The senior pastor search committee of First Church of Bensonville, Kansas had been working and praying hard for several months. All were delighted that they were finally ready to start looking for the pastor they had been envisioning in their many long discussions. Not only had all nine members of the committee contributed their own concerns, burdens and dreams to their ever-expanding “pastor profile” – the word-picture of the pastor they were looking for – they had also consulted the congregation itself by way of a written survey. They were so glad they had, for a number of members had listed requirements for the new pastor that they hadn’t thought of (but wished they had).
All knew the importance of the search: the church had gone through a period of twenty difficult years during which the congregation of about one hundred worshippers had endured a succession of seven pastors. Pastor Smith had been a first-rate scholar but was poor at connecting with people. He was followed by Rev. Johnson, a great shepherd and all-around people-person who was as disorganized as a Kansas tornado. Next came Jeremiah Jahns, a young pastor right out of school who was so well organized that there was no place on the organizational chart for the Holy Spirit! On and on it went, right down to the latest disaster, Pastor Ott, an outreach-minded evangelist who seemed to forget people shortly after leading them to Christ and cared more about the community than his own flock.
This time however, the search team was determined to get it right. They had put together a picture of the perfectly balanced pastor. All who read the profile were impressed, if not downright excited, even after so many years of “pastoral frustration.” It remained only to locate the man and persuade him to move to Bensonville!
On a whim, or so it seemed at least, Ted Parsons, the personnel director of a local manufacturing firm, and the chairman of the committee, had a suggestion: “You know, how about we call up my head-hunter friend John Peterson, down at Wheatville, and see if he might have any ‘leads’ on finding our ‘guy?’ It might be kind of fun to try it and just see what he has to say.” “In fact,” Ted continued, “we could try not telling him we’re a church looking for a pastor and just see what happens.” Some wondered why Ted seemed to be snickering as he spoke.
“I’ve never heard of a church using a secular head-hunter before” Dorothy Anderson quickly quipped. Fred Forman said what several members were already thinking when he asked “What would the congregation think of such foolishness?” There were a few moments of awkward silence, during which Ted smiled as his brothers and sisters twisted in their chairs. At last Harry Reasonable cautiously offered, “I can’t see how it would hurt…actually… and the congregation doesn’t have to know…as long as it doesn’t cost us anything.” “And doesn’t end up in the minutes…” Shirley Goodness quickly added.
Ted seized his opening, picked up the speaker phone’s receiver and started dialing the number off a business card which he almost miraculously seemed to have at his finger-tips. Had he planned this all along? “I know it’s Saturday morning, but these head-hunters tend to be workaholics; who knows? He just might be in his office.”
Sure enough, head-hunter Peterson was in his office, picking up the phone on only the second ring. After a few pleasantries, Ted got right down to business, obviously pretending to be looking for someone for his company. Ted carefully ignored the obvious discomfort of most of his fellow search team members with his ruse, and pressed on. “So John, I’m toying with the idea of an unusual new hire. If you don’t mind, I’ll just paint you a very sketchy picture of the kind of guy we’re looking for and you just give me your reaction will you? No holds barred. Tell me exactly what you think.” As much as head-hunter John was wishing that the “money-clock” was running, he realized that he had been snookered into giving some free advice, and consented.
Ted began his description, measuring his phrases carefully. “Had he practiced this? Was this really spontaneous?” wondered his committee mates. “First of all we’re looking for a man who is a first-rate communicator, able to lecture for thirty minutes at a time and hold the attention of persons from about age six to ninety six.” “Okay, got it.” Peterson responded, sounding like he thought Parsons was done. Ted quickly continued, “It’s also very important that this guy is an excellent leader, able to mobilize a crowd of ordinary people into an army of committed zealots; people who will give their lives for a cause. You know, the ‘vision thing’ along with the ability to get others on board.”
“O…kay…..” Peterson responded cautiously, again sounding a tad skeptical. Undeterred, Ted pressed on. “We’ll also need this guy to be a highly organized manager: somebody who can mobilize, train, organize and supervise all those motivated people…keep ‘em on the same page… rowing in the same direction…showing up on time, doing a great job at their assigned tasks…know what I mean?” “Yeah I do but…” Peterson tried to respond, but was quickly cut-off.
“Besides that,” the determined search committee chairman continued, “he’ll need to be a terrific people person. This is absolutely vital. He has to like everybody…know what I mean?” Before Peterson could answer, Ted soldiered on. “He’ll definitely need to have the empathy of nurse-maid, the understanding of the human experience of a seasoned psychologist and the tact of a diplomat. You know: the ability to tell somebody ‘where to go’ in such a way that he looks forward to the journey.”
