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

Got your attention? Good.One of my favorite writers on church and ministry is Thom Rainer. His son Sam is a pretty astute guy, too.Between now and Monday, you can get a copy of their book Essential Church? for free, as a downloadable PDF e-book.

When I taught my very small portion of the Candidating and Transition into Ministry class last week, one of the students asked, "What do I do to get started in the candidacy process?"This is a great question; after he asked, I wondered how many candidates get stalled on this, and never gain (or regain) the momentum they need to candidate well. Here's how I would get started if I were starting today:Make

Yesterday I discussed how we should understand different levels of priority when it comes to issues that unite and divide us in the church. Today I'd like to think about how this matters in pastoral candidacy.One of the first things that candidates must understand is that they do not get the same flexibility with these issues that others get. Only primary issues are matters that should be required

I recently blogged about why convictions are important in the search process. Here I'd like to expand on the decisions surrounding that concept, using a graphical representation that I have found helpful.The diagram that has helped me-- and scores of other students at Covenant Seminary-- understand this concept was developed in 2002 by Bryan Clark, and the foundation of it looks like this:Obviously,

I just got off the phone with a church where I am being added to the pool of candidates considered.  This particular church is a large, denominational church with a multiple-pastor staff in a major city, and they have at least three-- possibly four-- open positions for ordained ministry (in addition to the five ordained pastors already on staff).NONE of those three or four positions are to be found

I was recently asked to comment about a church that allegedly had some major difficulties more than 10 years ago. In this particular case, I didn't know anything about what I was asked to speak to-- nor did I want to. There are legitimate reasons why someone would want to know about past troubles in a church; someone considering membership, for example, may wish to know about the church they will

A recent conversation forced me to reflect on why the current “system” of placement in my denomination works the way it does; specifically, why it often seems like pastors are just shuffling around from one position to another. Is most pastoral transition in the PCA the result of a “grass is always greener” mentality, as my friend suggested?I don't know if I can answer that;

“It's like 'old home week' for you,” my friend Craig commented to me. We had only been at the Presbyterian Church in America's (PCA's) General Assembly for a few minutes, but I had already greeted a dozen people. What gives?What gives is the very reason I went to General Assembly: what happens in the church is all about relationships, and Craig saw this starkly in only a few moments.

Anyone especially interested in my list of good demographics websites will find this recent Associated Press article interesting. Specifically, it details how the Google Maps website-- and especially the technology that it offers for free-- has been used to do demographical work in amazing ways. Very helpful.

Do you think you might be interested in a certain church, but you don't know if the city/town/farm village suits you? Demographics research is the key to finding your way. Here are some helpful online resources for researching demographics just about anywhere in the United States:Yahoo Real Estate Neighborhood Profiles. Enter a zip code, or even an address, and get general demographics, cost of

...Or, at least, one benefit: the process is a lot cleaner. I was corresponding with the Real Live Preacher briefly about this, and he confessed that, being in a more independent church context, he had always found that, "there are as many ways to do this as there are churches, it seems. No rules, and a lot of mistakes." I appreciate his honesty about it, and it causes me to recognize the great

Working through this recent question about "hot topic" theological issues has made me aware of the level of discernment required for candidacy, and I must say I am surprised at this. Since my denomination-- the Presbyterian Church in America-- holds to a fairly high confessional standard, I never would have guessed that theological discernment would be a major concern in the candidacy process. I

We received some information from a church the other day that was striking. To begin with, Marcie and I were both quite surprised at the fundamentally high quality of the material; this was, by far, the most articulate and helpful information I have ever seen from a candidate-church. They provided a good introduction to the church, some basic demographics, and details about what the committee views