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Do you know of sound resources/references that could be used to aid in the methodology of finding the pastor God would have for a church? Thank you in advance.

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"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day." ~Abraham Lincoln

Interestingly enough, I did come across this: http://texasbaptists.org/files/2010/08/ ... manual.pdf ...if any one might be of interest.

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"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day." ~Abraham Lincoln

Roger, I think you may find some help at 9Marks ministries. Google "9marks pastor search" and you'll get several articles.

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"The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him." (John 14:21)

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Thank you. I will.

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"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day." ~Abraham Lincoln

I would recommend that you seek someone who is gifted as a pastor, not just a preacher. My church went through the pastoral search process a few years ago, and we found an excellent pastor - one who truly loves us and is concerned about bringing us closer to Christ.

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Andrew Bernhardt
"Salvation costs me nothing. Discipleship costs me everything."
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The first step in searching for a pastor is knowing what you want and what would fit your congregation.

So a real honest evaluation of the congregation is important.

Some congregations want a pastor that takes over pretty much everything and they want a pastor's wife who plays organ and directs the choir.

For others they may emphasize having a pastor who visits the sick and shut ins.

Still others want and emphasis on the youth program.

When you are searching you will meet a lot of very good pastors, but while they might be very good, they might not fit what you want at all.

If you don't evaluate your congregation, it tends to fall into a personality thing. That tends to seem to work well for a year or two and then the grumbling starts and grows until the pastor leaves.

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Marv
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I agree a little with Marv but I reccommend an evaluation of the answers within the evaluation.

I was assured that folk in the curch I'm currently pastoring wanted to reach couple's and young families in a pastor search questionair. Once I arrived and we began to reach young marrieds, babies with diapers, and children with noisey mouths and dirty foot-prints those same ones who had assured me were quite upset that the carpet had sand on it and the beautiful nursery smelled of diapers. I found that the truth was it was "spiritual" to want a growing ministry in (you fill in the blank) area. But the truth was many didn't want to do what it took nor did they want to deal with the mess of kids and families. I found out that many really liked their quiet go-to-church-meeting club.

Things are changing .....but its a slow process.

Blessings,
Randy

I am really surprized at the answers Has Christianity changed some much and churches drifting so far apart, that what is needed in searching for a pastor no matter what, in particular in the US, is,

A Pastor who can
1. Teach his congregation how to pray
2. Teach/show how to live a godly life, and
3. Prepare for a good death
and for good measure I once heard how to tell abit about a pastor, by meeting his wife

I'm pretty sure everything else will fall in to place

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Kola,

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Interestingly enough, Kolabok21, it is a difficult task to match a pastor for sheparding a church. It's probably all in how its worded, so I'm sure we agree that living the Great Commission does cover all three of those points. The scare is that a pastor may not be scripturally sound as well as living a facade instead of a true relationship through Christ.

And, I agree about your "good measure"; the same can be said of meeting their children.

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"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day." ~Abraham Lincoln

Concerning the search for a pastor, I have been on 3 pulpit committees. First, I meet with our committee and talk about some "rules" or a rubric for choosing a pastor.
1. Look for someone in your fellowship or group, e.g. if you are in the Baptist Bible Fellowship then limit your search to the fellowship.
2. Appoint one person to be the main examiner, he or she needs to know their theology. You could use a theology student or an assistant pastor etc.
3. Invite all on the committee to ask questions.
4. Know your congregation - as a committee you represent the congregation
5. Call churches, colleges to get the word out you are looking for a pastor
6. As you start collecting resumes copy them all so that each person on the committee has all the resumes.
7. Evaluate these persons by education and experience. If you are a small church in a small community you may want to stay away from persons who have a theology doctorate - they probably won't stay long in a small community.
8. Look for persons who have stayed awhile at one church if they have been in churches for several years and left be careful they may leave your church several years after you appoint them
9. Once you have chosen 5 persons invite them to speak at your church Sunday morning and Sunday night.
10. Sunday afternoon have one of the committee members take them out to dinner and stress this is just a fellowship not a time of questioning.
11. After you have heard the 5 rank them by each committee member giving them a number 10 for good and 1 for bad and then put the numbers for each candidate on a dry erase board with the total evaluation number.
12. Once you have the person chosen call them back, present them to the church for a vote and tell the candidate that if there is a vote of 75% or higher they have the position.
One thing to consider also is what type of church are you or what do you like as a church because a person will come in with their ideas on how to do church. For example, if you love your hymnals and sing from a hymnal what happens if this person wants to get rid of the hymnal and have all singing off of a PowerPoint screen. Another example, perhaps this person came from a church that did not have a Sunday School are you committed to a Sunday School. You want a good fit not to manipulate the person but so that you both can buy in to methods of ministry. These are preferences.
I hope this helps.
In Michigan history, a church would appoint the oldest deacon who knew the Bible better than anyone else and appoint them as pastor of course things have changed since the 1830's

Hi all,
In regards for search of a pastor of faith I suggest the following verse as my guidline of a true shepherd which may lead in salvation of my soul.

John 7:17-18 we can judge the doctrine of a teacher if he speak for the glory
of God and not his own glory.

Jer 17:5-6 forwarned us not to trust in man and Proverbs 3:5-7 advice us to trust in the Lord with all thine heart,not to lean unto own understanding and depart from evil.

Psalm 23:1-6 the Lord is my shepherd.

John 10:1-11Jesus Christ is the of sheepfold and He said; I am the good shepherd(Pastor).

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How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Isaiah 52:7

I forgot to mention several things about the search for a new pastor. First, and before we brought the candidates in we sent them each a survey of questions from the board and from the congregation.
The second thing is that God will work through and around your mistakes; this is why prayer is so imperative. At the beginning of each board meeting, and to this day, I ask several men to pray before the meeting and encourage those in the congregation to pray for the committee during the pastoral search.
I remember some of the mistakes I made; I will cite two. First, one candidate had been at several churches for a couple of years and I thought this guy does not stay in one place too long so I set his resume aside but there were members on the board who saw other things they liked and to make a long story short he became our pastor. Second, I was handed a business card of a pastor who had a church in a middle school and needed a building; we had a building but no pastor. However, the card came from man who I did not consider credible so I threw away the card. Then a board member said to me, out of the blue, he had heard of a man who was a pastor without a building and we had a building. He is currently serving with us now.
God will work through and around your mistakes but you must pray and have others in the congregation pray for the pulpit committee.

There are all kinds of resources on the net. I found a number of pretty complete looking manuals that can aid this process. I guess my two cents would be this:

This kind of thing usually takes a lot of time, prayer, discernment and work.

Don't shortcut the process.




Jim