Phone Calls and Firefighting

Before the phone calls, some background.

Our committee, at my suggestion, made a decision early on in the process not to give the staff any more information that we gave to the church. The primary reason for this is that the church staff (primarily the secretarial staff) had taken on responsibilities beyond their job descriptions. (I touched on some of this here). For reasons that it would take too long to describe, it became in the interest of the pastor to delegate a lot of decisions to the secretarial staff. I was concerned that there would be a clash between the new pastor and the secretarial staff if this issue was not addressed.

As a result, from time to time throughout the process I heard some carping (through intermediaries) from the staff about being left out of the loop of the search process. Because we were fulfilling the requirements of the by-laws (to report to the church periodically), I saw no need to inform the staff at additional times. So I had no communication with the staff about the search process.

Which turned out to be a poor decision on my part.

Nature, and Southern Baptist congregations during a search for a new pastor, each abhor vacuums. As a result, the staff was primed to feel threatened and to latch on to any wild rumor that might be circulating through the church at any given moment. Because of these rumors, the secretarial staff was as combustible as dry kindling.

Two situations served as the sparks which ignited that Monday morning. The first spark began to catch fire on Sunday evening. In the video of our candidate that we showed to the congregation, he made mention that his wife ran the church’s pre-kindergarten program. Sitting in the congregation were two individuals, the lady who runs Lakeview’s Pre-K program and her mom who attend our church as well. So the initial thought that ran through their respective minds was “The new pastor’s wife is going to come in here to do my job and I (or my daughter) is going to be fired.” Because of the video, the children’s Pre-K program director was highly worried about her job. And no, it never crossed my mind that she would react this way, again a case of extreme short sightedness on my part.

(Note: Brother Rick’s wife is exceptionally gifted in the area of children’s ministry, and we discussed with him in detail the fact that the pastor search committee is only charged with calling a pastor, not with calling a children’s minister as well. Had he insisted on a package deal, we would’ve had to go back to the church and discuss it with the congregation or moved onto another candidate.)

Phone call number two was from one of our Pastor Search committee members who brought this issue to my attention.

The other spark that flashed on Monday morning was struck by one of our senior adults. As I’ve mentioned previously, we gave the senior adults some special updates every other Sunday in their Sunday school classes because they had little representation on the search committee. We wanted the senior adults to feel included in the process, but essentially just restated what we had already shared with the rest of the congregation.

One of the members of the class often came into the church offices on Monday mornings to count the offering from the previous day. Apparently, while they were counting, some of the staff would ask her about their most recent report to the Senior Adult class. For whatever reason, the information she shared with the staff was almost always wrong.

For example, one Sunday morning we shared with the group that we would be conducting credit checks on the candidates. Somehow that was misunderstood and explained to the staff as “the search committee has decided that they won’t call anyone who is in debt to be our pastor.” It was a bit humorous.

But the day after we presented the video of the candidate, this same lady came in to help count the offering. And for whatever reason, shortly after she arrived, she announced to the staff that “The new pastor is going to come in here and bring in his own staff. All of you are going to lose your jobs.”

Now obviously this was wrong…primarily because the pastoral candidate was the entire staff at his small church. So technically I guess she was right. But there were no plans for any terminations on his arrival.

So phone call number three was to inform me that the entire staff was fearful of their jobs. So our job as committee members that week shifted to firefighters. We had to start putting out these three fires.

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Politics

Courtesy of Derek Webb, this pretty much summarizes my view of the current election cycle. It's called "Savior on Capitol Hill." My favorite line "You can always trust the Devil or a politician, to be the Devil or a politician..." Enjoy!

Phone Call #1

When I arrived at work the next morning, I had an email from Brother James. Brother James, as you won’t recall (because I hadn’t given him a name yet) was the deacon who disagreed vocally with the idea of getting an intentional interim pastor for the church due to a check in his spirit, and then later asked me if he could nominate me for the pastor search committee. He also is chair of the Stewardship committee and had been the chair of the previous pastor search committee thirteen years ago. The previous pastor declared him to be the man who knows the pulse of the church more than anyone else.

