When smaller churches look for pastors

One of the tasks of my job is to assist our churches when they are seeking new pastoral leadership.  I work with both larger and smaller churches in this capacity.  One of the challenges when assisting our smaller churches is to find potential candidates.  As you might imagine, it's easier to find persons willing to serve in larger churches than smaller ones.  One reason it can be difficult to find pastors for the smaller churches is that they are increasingly becoming bivocational.  This means that most likely the persons who could fill that position will be found geographically near the church.  Few people are going to relocate very far to serve in a bivocational church.  Another thing that makes it difficult to assist these smaller churches is that many of them have unrealistic expectations of their next pastor, especially if he or she is bivocational.  Let's look at some of those unrealistic expectations that I have encountered.

• This person will be the one who will save their church.  I repeatedly hear from many smaller churches that they are looking for someone who will grow their church or grow their youth group.  What they are really saying is they want someone who will save their church from dying.  Often, their church hasn't grown in years (decades?) and the only young people in the church are grade-school children brought there by their grandparents.  Few of these young people will be found there once they enter junior-high school.  Somehow it has never dawned on these folks that their lack of growth is not the fault of previous pastors but because of the way their church is structured and operated.  For some reason, no one in these churches wants to take on the responsibility of reaching out to the community in ways that could lead to growth.  They keep waiting on a pastor to do that for them.
• Despite the fact that many of these committees say their church wants a pastor who will grow their church, the truth is many of these smaller churches are looking for a chaplain who will care for the existing members.  One committee assured me the church wanted a pastor to grow the church, but a survey I did of the congregation revealed they really wanted a chaplain.  When I pointed that out to the committee they didn't know what to do with it.  I explained that if they call a pastor with spiritual gifts conducive to growing a church he or she will be in trouble within the first year for not meeting the pastoral care needs of the congregation.  Sometimes, there isn't a second year.
• Their new pastor will come in with a vision for ministry that will unite their church and return it to the exciting place it was fifty years ago.  I ask every pastor search committee to tell me the vision that has unified their church, and virtually none have been able to give me one.  A couple of them have read from some vision statement document.  When that happened recently I responded, "The fact you had to find that statement and read it tells me that statement really doesn't direct the activities and ministries of this church."  Most of the committee nodded their heads in agreement.  One person complained that they were all busy people who didn't have time to do those things.  That's why they were looking for a pastor.
• While many are paying for a bivocational person, their expectations are that he or she will work as a full-time person in the church.  One committee was recently concerned about their Sunday evening service and were afraid their new pastor would not be able to lead that if he or she lived too far away.  I asked how many usually attend it and was told they average about ten people.  I then asked if having this service was really a good use of their pastor's time.  I asked if there were no lay people in the church who could lead it (there were).  I asked if this could be held in people's homes rather than in the church (no one had ever thought of that).  I cautioned them that if they were going to call a bivocational pastor they needed to make sure that was was asked of that person was the best use of his or her time and gifts.
• Some are willing to ignore theology to find someone willing.  A couple of years ago a disgruntled group from a church contacted me complaining their pastor didn't do things like a Baptist.  I reminded them they knew he wasn't a Baptist when they called him.  They were getting exactly what they hired.  That pastor has now left but not before many of the members did.  I recently talked with a search committee from a different church who were excited about someone who had preached there the previous Sunday.    Two of them commented he was a "real barn-burner preacher" who got everyone excited.  I read his resume and pointed out his experience has all been in a different denomination.  I then asked what did they know about his personal theology.  They knew nothing.  One person complained that some of these seminary-trained preachers will put you to sleep, and I responded that was true but some of those who aren't seminary trained will teach you bad theology too, and it doesn't matter how loud they shout it's still bad theology. Can persons cross denominational lines to serve churches?  Absolutely, I've known several who have done that and provided excellent ministry, but their theology was solid and their approach to ministry was healthy.  Search committees just need to make sure that is the case before they present the person as a candidate to the church.

I could give more examples of unrealistic expectations, but these are the primary ones I encounter.  It is critical that churches develop more realistic expectations of their pastors, and that the congregation is united on those expectations.  It is also vital that both the committees and candidates spend sufficient time talking with one another and asking questions to ensure that they will be a good fit before proceeding to a vote.  Some of the churches in our region do not call anyone on our staff for assistance when looking for a pastor, and I think that is a mistake.  Most denominational leaders have resources and procedures that can be of great help to a church seeking new pastoral leadership.