The most important preparation you can make— throughout the process, but especially at the point of getting ready for an interview visit/weekend— is spiritual preparation. Because of the nature of the interview process, there are two dimensions to this: ministry preparation, and personal/candidacy preparation.First, remember that you will be in-residence as a minister to the people you

I recently interacted with a pastor who was contemplating a transition to another congregation. The one he was considering had a number of markers of need for "revitalization" and my colleague wondered, "how can I know if they are ready for true revitalization?"This is an excellent question, because a number of churches will recognize the need at some level, but will not be ready for it. I asked him:

A friend recently asked me to help him evaluate a few churches that he was candidating with, and some of them had Church Information Forms (which is sort of a church-side equivalent to the Ministerial Data Form in the Presbyterian Church in America). Part of this form has a place to rank "Pastoral Strengths Desired"-- things like Preaching, Evangelism, Youth Work, Community Service, etc. At the very

There has been a good bit going on, writing-wise, and I wanted to give my tens of readers an update about it.To begin with, Doulos Resources released a book I wrote about six weeks ago: For All the Saints... Praying for the Church is a short book that I wrote for congregation-level reading, offering a guide to what specific ways people might pray for the church, the biblical basis behind each, and

Profhacker recently posted an excellent piece on "prof-hacking" the phone interview. It's filled with great tips for doing a better job with phone interviews; some of the highlights:Location, location, location: make sure the place you take the call is private and quiet.Timing is everything: be ready when the time is right.The incredible "invisible" candidate:Of course you aren’t really invisible,

Chuck Warnock (who is getting closer to finishing a Doctor of Ministry degree himself) offers five very helpful questions to ask when considering starting a D.Min. degree:Do I have time?Will my church support me?Can I commit 4-7 years to the process?Do I want an accredited degree or just the title?What criteria will I use to select a D.Min. program?Be sure to read Chuck's particular explanation and

Despite appearances, this blog is not defunct or nearly so! I actually have a small handful of posts that I've been working on, that will be coming soon. They include:Strategies for investing for the future. This will be a multi-part series that digs into the question of retirement savings. It's a timely topic, it seems, since it's getting closer to tax day and because a lot of pastors are re-thinking

Originally posted September 5, 2005The floor examination has a clear purpose: to test your readiness for ministry.Notice: I didn't say, “test your knowledge” or “test your theological acuity.” This is a test of how ready you are for the day-to-day, hour-by-hour work of ministry.A little background-- when a Candidate for Gospel Ministry pursues ordination in the Presbyterian

Though I don't focus on it much here, working in the academic world can be a legitimate pastoral calling, too-- I know that several of my former professors ministered to me in profound ways.There was a great article recently on the ProfHacker blog on "hacking" an interview for an academic position. The highlights are:Get your facts straightKeep your answers short and foster conversationThink about

In an end-of-the-year newsletter that I recently received from a friend and former seminary classmate, he wrote something to the effect of, "church planting is physically and emotionally harder than I ever imagined."The man who wrote these words is a good man, a great pastor, and a hard-working church planter. I'm grateful for his ministry and for the particular labor that God has called him to do,