The Sunset Church of Christ is a culturally diverse congregation of about 600 members located in Miami, Florida. About half the congregation speaks Spanish as their primary language and, for that reason, Sunset feels very strongly about hiring bilingual ministers. In the Spring of 2015, Sunset lost its long term Youth Minister and began to think about how to replace him. While Miami is a paradise, Sunset has historically found it tough to find ministers willing to relocate to the city.

To provide some context, when Sunset started their Youth Minister search, they were fresh off of the search for a new Children’s Minister. That Children’s Minister search had lasted almost two years and only produced two or three viable candidates. Bob Perkins, an elder at Sunset, knew that they didn’t want to repeat that process for a new Youth Minister and was intrigued by an e-mail he received from Minister Match.

Sunset hired Minister Match in August and proceeded to implement our Minister Hiring Process. We partnered with the elders to plan the search and then worked with the search committee to complete the Planning Phase. By early October, we were ready to begin the Recruiting Phase and started with an initial email blast to over three thousand church leaders. Over the course of the next three months, our team attempted about 2,200 phone calls and connected with 582 ministers, church leaders, deans, and university professors from around the country. It definitely wasn’t easy but in the end, a total of 24 candidates were identified.

As the committee narrowed the pool, they found that they had a diverse pool of candidates. They had long term youth ministers who were considered “super stars.” They had men who were coming back to youth ministry later in life and they had men who were just about to graduate from college.  They had conservatives, moderates and progressives.  They had candidates from most of the major brotherhood universities and as well as several with advanced degrees. For a diverse congregation like Sunset, it was exactly what they needed. It helped them weigh the pro’s and con’s of various candidates and in the end be comfortable that they had found the right fit for Sunset.  That man’s name is Sam Wilson.

About Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson grew up in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. While he was in high school, he began to develop his youth ministry skills while shadowing Jon David Schwartz, youth minister for the Chapel Hill Church of Christ. He then attended Freed-Hardeman University, majoring in Bible with minors in Youth Ministry and Psychology. He spent two years as Youth Ministry Intern for the North Jackson Church of Christ, and he returned to Chapel Hill as an intern in the summer of 2015.

Throughout his college years, Sam began to learn Spanish on his own. He was also blessed with the opportunity to participate in several mission trips to Central America and Mexico, where he was able to further improve his Spanish skills. This passion for Spanish missions is what drew him to Sunset. He graduated from Freed-Hardeman in May 2016 and began serving as Sunset’s Youth Minister on June 5, 2016.