What are the critical characteristics for our new minister? Is preaching the most important?

The Church Search
SCENE ONE: OCTOBER—A SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOM IN MICHIGAN

“Well, you could always turn to that old saying of God opening a window when he closes a door,” countered Jason. “I’m not happy that Joe left either, but it was a great opportunity for him—we can’t begrudge him wanting new challenges. And maybe this provides new opportunities for our congrega-tion—perhaps we’ve become a bit complacent with Joe’s ministry, and this is just what we need to

even were gathered around the table, all members of a midsized congregation of a Protestant church. Their longtime pastor had recently accepted a calling to a new church, and these seven had been selected as the search committee for the new pastor. They had a lot of work ahead of them and chose Nancy to head the committee. She got straight to the point.

“OK,” said Nancy. “Let’s get to work. We need to start by developing a profile of our church and con-gregation. Who we are, what we do, and where we think we’re going? And then we need to think care-fully about what kind of pastor we want for our future. What are the critical characteristics for our new minister? Is preaching the most important? Evan-gelism? Spiritual development? Community service and social justice? And then we need to think about the questions we’ll ask when we get to the interview process. Who will be involved? What kinds of activi-ties should we include? And then we need to think about how we’ll welcome the new pastor once we make a decision about who it will be. And then …”