James’ email asked me to call him and talk with him about the candidate for pastor. I called him immediately and we had a 45 minute discussion. He asked me to fill him in on how the committee came to believe that this man was the one for Lakeview Baptist. I took him through the process and explained in detail the way we reached this conclusion. As I mentioned previously, many of our procedures were ones that he had put in place for the previous committee several years beforehand. He listened carefully and asked several questions for clarification. I shared all the information I could. Several of his questions related to the fact that he was uncomfortable with the fact that the candidate had only pastored for two years. I think a part of his concern was also the fact that the process had “only” taken ten months or so. Thirteen years before, when we searched for a pastor, the process lasted closer to two years.

Then he asked me the question that I believe was really at the heart of his phone call. “Taran, why do you think the Lord would lead a man to us with so little experience?” I again repeated my thoughts on his experience and also reminded James that we were not the same church we were when we called our previous pastor. At that time we were running 450+ and now we were hovering between 150 and 200.

He thanked me for the time, but as I hung up, I had a sense of disappointment. I wondered what would happen if he began to express his reservations to others.

And then later that afternoon, I received another phone call.

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The Encore Effect: A Review

I have a few criteria on a good book for self help books. I like them to be short, and they need to have a few helpful tips on productivity. So I looked forward to reading Mark Sanborn's work The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do .

According to Sanborn, everyone wants to make a difference in the world, but most have no idea how to maximize their impact. In The Encore Effect, best-selling author and leadership expert Sanborn purports to provide the answer. He leads readers in six practices that will move them beyond excellence to distinction and from mundane to memorable. These principles guide readers to draw on their passion and devote themselves to preparation, practice, presentation, polishing, and finally, avoiding pitfalls. When readers follow these principles they will find that people are attracted to them. More importantly, they'll find that they now have an influence over others that can impact lives for eternity.

The "Encore" in the title of the book refers to the idea that you will do such a great job in your work that you will be asked by your coworkers/bosses/friends to keep doing it. The image is one of a performance. I do like the idea that when we work on something, we are performing. I don't think it should sound artificial and fake that I describe my teaching or preaching, as a performance.

Essentially, he takes common sense for increasing performance and packages it in an attractive hardcover book. But do we really need another book the spends time repackaging the common sense items that most people already know. You could summarize much of what he says in an aphorism or two "Practice makes perfect", etc.

One other concern is that the copy I received has special additions that make it more useful to Christians. It comes with verses and thoughtful Christian questions and verse quotations that are meant to probe the material from a Christian perspective. But I usually feel a bit queasy when target marketed. If the Christian material was integral to the book, then Sanborn should've included it in the generally released copy. If not, then it should've been omitted. I'm not fond of books that are printed one way for Christians and another way for everyone else.

Not a big fan of the book. (I have no extra copies, but after that review would you want one??)

The Announcement

Following the committee's vote to extend a call to brother Rick as pastor, we met again to discuss how to inform the church of our decision. Throughout the process, our committee did an excellent job of keeping our deliberations a secret. This was very important to me for two reasons. First, it insulated the church from the typical ups and downs of the search process. I didn’t want the whole church to be deflated if we ever got close to a candidate we really liked and then the process broke down. Second, and even more importantly, we also wanted to protect the ministries of the candidates we considered. Few things are more demoralizing to a congregation than the knowledge that their beloved pastor is deep in conversation with another church.

There was so much excitement among the committee members, however, that a few confessed to me that they had told their spouses and so we wanted to move quickly to bring the process to a conclusion. But our church by-laws require a two week process. We were supposed to announce the candidate on one Sunday, then have him come in to preach on the following Sunday, then we would vote on him the third Sunday morning. We decided that we would start the process by announcing our decision as soon as possible: the following Sunday.

We puzzled a little bit on how to introduce his name to the church. We wanted to prepare the church for his arrival in a positive way. Fortunately, he had been the subject of a state convention DVD connected with our state offering and we had a copy of the video. In order to get the age issue out on the table, we wanted to show the video to the entire church. Again, the new pastor was 30 years old, a good three decades younger than his predecessor. Letting the church see his youthful visage on video would be a good way of preparing them for his personal arrival the following week.

