Longtime readers may recall that one of my favorite theologians is N. T. Wright. I mentioned hearing him address the annual SBL meeting in San Diego last November.
Oddly enough, he turned up a few nights ago on the Colbert Report. The thought of Steve Colbert interviewing Bishop N.T. Wright seems about as likely as Woody Allen interviewing Billy Graham!! But it made for a interesting conversation nonetheless. Although you do have to wade through a heavy layer of Colbertian snark, it’s still worth it. The topic is heaven and the New Heavens and the New Earth.
Enjoy!
(What?! You mean you didn’t know that Woody Allen DID interview Billy Graham?)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Checking References
We consulted the references for all of the candidates with whom we made contact. Most candidates included three references, but some did not. From those we secured at least three references. We then divided up the references and had the committee members contact them. At times, some of the committee members knew one of the references and would speak with them. But in most cases, these reference checks formed the first impression of the candidate by the individual committee members. In our case, they were extremely important.
In almost every instance, contacting the references proved to be the most valuable part of the search process.
It provided us much needed perspective on the situation of the pastoral candidate and was illuminating on various occasions. The reference could generally speak on subjects that the candidate was less inclined to speak upon. The references could address any trouble at the church, or trouble in home life that the candidate might not have shared. Conversely, they could point to accomplishments or some other type of acclaim that the candidate might possess but not feel free to share.
We asked each reference the following four questions:
1. In what capacity have you known the candidate? This gave us a context for the information that we would be receiving. For example, in one instance all of the references were friends or other pastors. None of the references had ever heard the candidate preach before.
2. How would you evaluate his giftedness as a pastor, and in your estimation, what are his strengths and weaknesses? As might be expected, most all of the references were positive and offered numerous examples of strengths. Weaknesses were more difficult to ferret out. Some simply said “I can think of no weaknesses” which means that the reference was either disingenuous (unlikely) or didn’t know the candidate particularly well (more likely). One reference said that the candidate’s only weakness was that he cheered for the college football team of a neighboring state!
But some weaknesses were helpful. One reference said of a candidate that he struggled with feeling despondent and depressed with some regularity. Another reference shared that the pastor’s son had been involved in some illegal activities.
3. Is there any reason we should not call this person to be our pastor? We went fishing with this question, thinking that perhaps some reference might mention a deep secret that would preclude a candidate from the office of pastor. We gained no secret knowledge. The answer in every case was “Nope.”
4. Could you please give us another name that we can discuss this candidate with? We decided to ask for a “one off” reference. This allowed us to speak with people who knew the candidate, but not be limited to references that the candidate alone had chosen. The idea was that this would permit us to speak with someone else who knows the candidate well, but is not necessarily of the candidate’s choosing. I recommend using this question as it put us in contact with someone who usually felt more free to discuss the candidate.
(Back to main Pastor Search Committee Menu)
In almost every instance, contacting the references proved to be the most valuable part of the search process.
It provided us much needed perspective on the situation of the pastoral candidate and was illuminating on various occasions. The reference could generally speak on subjects that the candidate was less inclined to speak upon. The references could address any trouble at the church, or trouble in home life that the candidate might not have shared. Conversely, they could point to accomplishments or some other type of acclaim that the candidate might possess but not feel free to share.
We asked each reference the following four questions:
1. In what capacity have you known the candidate? This gave us a context for the information that we would be receiving. For example, in one instance all of the references were friends or other pastors. None of the references had ever heard the candidate preach before.
2. How would you evaluate his giftedness as a pastor, and in your estimation, what are his strengths and weaknesses? As might be expected, most all of the references were positive and offered numerous examples of strengths. Weaknesses were more difficult to ferret out. Some simply said “I can think of no weaknesses” which means that the reference was either disingenuous (unlikely) or didn’t know the candidate particularly well (more likely). One reference said that the candidate’s only weakness was that he cheered for the college football team of a neighboring state!
But some weaknesses were helpful. One reference said of a candidate that he struggled with feeling despondent and depressed with some regularity. Another reference shared that the pastor’s son had been involved in some illegal activities.
