Some Questions About How We Hire Pastors

Many who are new to North have asked questions about our process in hiring a new youth pastor.  Here are a couple of the common questions and some answers:

WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR HIRING A NEW PASTOR?

• We are a pastor-led, congregational-government church. What that means is that we believe that the Bible teaches that pastors (or elders) are to lead, deacons are servants who assist and advise the pastors, and the congregation affirms the leadership of the pastors and the counsel of the deacons.
• So - when it comes to hiring a new pastor on staff - it begins with the pastors finding the person who would best fulfill the responsibilities and is a best fit with the current staff. We did this through many channels - contacting friends, colleges, seminaries, etc...
• We strongly considered five different individuals and brought them each here for a weekend. Each of them followed a very similar schedule (including a lot of time with me, meetings with the leaders, speaking in youth group, meeting with youth leaders, etc...)
• These weekends provided them with an opportunity to see if North is a church they would want to be a part of.
• As pastors and deacons, we all agreed on Mark as the one we wanted to officially candidate.
• So we invited him here for a week of meetings, questions and answers, and continued interaction with the church leadership. That ended Thursday night. He drove back home on Friday morning.
• This Sunday, the congregation votes to affirm the decision to ask Mark to join our staff. 
• Following the vote (assuming it is positive) - I will call Mark and officially ask him to join our staff.
• If all goes as we have prayed, he will accept and move here at the end of December.

WHY DID WE CHOOSE MARK? These are the things we considered in choosing a candidate:

• CHARACTER - he needs to be described by the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1; he needs to demonstrate humility; he needs to be teachable.
• COMPETENCY - is he gifted to lead a youth ministry that encourages our teens to love God wholeheartedly and others sincerely?
• CHEMISTRY - because of the intensity of a growing ministry, there needs to be a natural connection with the other pastors. He also needs to be in line with the philosophy of ministry at North - pointed in the same direction.

WHAT IS DAVE BOEHM GOING TO DO?

• Many have asked about Dave's future.
• We began this process two years ago because Dave approached me and shared that he wanted to stop doing youth ministry. He has done it for 19 years at North and really feels like it is time to do something else. He has been feeling that way for four years (and we have talked about it that long), but we officially began the process two years ago. He has loved serving as North's youth pastor, but he really feels it is time for a change.
• Once we hire a youth pastor - Dave will continue with his other duties.  It will be part-time for now.
• Over the next six months, he will (as he says) - decide what to do when he grows up. :)
• This entire process of hiring a new youth pastor is at his request. I want to make sure there isn't a thought of it being instigated by anyone but Dave.
• Dave just sent me an email saying he plans to finish 20 years then retire on his 50% church pension. (For some reason, I never heard about that pension.) And - of course - I'm kidding about the pension.

Hopefully this makes the process a bit more clear for those with questions.  Let me know if you have others. I will try to answer quickly.

Comments

[Chris]

Good summary. Thanks, David!