We made plans for the entire committee to be there on Sunday morning. I then asked to speak to the church at the end of the service, like we had on previous occasions. Unlike previous reports to the church, with this report, the entire committee went up behind the pulpit and stood behind me as I shared with them the process by which we had reached our decision. One other individual on the committee shared about the candidate's ministry experience, and another committee member shared a bit about his family.

Then I asked the church (rather dramatically) if they would like to see the man whom we believed God was calling to pastor our church. I'm not sure what I expected their response to be, but they looked around uncomfortably. I immediately signaled the sound booth to start the DVD. Which they did…but it was cued to the incorrect track and showed the wrong guy. Then I had to announce to the church “Uhhhh. That’s not him.” to the confusion of all.

Following the correct video, the congregation stood and applauded. I had worked it out with the Chairman of the Deacons to come up and remind the church about the by-laws and the proper procedure for voting and extending a call. As he arrived at the microphone he said "I'm sure that we will have a positive vote and that 98% of the church will be on board. I would say 100%, but even Jesus had to deal with a Judas." (!)

After the service, many people came up to us and shared their excitement about the candidate. The announcement went off well.

So it came as some surprise to me then, the next morning, when all Hades broke loose…

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Velociraptor and Bunkbeds

Although I generally loathe all things viral (both physically and uhhhh internetedly), for some reason this amused me. If I were in the market for new furniture, I would definitely consider BunkbedsPedia for all things bunkbed related).

I could survive for 1 minute, 9 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

The Road to Lost Innocence: A Review

There is a depth of moral depravity that I have been blessed not to experience.

There are things going on in my community, my nation, and my world that would devastate me if I only knew of them. Most of the time, I live in a hermetically sealed environment that is of a completely different world from the rest of the planet. From time to time a newspaper report or a personal experience may pick up the rock of society so that I catch of the glimpse of the seething, disgusting filth that lives underneath it.

One such recent experience accompanied my reading of a recent book The Road to Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam. Mam was born in Cambodia and orphaned at an early age. She grew up never knowing her real name or birthday. As a teenager, Somaly Mam was sold into prostitution and spent years in the brothels of Cambodia where she witnessed and experienced the full-blown horrors of the human sex trade – rape, torture, and nearly unfathomable abuse. It is almost impossible to believe some of the stories she tells about the lives of the girls in these brothels. In Cambodia, it is a societal belief that having sex with virgins protects the male against the AIDS virus and can even extend the lives of men. As a result, little girls are sold into the sex trade by their families. And by little girls I mean 6, 7, and 8 year olds.

The disregard for human life is unfathomable. On one occasion Mam witnessed a police officer who was also a client in the brothel pull out a gun and shoot one of the young girls because she was fighting him. The woman running the brothel simply cleaned up the remains and threw them into the city dump. Then she used the experience to warn the other girls to be compliant with the customers.

Eventually, through her interactions with some foreign aid workers (first as a prostitute, then by marrying one) Mam managed to escape this dreadful life and move to France. But her experiences refused to let her stay away and she has moved back to try to help others escape from this awful life. The book, The Road of Lost Innocence" is Mam’s newest means of advocacy.

This is a Christian book, thought Jesus is never mentioned and Mam never makes any kind of a religious statement. She mentions on one occasion that she is still not sure that she understands the concept of love, perhaps because she has experienced so little of it in her life.

I call this a Christian book because it depicts in precise details a world in which sin reigns and people are used as objects rather than as creatures made in the image of God. The wages of sin are certainly death and this book reminds me that for many, the death Paul talks about starts in this life. The world in which Mam lives is the world that so desperately needs to be saved.

Unfortunately I have no copies of the book, but I absolutely recommend it. It is powerful.

In which I take an unprovoked shot at my brother…

who as we speak can’t defend himself because he’s sitting in the dark in Houston


Last night on the trampoline:

Scooter: "Daddy? What purpose do mosquitoes serve? Why are they here?"

