So Your Pastor Retired . . . Now What?

I recently learned of a church, with which I am familiar, that even before its present pastor had left, albeit he had announced his retirement, had hired a “Christian” pastor search consulting firm to work with their church elected pastor search committee in locating a replacement for the retiring pastor.

Consulting with churches about finding pastors and other senior staff members is apparently a lucrative field. I came up with a list of 11 without any effort at all.

• Y Scouts
• Halftime Talent Solutions 
• Vanderbloemen Search Group
• Faith Search Partners
• Agora
• Recruiterie
• CarterBaldwin
• The Dingman Company
• True Path
• Shepherd's Staff
• Slingshot

Learning this raised a number of questions in my mind. The first question that came to mind had nothing to do with searching for a pastor. It was the idea that a company could be a Christian firm. It always bothered me just a little that we would identify for-profit companies as being Christian. I would personally prefer to refer to them as a firm owned and operated by Christians or perhaps a firm that caters to Christian people and churches.  Okay that’s out of the way now to the subject of hands. 

I must confess at the very beginning that I am pretty much old school Baptist when it comes to calling a pastor to a church. So, let me stay at the very beginning that my underlying presupposition in regard to the calling of the pastor is as follows: 

I believe that the Bible teaches that God calls, equips, commissions and assigns pastors to His churches. I also believe that it is not the job of the pulpit committee to find a pastor for their church. Their job is to find the man that God has already selected to be the under-shepherd of His church. I also believe that, regardless of the process, a committee comprised of spiritually-minded people will discover that God will reveal His choice to them with a remarkable clarity. 

Now, having said that I need to flesh it out just a little. I have an acute awareness that Scripture does not give a process for this. There are no specific instructions for the process a church uses when filling a vacancy in the office of the under-shepherd of the church. However that does not mean that the church can just choose any process to make that selection. Whatever the process of a church chooses for selecting under-shepherd it must meet certain criteria.

Clearly, it is not efficient for the church to act as a committee-of-the-whole. Therefore, the church should elect from among its body a number, chosen by the church, of spiritually minded people to serve as a pastor search committee. I would suggest that you will not find a better model that Acts 6 and the choosing of the original Deacons.  This would be a good model for this committee and how this process should work. It is the process used in Acts to which I speak and not the specifics. 

The basic requirement for such a committee is that it consist of people who are “full of the Holy Spirit” (spiritually minded) and of “good report” (have a good reputation both in and out of the church). Pulpit Committees, Pastor search Committees and Pastor Search Teams (as we are now calling them) above everything else you can say about them MUST be composed of people who are sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the committee is not trying to find a pastor for their church. They are trying to find the person God has already selected for that position. A committee attune to the Holy Spirit will know that person when they see them. Their spirit will bear witness with the Holy Spirit with unanimity within the committee. So when making the recommendation to the church the can say with honesty and integrity, "We recommend this person to be the next pastor of our church believing them to be God's person for our church."

As a practical matter the church should decide on the number of members for such a committee.  If a list is generated from which members are chosen that list should be twice the number needed. For example: let’s say the church decides on six as the number of people on the committee. Any list presented to the church should contain at least 12 names listed alphabetically. From that list church members will select eight names. The names selected shall then be listed in order of the number of times they were selected with the top six selections forming the committee and the two below that as alternates. 

Contrary to what most might think with the first responsibility of the pastor search committee is not to obtain a list of potential pastors nor is it to begin the process of screaming a list of potential pastors. The first responsibility of such a committee is to bring themselves together spiritually. This means meeting together to share experiences and prayer. Pray for one another; to pray for the guidance of the holy spirit; and to organize themselves as a committee. I recommend that the committee at least choose a chairman and a secretary to record what they do as well as a spokesperson to speak for the committee. It is my conviction that the committee when asked by a congregant about their work could always tell the truth I’m trust the people but when telling the truth and trusting the people they do it through a single spokesperson.

Now, let us suppose that as in the church mentioned in the first paragraph the committee decides that they want to employ an outside consulting company the help them discharge their duties regarding finding the under-shepherd for the church. The question that must be addressed is, what is the role that this consulting company will play in selecting the right person for the church? 

I would suggest that the only role of the consulting firm would be to narrow down the field of candidates to a group that fits within the parameters 1st Timothy 3:1-7. This could include things such as background checks regarding criminal backgrounds, financial responsibility, domestic stability, educational accuracy and other such items. All of this in aid of narrowing the field of candidates down to the qualities the enumerated in 1st Timothy.

I also want to point out that simply because someone has had difficulty in their past does not rule them out as being God’s choice for your church. Quite frankly, not very many of the Apostles could not pass muster based on the background checks that we perform today. Such a process does not make allowance for the redemptive and reconciliation priorities placed upon the church. Besides such reports contain a lot of inaccurate and in many cases just plain wrong material.  

For example, did the negative background data predate or post date the candidate’s salvation and calling to ministry. The committee must be very careful that they do not designate what God has cleansed as unclean or unfit (See Acts 10:9-16 ). The committee must always remember it is their responsibility to recommend God’s choice not their own personal choice for under-shepherd.

In addition the committee will want to hear personally from not about each candidate on their “serious” list concerning the following:

1. Their salvation experience
2. Their call to preach (Not just to “ministry.” Ministry is too broad for the under-shepherd)
3. The nature and role of Scripture
4. Church governance
5. Their stance on Moral issues of day
6. Here them in the pulpit and not just on a recording. You want to see them in a live presentation and get the whole context. 
7. Just about anything else you want to know about.

Remember, as a representative of both the Lord and His congregation you are interested not only in their answers but in how they answer and their body language as they answer. 

So tell me, what do you think?