Selecting a Shepherd

Our church is in the process of selecting a new pastor. Since we are an independent, non-denominational body, the process is not cut in stone and the congregation plays a significant part. No outside authority will pick someone and send him to us. We are already in receipt of some resumes and, I guess, will be having some guest sermons soon.

It seems to me, however, that there are some preliminary matters that need to be considered before we start parsing resumes and evaluating sermons. There are some questions that need to be asked. Before we can know what we should look for in a pastor, we need to know:

1. What kind of church do we want to be? There are, no doubt, some simple and some simplistic answers to this question. We can pull out verses from the Book of Acts. We can embroider the “Great Commission”  on banners and hang them about. But it is a question that requires some thought. There are many different kinds of churches these days. There are thousands of denominations. Many of those are doing a great job. Many are not.  What kind of church do we want to be? It seems to me this requires considering what we like about who we are now and what we wish would change. When put that way it may cause us to consider that the answers to those questions may be different from different people. Which leads me to the second question.

2. What kind of Christian do I want to be? It seems that as many different kinds of churches that exist there are nearly that many different kinds of Christian. There those who say they are Christians who don’t pass the “smell” test. But when we get down to it and when we consider what Jesus said about his disciples, there really isn’t that much variety in what a real Christian is. I think we all need to reflect on what Jesus calls us to. We need to consider in what ways we are doing well and in what ways we are falling short. With that information in hand, we may have a much better idea of what kind of church we need to have and, by reaching that conclusion, we may be close to knowing what kind of pastor we need.

Seems to me we have a lot of reflecting to do.

Be reflecting and be blessed.

Nick