3. Is there any reason we should not call this person to be our pastor? We went fishing with this question, thinking that perhaps some reference might mention a deep secret that would preclude a candidate from the office of pastor. We gained no secret knowledge. The answer in every case was “Nope.”
4. Could you please give us another name that we can discuss this candidate with? We decided to ask for a “one off” reference. This allowed us to speak with people who knew the candidate, but not be limited to references that the candidate alone had chosen. The idea was that this would permit us to speak with someone else who knows the candidate well, but is not necessarily of the candidate’s choosing. I recommend using this question as it put us in contact with someone who usually felt more free to discuss the candidate.
(Back to main Pastor Search Committee Menu)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Initial Contact
What we did after we received the resumes:
When we looked over the resumes, there were a few instances where we clearly knew that the person wouldn’t be a good fit at Lakeview. We set those resumes aside. In one case an individual was retired and in his seventies. His cover letter gave no rationale for why he was considering leaving retirement. In another case, a candidate shared a bit too much personal history (in spectacular detail) in his cover letter that led us to question his judgment. (TMI as Scooter would say).
In another instance, one of the committee members had very close knowledge of the candidate and, after sharing this knowledge with the committee, we rejected the candidate.
And we had a few letters that were clearly sent out to each and every church this individual found out about (one applicant sent the wrong church's name in the cover letter while another applied for a position we weren't search for: Director of Missions). But about 95% of the resumes we received we contacted.
Since we desired to standardize the process as much as possible, we made the decision that as Chairman of the Committee, I would contact each of the candidates for a brief phone interview. In the initial call, I would ask each candidate the following questions:
When we looked over the resumes, there were a few instances where we clearly knew that the person wouldn’t be a good fit at Lakeview. We set those resumes aside. In one case an individual was retired and in his seventies. His cover letter gave no rationale for why he was considering leaving retirement. In another case, a candidate shared a bit too much personal history (in spectacular detail) in his cover letter that led us to question his judgment. (TMI as Scooter would say).
In another instance, one of the committee members had very close knowledge of the candidate and, after sharing this knowledge with the committee, we rejected the candidate.
And we had a few letters that were clearly sent out to each and every church this individual found out about (one applicant sent the wrong church's name in the cover letter while another applied for a position we weren't search for: Director of Missions). But about 95% of the resumes we received we contacted.
Since we desired to standardize the process as much as possible, we made the decision that as Chairman of the Committee, I would contact each of the candidates for a brief phone interview. In the initial call, I would ask each candidate the following questions:
1. "Are you interested in our committee considering you for this position?" We asked this question (obviously) in order to gauge their interest. In several cases, where one of our church members had recommended them or where we received what turned out to be an older resume, their answer was a brief "Nope." In some cases they asked several questions about Lakeview before they answered. (We took a dim view of that response). But by and large, the answer was "Yes."
2. The second question I asked was "Tell me about yourself." (OK, technically not a question;)We had a couple of motives here. The first, and most obvious, was to learn a little bit more about the candidate. But we also left the question fairly open ended so that they could answer however they pleased. Most told their testimonies. Some answers were short, and some long. One thing we began to take note of was whether or not they mentioned their families. Some would answer for several minutes and shared a great deal of pride in their current location of ministry, but would only mention their family when prompted. Overall, our committee responded more favorably toward the candidate who clearly prioritized family over ministry.
3. Our third question was "Why do you feel that God may be moving you to another place of ministry at this time in your life?" This question was a (not so?) subtle way of trying to determine if there were any negative factors going on at their current place of ministry that might have been a factor in their decision to move on. We did have some negative things come up, but most of them were explained to our satisfaction by the candidate. It was always better for negative situations to be brought up by the candidate rather than for them to come up when we discussed the candidate with their references.
4. Our final question was "What does it mean to be Baptist?" Of our initial questions, this was the only one that touched on the issue of theology. We wanted to give them an opportunity to talk about what was important to them. In retrospect, this was probably the least helpful of the initial questions as almost every candidate gave some variation on the answers of Believer's Baptist and Inerrancy of the Bible.
