Speak as a team
Recently I talked with a pastor who is searching for a new ministry position. Normally stalwart, she was in tears. She and her spouse had traveled for an on-site visit to a church seeking a pastor. This minister’s search team liaison had led her to believe that the face-to-face interview was merely a formality. There were one or two other clergy still in the running, the liaison said, but that was only because the judicatory required search teams to conduct in-person interviews with more than one candidate. And so this pastor had started looking at houses and schools. She and her spouse had allowed themselves to begin falling in love with the area. They were excited about their impending move.
The church ended up calling someone else as pastor.
As it turned out, the search team was not in agreement about the ranking of candidates coming into the on-site visits. The liaison didn’t intentionally mislead the searching pastor. She simply made some assumptions based on her own inclinations, then spoke out of them. She felt terrible about her misstep, but that provided little solace to the pastor who felt she’d had the rug pulled out from under her. That minister is not sure now whether she wants to remain in search and call - or in congregational ministry. This would be a big loss to the wider church.
When your search team speaks, make sure it is with one voice. When communicating with candidates, consider:
What information has the team explicitly agreed upon?
What would my motivation be for sharing beyond these parameters?
What might the implications of overpromising be?
A unified voice is not just essential with candidates, however. It is important that all the team members be on the same page when talking with the congregation. If a church member hears one thing from one team member and something else from another, that can decrease confidence in the search team’s work (and by extension, in the called minister) and breed confusion and conflict - not a situation any clergyperson wants to walk into.
While it is normal to “click” with a particular candidate, then, make sure you are enabling that minister to show up as well as possible without setting up unrealistic expectations.