Me: "Scooter, I’m sure mosquitoes serve some purpose in God’s creation, but their reason for existence completely eludes me…sort of like your Uncle Bartolo."


Scooter:"Daddy! If Uncle Bartolo heard you say that he'd cry."

More on Credit Checks

Because of Bowden McElroy's generous comments over at SBCImpact.net, we have some first time visitors here. Welcome.

Ron asked some great questions that I wanted to spend a little more time addressing. First, let me say that I greatly value your thoughts on the matter. But even more I value your service as a pastor. As you are well aware, there is not more difficult job on the planet. One of my long term hopes is that other search committees may stumble across this blog and benefit from our own experiences (both positive and negative). A few pastors comment on here from time to time and I hope that syou will continue to do the same.

I’ll post his Ron's comment below and then respond.

As a pastor who has had a horrible personal financial experience in part due to a church not being able to pay me my full salary...I find it amazing that you have said in earlier post that the finances of the church were "dire" and yet you want a pastor whose is not...funny a boatload of you got your church into your mess, yet you want a pastor who has not had that experience. Is there a double standard here? I am new to this blog...and want you to know I have really enjoyed reading your entries...but this caught me as a little strange...yet i see this a lot...churches looking for and desiring the perfect pastor...would the committee been willing to also print out there credit report for all to see?? Ron

The overarching principle I tried to apply in this situation is transparency.

The Pastor/Congregation relationship best functions (maybe only truly functions) when there is an honest, transparent relationship between the two. As a representative of the church in this search process, I found it absolutely essential that we share exactly where our church stood in regard to finances.

As I’ve indicated, we haven’t handled our church indebtedness well. But once the candidate decides to join us as pastor, he comes alongside of us and shares in our burden. So it doesn’t matter that the indebtedness was entered into 10 years ago before many members of the church (including myself) had even joined the church. What matters is that Lakeview has this debt today. It is our debt. I wanted the candidate to know exactly where we stood so that he would have the opportunity to stand with us. Or not. I certainly would’ve understood if any candidate had said to us “You know, I don’t see this church prospering under that level of debt. Good luck finding your next pastor.” Your own experience of dealing with a church not paying you your full salary illustrates the importance of full disclosure.

But I think the same process of transparency works in the other direction. There some good reasons for checking out the credit history of a potential candidate.

First, I think that the Search Committee needs to do due diligence to make sure that the candidate complies with the biblical qualifications for the office of pastor. I see this as part of the command to make sure that the pastor runs his own household well. If he’s had some financial concerns in the past I would like to make sure that he’s addressed them going forward.

Second, financial stress always leads to personal stress. And personal stress affects ministry. Too much indebtedness will affect his ability to minister to the church. We need to be aware of this from the beginning.


Third, I think that there is a moral dimension to failing to repay debts. If we have a candidate who has not paid what he promised to pay, it raises some issues of character. Obviously there are circumstances beyond an individual’s control, but generally speaking one should pay their debts.

Last, on a personal note, I would expect that a church would do the same thing to me. At this moment I am discussing an intentional interim process with a church and I will request that they do a background check and a credit check on me to model for them how the process should work.

You raise a final issue about how widely this information should be disseminated. I can't imagine any circumstance in which the congregation as a whole would need to have this information. I don’t think it is necessary for even all of the search committee to be made aware of this credit history. I do think that the number of those who know should be more than one person, so that there is some corroboration when the report is made to the committee. In our case, we established a subcommittee of two PSC members to run the credit check (in the presence of the candidate). We then reported to the committee something like “His credit history and total indebtedness is fine.” We then gave all of the financial (and background check) information to the candidate. We kept no record of it and honestly, three months later, I can’t today tell you any of the numbers from his report.

Ron, one question you didn’t ask (and that I haven’t addressed) is how much bad credit and/or debt is too much. I have no idea. We didn't request a credit score, we just looked at his total indebtedness. Some questions: Will the amount of his debt require him to get a second job? Will he need extraordinary compensation to service his debt? Does he have a bankruptcy in his credit history? None of these are deal breakers in my mind, but I would like to know how he’s addressed the underlying issues behind the indebtedness. As Larry Burkett used to say, financial issues aren’t the problem, they are always the symptom of other problems.

