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

The folks at the Unclutterer blog (which is generally very good anyway) posted today some great advice about résumés. They debunk some of the myths that are common, especially for folks who are going for round two or three of candidacy.Don't miss the comments-- lots of great stuff to mine there.

Some time back, I mentioned Jibber Jobber-- an online tool for managing job search and career details. I've also mentioned LinkedIn before as a good tool for advancing your networking.So here's an interesting confluence of the two: the CEO of Jibber Jobber, Jason Alba, has recently created a resource about how to make the most of LinkedIn for job-seeking. Here's an article that summarizes five of the

Coming back to the information shared by a classmate of mine: he's serving at a church that recently completed their search for a new Senior Pastor. He was able to offer me some reflections based on what he witnessed about their search team.Probably the most valuable idea that he sent me is this: There is such a thing as too much information.Here's a summary of what he found in a big-picture observation:The

I got an e-mail the other day from a seminary classmate; he's now on staff of a church that recently completed a Senior Pastor search, and he offered me some fascinating insight into their search process.First, some background on the church: they are a PCA church, but they aren't hardcore PCA in the way that many seminarians are. This is vitally important to realize: they are committed to the PCA because

I have a friend who dabbled in web development for a while; he was a good programmer, and skilled with understanding the workings of a website. He couldn'r really understand why he wasn't bringing in  new business hand-over-fist.Part of the problem: my friend didn't have much of an aesthetic sense. He didn't really care how things looked-- he only cared if they worked. In his view, if a website communicated

Those of you who have followed my several posts on resumes (here, here, and here) will find this information helpful:A Silicon Valley engineer and manager posted a very interesting piece on how he reads resumes. While written about the programming community, it's likely that many of these sage tidbits are relevant and applicable to churches and ministries, as well-- after all, the context he describes

I posted previously on the most important part of your information packet, your resume (here and here).  The second most important part for many pastors (and pastors in training) is the denominational "data form."[Obviously if you are not a part of a denomination then this is largely irrelevant; I say "largely" because it may well be that you would benefit from putting this sort of information together,

The Wall Street Journal ran a very good article on putting together an effective resume.  While much of the advice there is business-oriented--- and therefore may be more difficult to achieve in ministry (after all, do churches and ministries really do good, effective performance reviews?)--- there is still helpful advice to be found, particularly if you can translate into a ministry context.Perhaps

In my last post on this topic, I talked about the "everything under the sun" vs. the "barest basics" approaches to developing a resume.  In brief, my take on a pastoral resume was that less is more, and the "barest basics" is the way to go.So what should go onto a pastoral resume?  It's pretty simple.  (It has to be, if it is going to fit on a single page!)Name, address, phone number,

One of the parts of the "information exchange" that nearly everyone is familiar with is the resume.  But what makes a good resume?There are two common, but different, approaches to developing a resume (also called a "Curriculum Vitae" or C.V.-- which, in Latin, literally means "course of life").  One approach is to spill nearly everything you've ever done onto the page, sometimes resulting

Christians are called to evangelize the lost-- that is, to present the Gospel to unbelievers in a way that is honest, loving, and compelling. Is there a methodology for the presentation of ideas in evangelism that we're missing if we apply it only to the Gospel? Said another way, what if a candidate approached the placement process as the evangelization of himself as a cause, not unlike he might

Early in my ministry experience, I also worked in retail; at first it was when I was volunteering for a church youth group and Young Life, then when I needed full-time employment but the church I served could only pay part-time. I worked briefly for a clothing store, then a toy store, then two different camera stores. I learned a lot of lessons in those jobs that have served me well in ministry.One

I blogged already about information a Search Committee should gather to present to candidate-pastors. Is there other information a committee should gather for themselves? YES-- and here are a few ideas for getting it:Survey the congregation. It doesn't matter how well the Search Committee represents the needs of the congregation• ; there are issues, problems, personal grudges, and special

Early in my blogging endeavors, I discussed the need for a better balance in the candidacy process (see “Finding a Balance, part 1 and part 2). As I mentioned then, candidate-pastors must be extensively prepared for the process before they even begin communicating with candidate-churches: they will have assembled a resume (at a minimum), and should also have completed some other major documentation,

...or maybe sets of questions:(Regarding church description) Describe the church to us; if you were describing the church to an out of town visitor, what would be the key elements that you would include in your description? What are the various ministries of the church, and how would you characterize them? Is the church currently in a growth trend, and if so how is that growth affecting what goes