Finding great candidates for your ministry opening can be challenging even in the best of situations. I’m a firm believer in the principle that great candidate pools must be built through a combination of advertising, networking with your peers and most especially outright recruiting. Let me tell you a cautionary tale about the search for a new pulpit minister at the Anytown Church of Christ where their pride made a tough job even harder (the names have been changed to protect the innocent).
Except for the decision of which minister to hire, the selection of your Search Committee Chair is THE MOST important decision that the Elders will make during the hiring process.
The Committee Chair sets the pace, drives the process and becomes the “face” of the Committee both internally and externally. Candidates will often develop their first impressions of your congregation based off of their interactions with the Chair. So the Chair can have a great deal of impact on which ministers ultimately become or remain Candidates for your position.
It probably goes without saying, but hiring a minister is one of the most important decisions you can make in the history of a congregation. A minister is a leader that will guide and shape the faith of your members. The “right” minister can bless you for generations to come. The “wrong” minister can lead to congregational pain, division in the body, stunted spiritual growth, and even lost souls.
Testimonials
Minister Match helped us hire a new minister in half the time we took for our previous hire. We used the Minister Match process which helped us build a consensus of what we wanted. Minister Match's network then helped us to build an ...
The process was well marketed and we were provided ample information to help explain the steps to the congregation. The book that accompanied the information was very valuable and I referred to it often during the process. As the search team ...
Our Search Committee is so grateful that we used Minister Match when we needed to hire our new Youth Minister. Minister Match assisted us in recruiting many serious candidates (over 30) that fit what our congregation was looking for. The ...
We had a very good experience with Minister Match. This was not the first time we had searched for a minister, but it was the first time we used a search firm. Our experience with Minister Match was a complete success. In previous searches, we ...
The Minister Match team was very professional. The entire process was very transparent. It was structured and organized, which made it a whole lot easier. I felt that the team also had a genuine concern for the Lord's church and His ministers. ...
Minister Match was kind to me, followed up really well, and tried to be as helpful as possible. I believe they give a lot of attention to the candidates and care about their part of the process.
Minister Match did an excellent job connecting me with a congregation that I would not have known about otherwise. Don Viar did an excellent job representing my concerns to the search committee and did an excellent job communicating their concerns ...
I was grateful for the guidance of Minister Match through the complex and time-intensive search process. John was responsive, supportive and knowledgable. Communication was excellent and flexible around my availability as a volunteer search ...
I strongly encourage ministers to take advantage of the expertise of the folks at Minister Match to help put together a high quality resume. They will help you identify strong points you didn't even know you have! I am extremely satisfied with the ...
We would not have been exposed to the large number of qualified candidates without the resources and expertise of Minister Match. The search process was very organized and accomplished very efficiently with the program and schedule provided by ...
Contact Information
Minister Match
410 South Lowe Avenue
Cookeville, TN 38501
Your congregation has just hired a minister, and it seems like they are the perfect fit. Congratulations! There is one more step to the process, though, and it is just as important as the process of finding the right minister. You might have heard people refer to how the “first hundred days” of someone’s job usually sets the tone for their entire career with that organization. The same is true with ministers. Just as your congregation is going through a major transition, so is your new minister. The first few months of a job are a stressful time, and it is the job of the elders and search committee to help your new minister through their transition.
We refer to this as the “On-Boarding Stage.” Since the “first hundred days” is so important to the rest of a minister’s career with your congregation, we believe this stage is one of the keys to reducing minister turnover in the church. In this post, we want to talk about a few of the things that a new minister needs from their congregation during this transition period. We will refer to them as the ABC’s of the On-Boarding Phase.