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Getting started with pastoral search

Ministry transitions are a personal and complex matter. Pastoral Transition Ministries (PTM) is not here to ask “why” you are pursuing a change. The “why” is between you, your family, and the Lord. My goal to help you make well-informed decisions as you consider your next steps.

1. Put together a prayer team

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Pastoral transitions are not the same as employment transitions in the secular realm.  Nearly every part of your life is impacted. Along with a new church (aka a new employer), you will likely be looking for new housing, a new community, new schools, a new culture, new friends, and more. There will be stress and challenges. A small team of dedicated intercessors will be essential.

 

Look for people who are:

    • Faithful and dependable
    • Godly – walking with the Lord
    • Able to maintain confidentiality
    • Good listeners who can ask the right questions

TIPS

  • Keep your team up to date on significant next steps and what you hope will come of them.
  • Be cautions about recruiting people from your current ministry. Carefully weigh the impact if your intentions are accidentally and prematurely disclosed to the congregation.

2.  Start pulling together your documents

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Pastoral job search is more complex and delves deeper than a secular job search. This means you will prepare a greater variety of documents. In addition to s resume, cover letter, and references—you will likely provide:

    • Personal testimony (for you and possibly your spouse)

    • Personal statement of faith

    • Philosophy of ministry

    • Position papers on key social or theological issues (though this is uncommon)

    • Links to videos of sermons

Poke around the PTM website for help and resources.

3.  Nurture your family through the process

A joyful family posing together in a cozy living room, embodying love and togetherness.

While child psychologists say that children’s minds are highly malleable, try not to push their ability to “bend but not break” as a flood of changes come their way. (Our ministry transitions took place when our children were relatively young. I have never asked them if or how those transitions impacted them. but I am happy to report that they are all well-adjusted adults!) 

 

TIPS 

  • Make sure you and your spouse are on the same page. Constant arguments and “fighting” would be a definite red flag. (The last thing you want little Billy doing is going to church and telling your church leaders that, “Mommy yells all the time, and daddy cries himself to sleep almost every night.”)

  • Speaking of kids, don’t start the “we’re moving” conversation too early. Pray for wisdom on this.  Ministry transitions take from 6 to 18 months. Every child has a different capacity to understand and adapt to change. 

4.  Commit to finishing well (or as best as you can) in your current ministry

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I have run only one marathon. It was a 5K held in the town where my wife and I live. Prior to the start of the race, I set three goals — three measures of what it meant for me to “finish well.”

      1. Don’t die.
      2. Don’t stop.
      3. Don’t finish last.

I am happy to report that:

      • I didn’t die, obviously.
      • I didn’t stop. (But I did slow down to the point of barely trotting.)
      • I didn’t finish last. (I think I crossed the finish line just ahead of the elderly lady with the walker. Pretty sure she finished last.)

In my mind, I finished well. However, compared to the runners at the front of the pack, it looked like I barely finished at all, but I finished!

 

As you think about finishing the race of your current ministry, remember that “finishing well” may simply mean that you finished, period. There will always be others who finish ahead of you. 

 

God is the definer of “finishing well”, not you. “Finishing well” may simply mean that you will do your best to prepare yourself and your current congregation for the next leg of the ministerial race God has for each of you.

 

Here are some thoughts on what that might look like.

Tie Up Loose Ends

 

Try to bring to closure any administrative initiatives that began under your ministry. On the flip side, avoid starting new long-term ministries that are dependent on you to bring them to completion.

Focus on Core Ministry

 

  • Preaching: Feed your flock! Nothing says, “our pastor is on the way out” like sloppy, poorly prepared, passionless, pointless sermons.
  • Pastoral Care: Do not neglect your flock, even if the days of you being their shepherd are numbered. Take care of your congregation!

Pray

 

Start praying now for the next pastor. Pray for the future of the church, and for the impending season of ministry transition. Take Luke 10:2 to heart. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send the church the laborer(s) best suited for that ministry.

Take a Victory Lap

 

After seven years at a human services organization in Milwaukee, WI, I found myself facing an employment transition.  My position was being eliminated, and it was time to move on. To help bring closure, I decided to take a “Victory Lap.”

 

During my three-week “Victory Lap,” I took inventory of my seven years and discovered that my time had been truly transformative. I had learned new skills, met amazing people, overcame some difficult challenges, and had opportunities to do things I would have never thought possible.

 

Point is – as the time in your present ministry winds down, look around and celebrate what God has accomplished through you and how you have changed and grown closer to Him.