At this, a couple of search committee members chuckled nervously while others winced and frowned, obviously uncomfortable with Ted’s definition of a diplomat. They didn’t hear Peterson trying to object at the other end of the line… “wait a min…” Unperturbed, Ted quickly fired off a question to those in the room with him. “Am I forgetting anything? What else should we be telling Mr. Peterson?” His wink and smile seemed to be reminding them, “Remember, we’re not telling him we’re calling from a church and looking for a pastor.”
Obviously uncomfortable with the situation (but determined to get it over with), Susan Bates responded, “Well, remember that he has to be good with teenagers.” The venerable Fred Longtooth, oldest member of the committee added, “And he’d better be good with seniors.” Sarah Singer intoned, “And able to lead musical groups too.”
At last there was silence all around. A “pregnant” pause would be putting it mildly. There was literally no sound from anybody for what seemed like an eternity. At last, Peterson began to laugh and it wasn’t a nice laugh. Search committee members looked at the speaker-phone in horror. The head-hunter was derisive, forced, sarcastic. “Hey Ted, you’re kiddin’ me right? Who are these people in the room with you? Is this a joke? Do I know these people?”
“No joke John,” Ted fibbed. “We’re serious. We’d really like to know if you might know of somebody like this.” There was another long pause as the Christians in the church conference room squirmed uncomfortably and the head-hunter collected his thoughts.
“You really want me to comment on this?” John asked, more seriously, but still incredulous. “Yeah, I really do” Ted said, as seriously as he could. “Give it to us straight.” “Well, okay”…another long pause… “for starters, and this is just for starters, such a person doesn’t exist, has never existed and never will exist.” At this, a couple of search committee members wanted to tell John about Jesus, but sensed that this definitely wasn’t the right time.
“Nobody has that kind of combination of qualities and skills in one personality. It just doesn’t happen. You might find somebody who is the great teacher you described who is also an excellent leader. You might even find the great teacher combined with the management abilities you were talking about. You might find the care-giving qualities combined with the speaking ability or maybe even the care-giving qualities combined with the management ability.” Obviously, Peterson had taken some pretty good notes as Parsons was rattling off his description. “But you will only rarely, very rarely, find a great leader or a great manager who is also a great care-giver and you will never, and I repeat, never, ever, find one man who has all of those qualities in one personality. It’s like looking for a four hundred horse-power sports car that’s also safe enough to turn over to your sixteen year old.”
Everybody in the conference room took a deep breath, discouraged about the implications for their search process, but grateful that at least this uncomfortable little experiment was over. But Peterson wasn’t done.
“Besides that,” he continued, “even if you did find all those qualities in one person, which you won’t, he or she still couldn’t do the job without running into what you might call, ‘terminal role conflicts.’” No one dared to ask Peterson what he meant by “terminal role conflicts” but they suspected that the definition was forthcoming and it wasn’t going to be pretty. “By ‘role conflicts’ I mean expectations built into the job that make it impossible to carry out successfully. ‘Terminal’ means that they’ll result in the firing or resignation of this employee in short order. Here’s what I mean: First of all, the time that it would take any employee to do all this, unless the group he was working with was extremely small, would be way beyond what anyone could do. Beyond that, it’s a formula for failure in that the inspiring leader and highly organized manager is going to be trying to serve as a compassionate, soft-hearted caregiver to the same group of people. He’ll have to choose to be an overly soft manager or an overly demanding caregiver. He’ll never be able to be a great public speaker and as available as his hurting employees or clients (Peterson didn’t know he was talking about church members) would expect him to be.”
At that, the same stunned silence prevailed on both ends of the phone. The search committee was anxious for Ted to end this miserable conversation. Instead, head-hunter Peterson broke the silence with a question of his own. “And may I ask, what you intend to pay this person when you think you’ve found him?” Several committee members mumbled under their breath. Mercifully, Parsons replied “Well, actually, I think we’d better not go there. But thanks John. We do appreciate your honesty.”
Still stunned that the folks on the conference call seemed to be serious about their strange inquiry, the headhunter said an awkward farewell and the search committee took a well deserved ten minute break.
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- From what you’ve seen, do you think that the head-hunter’s concerns are valid ones? Why or why not?
- How have you seen the “role-conflicts” played out in pastors you’ve known?
- Does the Bible give us any alternative to the kind of pastor’s job description the Bensonville search committee was creating?
- In light of this parable, can your search committee reduce its list of non-negotiable gifts and talents down to two or three? Which of the things the Bensonville church was looking for would be vital at this time for your congregation?
- Are there other folks in your church who might be able to “step up” and compensate for some of the inevitable weaknesses of your pastor or pastors?
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