Next: How we dealt with references...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Mechanics of the Search: Gathering Resumes
***Please note that we developed these processes over a few months. My assumption is that we relied on God for guidance through all of this. So understand that when I say something like “We did this and this” I am assuming that the readers will understand that we actively sought out God’s direction before we engaged in any particular task.***
We contacted the two large SBC seminaries in the deep south (SWBTS and NOBTS) as well as the various state conventions surrounding our area. We received by far the most resumes from our local association and received numerous names from church members as well. In a few cases, we received resumes directly from pastors. And lastly we personally solicited some from individuals known by the committee.
Most helpful were the resumes passed on to us by our associational office. I spent a fair amount of time with our Director of Missions and found him to be very helpful throughout this process. Whenever he sent me a resume, I could contact him and request additional information (off the record) and he never failed to give me additional context for the candidate.
We didn’t receive that many names from church members, just a handful. We repeatedly encouraged the church members to submit names, another attempt to keep them involved in the process. We contacted each of the suggested names and received resumes from maybe 1/3 of them.
We also made contact with several ministers in the area that the various committee members personally knew and thought would be a good fit at Lakeview. In most cases, they believed that God was calling them to remain in their current position of ministry. A variation on this practice led us to our new pastor. I contacted a mentor who works in our state office and he knew of a strong candidate that he recommended to us.
We had a few pastors send their resumes directly to us and generally took a dim view of that practice. Pastoral resume etiquette indicates that you get a friend, or D.O.M. to submit the resume on your behalf, along with a cover letter of support.
One of the grossest violations of common resume etiquette (in my opinion) was an application we received from a pastor after we had contacted him as a reference on another candidate!! While he spoke to us about another candidate, he asked us a few questions about our church and then later decided to submit his own resume. I disagreed with this practice, though not all on the committee agreed. Some on the committee saw no problem with this behavior.
But they were wrong.
(Back to main Pastor Search Committee Menu)
We contacted the two large SBC seminaries in the deep south (SWBTS and NOBTS) as well as the various state conventions surrounding our area. We received by far the most resumes from our local association and received numerous names from church members as well. In a few cases, we received resumes directly from pastors. And lastly we personally solicited some from individuals known by the committee.
Most helpful were the resumes passed on to us by our associational office. I spent a fair amount of time with our Director of Missions and found him to be very helpful throughout this process. Whenever he sent me a resume, I could contact him and request additional information (off the record) and he never failed to give me additional context for the candidate.
We didn’t receive that many names from church members, just a handful. We repeatedly encouraged the church members to submit names, another attempt to keep them involved in the process. We contacted each of the suggested names and received resumes from maybe 1/3 of them.
We also made contact with several ministers in the area that the various committee members personally knew and thought would be a good fit at Lakeview. In most cases, they believed that God was calling them to remain in their current position of ministry. A variation on this practice led us to our new pastor. I contacted a mentor who works in our state office and he knew of a strong candidate that he recommended to us.
We had a few pastors send their resumes directly to us and generally took a dim view of that practice. Pastoral resume etiquette indicates that you get a friend, or D.O.M. to submit the resume on your behalf, along with a cover letter of support.
One of the grossest violations of common resume etiquette (in my opinion) was an application we received from a pastor after we had contacted him as a reference on another candidate!! While he spoke to us about another candidate, he asked us a few questions about our church and then later decided to submit his own resume. I disagreed with this practice, though not all on the committee agreed. Some on the committee saw no problem with this behavior.
But they were wrong.
(Back to main Pastor Search Committee Menu)
Friday, June 06, 2008
A Few Minutes Well Spent
Last night Scooter, Skeeter and I were watching an old movie that I recorded recently. It was the first time that they had ever seen Harvey, the movie starring Jimmy Stewart and a six foot rabbit. One of the best highlights of recent memory was spending about ten minutes working with Skeeter on her Jimmy Stewart impression.
