{"id":2967,"date":"2014-09-22T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=2967"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:32:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:32:15","slug":"six-updates-churches-pastoral-vacancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/six-updates-churches-pastoral-vacancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Updates from Churches with Pastoral Vacancies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hardly a week goes by that I don\u2019t hear from a church searching for a pastor. As I have taken mental notes from these conversations over the past few months, I have noticed common themes. Here are the six of the most common developments I have heard from leaders of these churches:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It is taking longer for churches to decide on a pastor. <\/strong>About ten years ago, you could expect a church to take about six to nine months to find a pastor. Today, it is more common to hear the range increase from nine to eighteen months.<\/li>\n
  2. These churches have many candidates; but they say most of them are not qualified candidates. <\/strong>Each church seems to have a different idea of the desired qualifications for a pastor. Though they all seem to insist the pastor must have basic biblical qualifications, their preferred qualifications beyond that vary from church to church.<\/li>\n
  3. There is more frustration from both the churches and potential candidates. <\/strong>The churches express frustration because they can\u2019t find a qualified candidate. Many candidates express frustration because they can\u2019t seem to find churches willing to respond to their expressions of interest.<\/li>\n
  4. More churches are giving up on traditional processes to find a pastor. <\/strong>In the past, many churches depended on their denominational organizations to find a pool of candidates. Today, only a small number shared that the denominational path was their preferred alternative.<\/li>\n
  5. Churches are turning to internal candidates more frequently. <\/strong>This trend may be the most pervasive. Some churches begin with an intentional process toward an internal candidate. Others get an internal candidate by default.<\/li>\n
  6. More churches are screening candidates by listening to their podcasts. <\/strong>They thus avoid the potential awkwardness of going to a candidate\u2019s current church. They also do not ever need to let candidates know they are being considered until they make a decision based on the podcast.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Many of the comments I hear from churches and candidates come through this blog and other social media. If your church is looking for a pastor, I would love to hear from you. I also appreciate hearing from those of you who are looking for a church. Of course, I am always happy to hear from any of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear from a pastoral vacancies. In these conversations over the past few months, I have noticed common themes. ","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,177,196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-lead","category-staff-and-organizational-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSix Updates from Churches with Pastoral Vacancies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hardly a week goes by that I don't hear from a pastoral vacancies. 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