Ron, once a gain thanks for your comment. And above all, thank you for your service to God's kingdom.

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Background Checks and an Inside Candidate

We had to take care of two other housekeeping issues regarding the search. First, we had to conduct a background check and a credit check on Brother Rick. The same weekend as the theological interview, we got two members of the committee (myself and a member who also chaired the personnel committee) to conduct both checks and to report back to the rest of the committee. We went to http://www.securesearchpro.com/ and for a very reasonable $12.00 price got a criminal background check that covered all 50 states. (He was clean). When he was in town for his theological interview, we had him go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ and get a free credit report. Our purpose in generating this report was to verify that his indebtedness wasn’t too substantial. Once again he was clean.

Our second task was a bit more substantial. We had an inside candidate for the position of pastor. Our youth minister had assumed a great number of responsibilities in the absence of a pastor. In fact, he was the only full-time minister remaining on staff. He assumed preaching responsibilities for several months while the church got an interim and he blossomed in that role. He also began doing hospital visits and performing funerals and weddings and did a great job in all of these areas. A few months into the process he asked me if he could submit his name as a candidate for the position. He said “How convinced do I need to be that God is calling me to be pastor before I submit my name?” I told him that I thought he only needed to be confident (and obedient) enough that God wanted him to submit his name, not necessarily convinced that he was called to become the next pastor.

After considering his candidacy, the committee was unanimous that he was not going to be the next pastor. At this time we were also reaching the end of the interview process with brother Rick. So another committee member and I took our youth pastor out to breakfast and shared with him the committee’s decision. Part of the difficulty of our task is that we wanted to be straightforward with him as to some concerns that the committee had about him in the role of pastor, while still affirming the exceptional job he was doing during the interim. He was very receptive to our concerns and took the news well. He also shared that the fact he would not be the next pastor would make his wife extremely happy! He pledged to work hard alongside the new pastor. As we shared with him about brother Rick, he grew even more excited. Although I had some initial concerns about how the meeting would go, it turned out wonderfully.

As a post-script, the church has recently changed the job title of the youth minister to that of administration/associate pastor. He now works hand in hand with the new pastor and is doing an outstanding job.

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The Theological Interview (II)

As we concluded our theological interview, we only had one reservation. A few on the committee had only seen him preach on one occasion. One of the committee members mentioned the fact that she would like to hear him preach again. He told her that he had preached three times for the committee (a neutral site, once in our home town, and once at his church) and that it was enough. If we asked him to preach for us again, he was going to withdraw from the search. Although this led to some frustration on the part of the committee (including myself) in retrospect his approach seemed to be reasonable, and geared to protecting his current congregation from another absence from the pulpit.

At the end of the meeting, I asked Rick if he had any final questions for us. He asked a few about our weaknesses and then ended the interview with the following line. “You have asked me a lot of questions and I have answered to the best of my ability. I imagine that you could find someone else who could answer these questions better than I could. I know that you could find someone with more experience than I have. But you won’t find anyone who will love this church more than I will. All I have to offer you is my heart. That’s what I have to offer this church: my heart.” When he finished these words, several of the committee members teared up.

Following the extensive theological interview, I walked Brother Rick out to his car. I slipped him a copy of our church directory with names of the regular attenders highlighted. When I returned to the rest of the committee, they were chatting excitedly. In short, the interview went well. It wasn’t that Rick had answered all the questions “correctly” (By correct I suppose a PSC means “Simply agreeing with us”). On a few occasions he mentioned the he didn't know the answer to a question. But more than his theological fidelity, the committee was impressed by his honesty and his transparency. One committee member summed up the feelings for several when he said “I feel like in the eight hours I spent today with him that I know him better than I got to know our previous pastor in the last thirteen years.”

Although several of the committee wanted to vote on the spot, I was concerned about acting due to the emotion of the moment. I suggested that we wait a week before voting. But over the next few days, as I spoke with various committee members, I began to realize that every member of the committee was in favor of voting early on Wednesday. So on Wednesday we decided to vote on calling him as pastor. The committee was unanimous, including the alternate. We immediately called Brother Rick and let him know the exciting news. He was excited as well.