Enjoy the clip
Enjoy the clip
Thursday, June 05, 2008
The Search Process as a Whole
I think the biggest surprise in the search process was how God used it to change me. The search process was (like any good road trip movie) far more about the journey than the destination. Our search accomplished a few things:
1. I suppose the most obvious is that we got a new pastor. Not to ruin the suspense but the search did come to completion.
2. We got to know one another as a committee very well. When we began meeting last July, our normal custom was to meet on Wednesday evenings after choir practice and Bible study starting at 7:30. We tried to be done by 10:00, but most of the time we went to 10:30 or even 11:00. Out of the nine committee members, I knew about three of them well. The others I really didn’t know at all. But we know each other very well now! During these hours together we spent a great deal of time learning about each other, sometimes intentionally (through ice breakers), but mostly unintentionally as we discussed various issues facing the church. My hope is that this close fellowship will strengthen the church in the months and years ahead.
3. As a committee we learned a lot about our church. I heard stories from older members of the committee that predated my arrival at Lakeview. Since our meetings were always in confidence, there was a freedom about sharing the frustrations and joys we had experienced individually as they related to choices and decisions that the church leadership had made on previous occasions.
4. Personally I had my faith stretched on several occasions. My faith (like the rest of me) has as tendency to get a bit flabby when underused. This year as a whole has been challenging, but particularly the last few weeks. As the search come to a conclusion, there were numerous moving parts that our committee had to deal with.
5. I feel like we were sitting on the front row watching God at work. Many things occurred that demonstrated to the committee that God was working through this challenging process.
In the next few posts, I will detail the mechanics of the search and share our experiences (and our screw-ups!) during the process.
(Back to main Pastor Search Committee Menu)
1. I suppose the most obvious is that we got a new pastor. Not to ruin the suspense but the search did come to completion.
2. We got to know one another as a committee very well. When we began meeting last July, our normal custom was to meet on Wednesday evenings after choir practice and Bible study starting at 7:30. We tried to be done by 10:00, but most of the time we went to 10:30 or even 11:00. Out of the nine committee members, I knew about three of them well. The others I really didn’t know at all. But we know each other very well now! During these hours together we spent a great deal of time learning about each other, sometimes intentionally (through ice breakers), but mostly unintentionally as we discussed various issues facing the church. My hope is that this close fellowship will strengthen the church in the months and years ahead.
3. As a committee we learned a lot about our church. I heard stories from older members of the committee that predated my arrival at Lakeview. Since our meetings were always in confidence, there was a freedom about sharing the frustrations and joys we had experienced individually as they related to choices and decisions that the church leadership had made on previous occasions.
4. Personally I had my faith stretched on several occasions. My faith (like the rest of me) has as tendency to get a bit flabby when underused. This year as a whole has been challenging, but particularly the last few weeks. As the search come to a conclusion, there were numerous moving parts that our committee had to deal with.
5. I feel like we were sitting on the front row watching God at work. Many things occurred that demonstrated to the committee that God was working through this challenging process.
In the next few posts, I will detail the mechanics of the search and share our experiences (and our screw-ups!) during the process.
(Back to main Pastor Search Committee Menu)
Sunday, June 01, 2008
A Love That's Stronger Than our Fears (V)
The evening after my presentation I had a conversation with Matthew, a student in my night class. Matthew is an excellent student who has displayed an intense interest in various bible classes I’ve taught over the last few years including two Bible classes (Pentateuch and the Gospels) and one theology (the Problem of Evil).
And he is also gay.
He was president of the Gay/Straight group last year and attended my presentation earlier in the day. Because of our past relationship, I wanted his honest opinion.
Matthew sighed and said that he was disappointed to hear my views. “But, you might as well think homosexuality is sinful, everyone else does” he said with some exasperation. I pointed out to him that I think homosexual acts are sinful, not homosexuality itself. His shrug indicated that he saw my response as a distinction without a difference.
Matthew continued wearily: “You may not believe this Dr. Taran, but I’m a Christian. I don’t believe that God would condemn someone for the way He had made them.” I felt that my role was to listen, and not debate, so I said nothing.
