about miscommunication. It happened a few times during his church’s two-year search for a new pastor. Even though they had regular “transition team moments” during church services, it still seemed difficult to make their message clear. The advice from the experts: Keep updates regular, simple and focused, and use a variety of ways to do it: in the service, bulletin, newsletter and at special town hall meetings. David Shepherd from the PAOC (whose congregations vote on candidates) has seen congregations reject a good potential pastor simply to send a message to what they considered to be an uncommunicative search committee. In the Free Methodist Church of Canada, congregations don’t vote, so “make sure they have a voice,” advises Alan Retzman, director of personnel. The goal of communication is to “lower anxiety and raise the trust,” he says. Bill Fiejte sums it up this way: “If people don’t help plan the battle, they’ll battle the plan.”

The Biggest Battle

The biggest struggle of them all, though, might be the temptation for a church to whitewash their troubles and inflate their accomplishments in order to attract a great pastor. According to David MacFarlane, this problem is more common than one might think. “This can be a major issue. It’s quite prevalent. You don’t often hear the whole truth as to why the former pastor left. You discover once you’re there that the issues are still there too.”

The danger is for a church to rush through or skim over the process of analyzing who they really are and then, even unintentionally, portray themselves as something they are not. “They’re handing out material that is what they wish to be but not what they’re actually living out,” explains Fietje. A candidate, therefore, is applying to an unrealistic job description in a church that exists only in theory.

A search committee should also be on the lookout for candidates presenting their ideal selves instead of the real McCoy. Alan Retzman advises churches to regard an applicant’s actual “track record” as opposed to what they say they have always wanted to do. “It’s not about what they want to do; it’s about what they have done,” says Retzman.

It is up to both the search committee and the applicant to ask tough questions of each other and provide honest answers to each other—even to the point of asking for references other than what is listed on paper. There is one question that David MacFarlane advises applicants to ask. “Ask to speak to the pastor who left. I never did it, and I wish I had.”

This commitment to honesty and rigorous self-evaluation during the process of looking for a new pastor ultimately serves the church itself. Fiejte believes that the reason many pastors stay only three to five years in a charge is because something went askew in the hiring process.

Then a church finds itself, once again, setting out on the journey to find a new pastor. It is a journey fraught with potential hazards, but also an amazing opportunity to grow into a healthier church, ready for a new season with their carefully and prayerfully chosen new pastor.

Karen Stiller is a freelance writer in Port Perry, Ont. and associate editor of Faith Today.

Cautionary True Tales from the Unique World of Church Hiring

“Well, it just got a fresh coat of paint five years ago.” —Property manager touring the family through the parsonage.

“I’m sorry you wasted all this time, dear, but we’re really looking for a pastor who’s married with two or three children.” —Member of search committee walking a just interviewed single candidate to the car for the long drive home.

“This key doesn’t fit! Someone brought the wrong key!” —Member of search committee fumbling in the dark and cold to open the rectory for the candidate and his wife.

“Do you play the piano? The organ? Anything?”—Question to the candidate’s wife.

“Hope you’re not allergic to cats!” —Cat-loving host welcoming candidates flown in for an overnight visit. The wife was indeed allergic.

“You’re the fifth person I’ve done this for today.” —Weary wife of search committee member touring candidate’s spouse around town.

Searching for a Healthy Search Committee

 Ban the bullies. Give everyone the chance to contribute. One or two people should not dominate the group.

Confidentiality rules. Slip-ups in this area can damage other churches who may not know their pastor is an applicant somewhere else. (One pastor from Saskatchewan applied to a church in Toronto and a parishioner heard about it while on vacation in Nova Scotia.)

Value everyone’s input and perspective, even if you don’t agree with it.

Come ready to work at the meetings. Don’t arrive unprepared and “pool your ignorance.”

Allow “freedom” in the process. Build on ideas instead of criticizing them.

Pray together and for each other and the church during this process. 

- Adapted from guidelines of the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference and the Western Ontario District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.