After we hung up the speaker phone and were filing out of the conference room, one committee member told me in passing: I wonder if these next two weeks will be the hardest part of the process? I assured her that the most difficult part of the search was behind us.

Boy was I wrong!

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To the Four Winds...

Life has (yet again) accelerated around our household. For the first time in thirteen years, each of our kids is in school. Scooter occupies the Alpha position in middle school as an eighth-grader, the queen of all she surveys. Peasant sixth graders cower in her presence. Skeeter is in the same position as a fifth grader in elementary school, at the pinnacle of the heap. At the other end of the food chain is Squealer, a small kindergartener who is still adjusting to this new (and exhilarating) world outside our household.

Having three kids at three different schools has stretched our meager planning and scheduling skills to the breaking point. Mornings begin early and race by. Scooter heads to the front yard at 6:59 am for her 7:00 bus stop. (Yes, I’m mostly over my first impression from a couple of years ago). After much prayer and anguish, we decided to let Squealer ride the bus. This concerned us, because with his diminutive size (and his giftedness in bothering people) we were concerned about him being tossed out one of the bus windows. But after an extended phone conversation with the bus driver (and the reality of his school being some distance from our home) we decided to give it a shot. He too must be at a bus stop for a 7:00 am pick up, about a mile from our house. Skeeter leaves the house at 7:30 via bike. Her school is .9 miles from our home and you must be 1 mile away to ride the bus. So despite the fact that she must cross a pretty major thoroughfare, we decided to take the plunge and let her ride. She loves the responsibility and freedom that a bike gives her.

So every morning, our three kids are scattered to the four winds. A bike, two buses and a multitude of prayers fan out across our community every morning. And we are reminded again that they are in His hands.

Exactly where they've been all along.

Pastor Search Committee Questions

I will include here the pool of questions we prepared for Brother Rick. Some of these we devised, but most came from various other resources. Again, we asked about 70 of these, but in the course of the interview, Rick touched on answers to each of them. Also some of them we ended up not asking because we simply hit the high points of the Baptist Faith and Message and asked “Where do you agree and disagree?”

Our main goal was to be thorough on hitting the primary points. Certainly we may have gone overboard (as DD questions here). I think the main thing we wanted was to be able to answer anyone in the church who might ask us a question “Did you ask him about…..? or “What does Brother Rick think about …?”

Anyway, here’s the list. I would appreciate comments on other questions we might have asked, or (from our pastors out there) what are some of the stranger questions that you’ve been asked?

PASTORAL MINISTRY QUESTIONS

Ministry Experience

1. What have you learned in the congregation you now serve that will make you a better pastor?

2. Describe your weaknesses and your strengths.

3. Describe a ministry experience with the congregation you now serve that captures your greatest strengths.

4. Outside of normal vacation time, how many weeks per year do you like to be away from church doing ministry (revivals, missions, conferences, etc.) and study?

Philosophy of Ministry
5. What attracts you to Lakeview Baptist Church? How long would you like to stay at this church?

6. Describe your leadership style. To what extent are you self-directed in your ministry responsibilities?

7. Describe the mission of your present congregation. In what ways has your ministry influenced this mission?

Worship Leader
8. Describe a typical worship service for which you plan to lead. Do you use an order of service?

9. How do you balance worship so it addresses the needs of different age groups?

10. Have you felt the Holy Spirit leading you to change the service in any way once it has begun and how did you handle that?

Pastoral Care and Counseling
11. Recently, sexual misconduct and internet pornography within the church has become a more visible issue. What safe guards have you initiated to protect yourself and the church from such misconduct?

12. How do you view your role in visiting members and church guests (visitors)?

13. Do you have any restrictions on the performance of marriages? Describe your approach to marriage counseling.

14. What is your counseling philosophy?

15. Do you consider yourself a counselor? What type of counseling do you perform?

16. How do you equip church members to provide care to other congregational members?

17. Give us an example of a typical week of pastoral care activities.

18. As pastor you must be a leader and Lakeview Baptist Church has a history of following the pastor. How will you lead by example in the ministries of Lakeview Baptist Church?

