The Process

It's no secret that our church has been looking for a teaching pastor for about nine months. It's a process that is unique in some ways, and pretty normal in others. And, last night I attended a meeting updating the staff & elders on where that process is and what the next steps are.

And, I got to thinking about what would happen if I were applying to get my own job at my own church.

If I were going through that same process...well...

...suffice to say it's been years since I've had a formal theological review (of course, doing as much teaching as I've done in the last few years, I'm sure if there'd been any variations since that last review they'd certainly have come up and someone would've contacted an elder already).
...suffice to say it's been since college that I took some sort of personality inventory.
...suffice to say it's been a long time since others have checked any references I've provided. Not to mention a group of people digging around those areas of conflict where you might get some or your drawbacks put out there.
...suffice to say it's been a long time since a complete outsider has evaluated my ministry.
...suffice to say it's been a long time since an outsider has evaluated my family.
...suffice to say it's been a while since I've had to think through what I'd ask another church's representatives to tell me about themselves and had to evaluate their response.
...I have had a background check recently. We do those on every adult who helps out about every six months. And, in my case, that's pretty insignificant anyway. Never convicted, my friends. Never convicted.
...suffice to say that I haven't had to move, or sell a house, in over a decade.
...suffice to say that I haven't had to tell my superiors that I had resumes out and take an occasional trip here or there to preach sermons to complete strangers who will make various judgments on a 35-minute teaching time.
...suffice to say that I haven't had to wonder what isn't being said. I mean, if it's such a great job, why did the other guy leave?
...suffice to say that I haven't had to go and make small talk with various groups of people.
...suffice to say that I don't know what it's like to have nearly four years of daily ramblings posted at The Diner out there for public consumption, having total strangers read them, or listening to sermons on my current church's web page or Googling my name or passing my CD's around to a select group of people to get "feedback."

And I began to wonder if I could even get my own job. I mean, I wonder about how the first-impression thing would go for me. I am pretty sure the big stuff would go just fine, it's really just thinking about those insecurities we all have and what "outsider" group would pick up which ones.

And I decided to pray for our search committee more diligently. For wisdom & discernment. And I thanked Him for what they've already done and are continuing to do. They work harder than folks know.

And I decided to pray for our elders more diligently. For wisdom & discernment. And I thanked Him for their leadership. They care about our congregation more than folks know.

And I decided to pray for all the folks who've submitted resumes to our search committee, and are in various stages of the process, and for the families that are represented by those one-page best-foot-forward presentations of validity. They've got a lot of emotional and spiritual investment in the process...not to mention all the stresses and strains that are in your life once you decide to start looking for a new position.

The process is taxing on both sides when you think about it.

And exciting on both sides when you think about it. You get to dream and think about what might be...which is definitely cool.

But I'm really glad that the King of Kings is running the show either way...which is the best part of the process when you think about it.