(How interim pastors can help their church’s pastoral search committees)
Of the many projects I’ve undertaken as an interim pastor in several churches, helping these church’s long-term pastor search committees has been among the most satisfying. The help I have given has been greatly appreciated, the task of leading these groups has been comparatively easy (if leadership is ever easy) and the long-term results of the projects have been gratifying. On top of that the long-term pastors who’ve succeeded me have become personal friends. Each time the process has left me feeling that if the only thing I had done for the church was this guidance of their search committee, it would have been worth the effort on the part of the church to have me there. As John the Baptist discovered before us (John 3:29), there is real joy in being the “bridegroom”!
Here’s what has differed in the three churches in which I have helped their search committees:
* The “delivery method” of the help I’ve given has differed. During my first interim pastorate I was with an organization which would not allow me to meet with the search committee at all. In this church I served like a coach who’s been tossed out of the game: I coached from the locker room. Before each meeting of the committee I “did breakfast” with the search committee chairman and thoroughly discussed the upcoming meeting with him. In my second church I was the official chairman of the committee, but worked hard at keeping my personal opinions out of their process and excused myself from the room during some crucial discussions. In the third church I again met with the chairman before each meeting and then sat beside him as a coach at each meeting. I would do any of these scenarios again; they all “worked” in their own way.
* The extent of the help I’ve given has also differed. The first church needed my guidance desperately. The second church needed and received my help extensively. The third search committee needed and received my help moderately.
With that said, here are some specific ways I was able to help the six churches:
1. I helped each church to get the right people on the search committee. This is a crucial role in which the interim should always play a part because having the best people possible on the committee is “key” to a great result.
2. I had more time than any of the church’s lay leaders to study the search committee materials ahead of time and “get a handle” on the process as it was recommended to me by the Evangelical Free Church district leaders I was working with. The committee members still had to read the handbooks but they had a “native guide” with them (me) who understood the “pastor-speak” in which they were written and was able to make as many phone calls as necessary (during the day) to our district leaders.
3. In each situation I took the church through a thorough-going strategic planning or ReFocusing process before the search committee was even formed. This means that when the search committee began its work, more than one third of its mission was already completed. This was very encouraging for each group, as you might imagine. It was also immeasurably important for each of these churches to go through most of the aspects of a strategic planning process – through which they wrote or re-wrote a mission statement, core values, vision statement and chose a target group – before they began working on formulating the profile of the pastor they would be looking for. (For some thoughts on strategic planning materials, see my Resource page.)
4. All through the process I was able to help the committee members to understand pastors. I explained, as mentioned, the language used in the search committee guidebooks, the jargon used in resumes, the nomenclature used in the “MinisterConnection.Net” computer data base (computer dating for pastors and churches, if you’re not familiar with this tool) and the “Ministry Match” pastor profiles. At many points along the way it was my joy to diffuse offenses and correct misunderstandings which arose from lay persons not understanding the language of pastoral resumes. Examples? How about the search committee that thought that a pastor must be a Rick Warren “clone” because he used the term “purpose driven”? Then there was the search committee who thought that an E-Free pastor who had attended a liberal seminary must still be a liberal. In this case, my personal knowledge of the candidate was a big help!
5. To a certain extent I served as secretary for each search committee, making copies, taking minutes, channeling paperwork to church secretaries, etc. As a highly organized person I know I helped these groups to stay on track.
6. Because I see many churches and study church health, I am probably better able than the folks in the church to see their congregation and area objectively and write honest and accurate church histories and community and church profiles. This helps to ensure that the right man “falls in love with” the congregation and is not disillusioned by what he finds when he arrives on the scene.
7. Because I am a pastor myself I have been able to help the committees to draft good questions to put to their candidates in their phone and personal interviews. I trust that I have also been able to help the pastors the committees have considered by protecting them from unnecessary paperwork, letting them know quickly if they are no longer being considered by the church, sparing them from unrealistic candidating trip schedules etc. In turn, my wife has helped me tremendously in this process by reminding me of what is unfair and burdensome for pastors’ wives and children.
8. At times I’ve served as spiritual leader and peacemaker in the committees. Sometimes having the church’s senior leader in the search committee room has been very helpful for gently correcting bad behavior. The leaders of the two groups which I did not officially lead were sometimes bowed down by the weight of the task; I’m grateful I was able to hold up their arms and strengthen their hands at crucial junctures. We became really good friends in the process.
Are there dangers involved in the interim pastor being involved in the process? Of course. Here are a few:
(1) First and foremost, the interim should resist the temptation to make himself a candidate for the position. I know that this can work out in unusual circumstances, but for the most part, the interim pastor needs to declare his “non-candidacy” from day one of his pastorate and stick to it. Making himself a candidate will “muddy” the process, making it impossible for the committee to do its work objectively. To choose someone other than the interim (and the same scenario applies to pastoral associates within the church) amounts to a rejection of the interim pastor; something most search committee members don’t have the courage to do.
(2) Some interim pastors unduly control the process and virtually hand-pick their successor. If the interim has too strong a voice in the process and the new long-term pastor isn’t a good fit, the interim pastor (and the concept of interim pastorates) will be blamed.
(3) The interim pastor will be tempted to push the committee in the direction of getting someone like him, instead of getting the kind of man they need. I always end up telling the churches that “I may have been the best man on the planet for this church over the past eighteen (or whatever) months, but right now and in the future you need a man with gifts that are different from mine.”
(4) It’s tempting to steer the committee in the direction of someone whose doctrinal or philosophical biases please the interim but make him a poor match for the church.
(5) It’s certainly possible for the interim to do too much for the committee and its chairman, robbing them of the growth that God wants for them and the experience they’ll need at some point in the future. (More than likely I’m guilty of having done this!)
In short, the guidance of the search committee is one of the most satisfying things the interim pastor can do for the church and one of the best reasons for churches to call interim pastors. Like the harbor pilot spoken of in the article (at this site), “Metaphorically Speaking,” the experienced interim can help guide churches through the dangerous waters of pastoral transitions before joyfully surrendering the “helm” of the church to the new long-term pastor.