Missions and Evangelism
19. What role does evangelism plan in your current church? (Worship, activites, etc.) Do you view some activities or services being more focused on evangelism than others? Which ones?

20. Some people believe a church can become too big. Others feel that every church should become as large as possible. What’s your view?

21. Compare and contrast outreach vs. soul winning.

22. What is your heart with regards to missions?

Staff Relationships
23. What accountability would be expected among staff members?

24. How comfortable are you in providing direction to staff members?

25. Who should be included in staff meetings?

26. How would you respond to other staff members who in your opinion are doing a poor job?

27. Describe how your management or leadership style affects your relationship with other church staff members?

28. When it comes to support staff, what is your policy with regards to church membership?

29. How do you relate to committees in your church?

Community Relations
30. What responsibility do you feel the church has to respond to the social problems affecting our community?

31. How do church politics on a local, state, regional, and national level figure into your ministry and time?

Personal
32. What motivates you as a pastor?

33. How do you cope with stress?

34. What spiritual disciplines guide your life?

35. Tell us about your devotional life.

36. Have you ever had a crisis of faith? And, if so, how did you work through it? What was learned?

Education
37. What skills do you bring to this position that you believe will serve you and the church well? How did you obtain these skills? How do you apply these skills to your work?

38. What are your intentions as far as continuing your education?

Congregation Life
39. What changes may be in store for our congregation if you become our pastor?

40. Describe your operational strategy during the first 6 months of a church. (How do you set goals, prioritize plans, define and evaluate success?)

41. What church structure do you view as best in helping a congregation to achieve its mission?

42. How have you approached the issues of finance and stewardship with your present congregation?

43. As pastor of a church, you have tremendous influence with that congregation. In your own words, could you explain or describe what that influence is?

44. How would you be willing to handle accountability from the congregation and do you have accountability partners that you meet with regularly? Who are they?

45. Coming from a much smaller congregation, how will you involve the body to help you meet its needs?

Preaching
46. Describe your routine process of preparing sermons.

47. Are there any topics you feel uncomfortable preaching about, such as finances or current moral issues?

48. How much time to you devote to sermon preparation?

49. How do you select sermon topics? Would you consider yourself a topical or exegetical preacher?

Christian Education
50. What is your role in Christian education?

51. What Bible study curriculum do you currently use for the different age groups within your church? How do you determine which to use?

52. What educational programs, other than Sunday School, do you emphasize?

Administration
53. What is the primary role of the deacon body? What responsibilities, priorities or boundaries should be the deacon body have in defining our church ministry?

54. What accountability should exist between the deacon body and the pastoral staff members?

55. Do you have a job description now? What parts of it do you feel confident about performing, and with what parts of it do you feel uncomfortable?

56. In what capacity do you work with committees, deacons, or church leadership and what role will they play in overall church decisions like personnel, vision, finances, and outreach?

Family Life
57. What things would you like the church to do to provide support to your family?

58. If you were to move here, what type of housing would you be looking for?

Questions about our Church
59. What do you see that you like about Lakeview Baptist Church?

60. Are there any concerns about which we have not asked, which might be of a sensitive nature for you or Lakeview Baptist Church?

61. Do you have questions about this position that have not been answered?

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
1. Describe the importance of Scripture.

2. Explain the biblical term “baptism of the Spirit.” When does this baptism occur?

3. What are your views on baptism by water?

4. Views on Calvinism?
a. How does the Bible relate the sovereignty of God to salvation?
b. What does the Bible teach about the extent of man’s depravity?
c. What does Christ’s atonement accomplish?
d. What does the Bible teach about the perseverance and preservation of believers?

5. What is the proper use of the Old Testament Law?

6. What is the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament?

7. How would you explain the Trinity? Why is it important?

8. What is your view of end-time or eschatological issues?

9. Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? What is the significance of your belief?

