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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3 comments:
Taran,
I don't have the answer to the perfect approach, but sometimes the marathon approach used by churches and endured by both candidates and committees would seem cumbersome and counterproductive.
For one thing we treat the session like a pop quiz, but expect the result of a final examination. It's nice to see if the candidate can think on his feet, but my question is always (if you're going to prepare four or five pages of questions), did you send a copy of the possible questions to the candidate a couple of weeks before the interview? Some of the questions, while they ought to be an integral part of the minister, are difficult to verbalize without preparation.
In one past experience, I found myself spending an entire day with the committee and various groups from the church (many at my request), and answering the constant barrage of questions. This was after having a 2 hour phone interview, and flying out for a day and a half of probing questions with my wife.
I know that previewing the questions to the man might elicit canned answers, but most committees can sniff these out.
Benjie,
"we treat the session like a pop quiz, but expect the result of a final examination" That is an excellent line, my friend!
I like the idea of giving the candidate a heads up on the questions and maybe reserving a few to see how he responds off the cuff.
Again, we did cover a lot of the basics by hitting the high points of the BF&M and asking where he disagreed. Good thoughts!
Many of the questions are duplicated in others. A perfect example of this is the Pastor's relationship with Deacons and Elders and what their roles are. This area was covered in multiple locations and was repetitive. If the questions were categorized by topic they would be much easier to navigate through for the candidate and the committee. Otherwise, I thought you all did a good job of covering the bases.
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