“Remember my friend Nathan?” I nodded. A week before, Matthew told me privately that he was going to miss a few class periods because a good friend of his, Nathan, was dying of HIV. Matthew had sworn to Nathan years before, when he was first diagnosed, that he wouldn’t let Nathan die alone. So Matthew went up to the nursing home for a few days until Nathan died.
“Nathan grew up in a fundamentalist church. And when he came out of the closet in high school, some of the people in that church said some pretty hate filled things to him. But over the last few years of our friendship, I shared with Nathan that there were some good, loving Christians out in the world. Just because he had encountered some vicious people who claimed the name of Christ, doesn’t mean that Jesus was that way.”
“Dr. Taran, because of my witness to Nathan, he came to know the Lord. I firmly believed that he died a Christian.” I shared with Matthew that I certainly hoped that was the case and then we were quiet. "Well, it's getting late. I'll see you later." and Matthew left the classroom.
So where does that leave me? Essentially where I started, but with perhaps more understanding of the outlook of certain homosexuals. I still think that homosexual actions are sinful, but as I told the group, we are all sinners. A person practicing homosexual activity can be a Believer just as an adulterer, glutton or liar can.
But God calls each of us to change….and that includes me. And I believe I’ve changed somewhat through this process. The title of this series has been (in addition to being cribbed from a Derek Webb song about torture) a reminder that we are called to go and be among the sinners, even when it involves overcoming a fear of how a group might treat us. Even when sharing the gospel in hostile settings, “the love of Christ compels us.” That is an ideal to live up to, and one I'm pretty miserable at following.
(With school beginning again tomorrow, I anticipate more time to finish out the extended series on our Pastor Search Committee. We'll see!)
And he is also gay.
He was president of the Gay/Straight group last year and attended my presentation earlier in the day. Because of our past relationship, I wanted his honest opinion.
Matthew sighed and said that he was disappointed to hear my views. “But, you might as well think homosexuality is sinful, everyone else does” he said with some exasperation. I pointed out to him that I think homosexual acts are sinful, not homosexuality itself. His shrug indicated that he saw my response as a distinction without a difference.
Matthew continued wearily: “You may not believe this Dr. Taran, but I’m a Christian. I don’t believe that God would condemn someone for the way He had made them.” I felt that my role was to listen, and not debate, so I said nothing.
“Remember my friend Nathan?” I nodded. A week before, Matthew told me privately that he was going to miss a few class periods because a good friend of his, Nathan, was dying of HIV. Matthew had sworn to Nathan years before, when he was first diagnosed, that he wouldn’t let Nathan die alone. So Matthew went up to the nursing home for a few days until Nathan died.
“Nathan grew up in a fundamentalist church. And when he came out of the closet in high school, some of the people in that church said some pretty hate filled things to him. But over the last few years of our friendship, I shared with Nathan that there were some good, loving Christians out in the world. Just because he had encountered some vicious people who claimed the name of Christ, doesn’t mean that Jesus was that way.”
“Dr. Taran, because of my witness to Nathan, he came to know the Lord. I firmly believed that he died a Christian.” I shared with Matthew that I certainly hoped that was the case and then we were quiet. "Well, it's getting late. I'll see you later." and Matthew left the classroom.
So where does that leave me? Essentially where I started, but with perhaps more understanding of the outlook of certain homosexuals. I still think that homosexual actions are sinful, but as I told the group, we are all sinners. A person practicing homosexual activity can be a Believer just as an adulterer, glutton or liar can.
But God calls each of us to change….and that includes me. And I believe I’ve changed somewhat through this process. The title of this series has been (in addition to being cribbed from a Derek Webb song about torture) a reminder that we are called to go and be among the sinners, even when it involves overcoming a fear of how a group might treat us. Even when sharing the gospel in hostile settings, “the love of Christ compels us.” That is an ideal to live up to, and one I'm pretty miserable at following.
(With school beginning again tomorrow, I anticipate more time to finish out the extended series on our Pastor Search Committee. We'll see!)
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