10. What is your interpretation of the biblical teaching on Hell?

11. What does the Bible teach concerning spiritual gifts? Please delineate your views about prophecy and speaking in tongues.

12. What is your view of divorce and remarriage? How strictly will you follow this view in practice?

13. What is your view of the phrase, “The bishop [pastor] then must be…the husband of one wife” (1 Tim. 3:2)?

14. Please explain your views on church discipline.

15. Many children who appear to be converted at an early age show no evidence of knowing Christ later. How do you handle children when they come to you for counsel concerning conversion? What is your advice to parents?

16. What is a useful plan for receiving new members into the church? What are prerequisites?

17. What are your views on styles of church music?

18. Who should direct the worship of the church? Why? Which methods of leading corporate worship are appropriate? Which are inappropriate?

19. What are your views regarding raising money for various projects within the church? Should the church solicit those outside the church?

20. What are your convictions about the local church and debt?

21. What does the Bible teach about women in ministry?

22. What does the Bible teach about how churches should make decisions?

23. How should a pastor and his church relate to other churches locally and to the larger Southern Baptist body? Do you feel comfortable cooperating with other denominations? Do you draw any lines?

24. What are the biblical responsibilities of elders? Are there any distinctions between elders, pastors, and overseers? If applicable, what distinctions exist between staff and non-staff pastors?

25. What are the biblical responsibilities of deacons? How are deacons and elders to relate?

26. What emphasis do you give to the leadership of fathers with their families, especially in terms of family worship? Do you personally engage in family worship with your wife and children?

27. Are you familiar with the term “missional”? What does it mean?

28. How do you see a difference between being a church planter and a pastor?

29. What does the Bible say about homosexual behavior? Can one be a Christian and a homosexual?

30. What version of the Bible do you preach from?

31. What is your view of the use of the altar for prayer during the worship service?

32. To what degree, if any, do you differ with the historical doctrinal positions of this church?

33. Describe several ethical principles that guide your work.

34. What special services do you conduct throughout the year?

35. What is the purpose of the Lord’s supper? Do you believe it should be open or closed, and how often should it be practiced?

36. Do you believe that there should still be revival meetings? How often?

37. Describe a personal experience that has significantly shaped your own theology.

38. What are your views on the following:
a. God
b. Baptism
c. Jesus
d. Salvation
e. The Holy Spirit
f. The Church
g. The Bible
h. Stewardship

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Partial Bovine Missiles...

Several years ago, we received a Leapfrog Fridge Magnetic Farm Animal set. This toy/learning device sticks to your refrigerator and is accompanied by several farm animals which also stick to your fridge. You put both halves of the animals in the barn and mash them and they moo, cluck, oink or whatever. Or you can switch a button and mash them and then they spell the name of the animal. Due to the incredible power of inertia (consistently the most powerful force in our household), this rural structure has remained on our refrigerator for years, even though Squealer has left toddlerhood far behind. Squealer had generally forgotten about them….until a few days ago. I was in the living room and I began to hear some pretty intense wailing coming from the kitchen.

Skeeter: “Waaah!”

I ran into the room where Skeeter wailed while Squealer looked around somewhat disinterestedly. “What happened here?”

Skeeter: “Squealer threw a cow at me! Waah!!!”

Squealer: “No I didn’t! She’s lying.”

Skeeter: Stopped crying, in shock and her little brother’s cool prevarication. “Yes you did, you hit me with that cow right there.” She pointed by the dishwasher and guiltily resting there was the purple butt end of the cow magnet.

Squealer, shaking his head insistently: “I didn’t hit you with the cow, I hit you with a part of the cow.”

I said “Squealer is that true, did you hit her with the cow—I mean part of the cow” I added when I saw him beginning to object.

“Yes sir.”

“Do we throw things?”

“No sir, but it was just a part of the cow.”

I struggled for a moment before amending my next question “Do we throw parts of cows?”

“No sir.”

“You still need to apologize to your sister.”

“Skeeter, I’m sorry I hit you in the face with a part of the cow” he gently said.

She sniffled patiently and replied “I forgive you Squealer, for hitting me in the face with a part of a cow.”