February 4, 2008
The Pastoral Nominating Committee has been at work for a year and we are now hearing polite questions about how things are going. “Are you getting closer?” Are you narrowing down your search yet?” “At work, jobs are filled in a matter of days or weeks; so what in the world could be taking so long?”
The short answer to the question of “why so long” is that the “job” specifications and requirements for our next pastor are far more stringent than most corporate positions while, at the same time, the hiring methods are more constrained by the Presbytery’s procedure and the candidate pool is relatively small. You have placed upon us and we have accepted the most significant responsibility of finding the person that God has chosen to lead us. We are pursuing that goal with excitement and vigor.
Seeking candidates, our efforts have included: reviewing candidates on file on the PCUSA data base; advertising in “Presbyterian Outlook” and “Presbyterians Today;” and writing presidents of seminaries, prior pastors of BHPC and leaders of the PCUSA. You will recall that we also asked our congregation to provide us with the names of potential candidates.
Putting our efforts in practical terms, in the past year, the PNC has received and reviewed 122 Personal Information Forms (a “PIF” is a candidate résumé presented in a form designed by Presbytery). Of those, we chose 20 to interview by telephone. After a review of sermons and references, we selected five for a personal interview. Of those five individuals, one accepted a call from another church, two withdrew from consideration, and two were extensively interviewed face-to-face and preached sermons at neutral pulpits. Of those two individuals, with regard to one, we are exploring in-depth references and are likely to have further conversations with him to determine whether he is the right person to guide us in the future. With regard to the other candidate, because of the timing of his availability, we have deferred further consideration.
“Where do we go from here?” is a reasonable question. We continue to advertise in “Presbyterian Outlook” and “Presbyterians Today,” but with a more prominent and graphic advertisement. We are making personal calls to church leaders and pastors we know personally to ascertain the names of potential qualified candidates. We will continue the search using all of the means available to us.
We have been asked by members of the congregation why we do not consider Jon or Scott for the HOS position. As we have explained before, Section G 14.0500(D) and Section G14.0513(B) of the Book of Order, respectively, provide that neither the associate pastor nor the interim pastor may be considered for the position of head of staff. We intend to follow the Book of Order in our search.
If you have come to the conclusion that all of this is a lot of work, you are right, it is. We are fortunate that our committee has immense respect for and confidence in one another and we remain in good humor. We have been blessed to have a wonderful resource in Tressie Muldrow, our Presbytery Committee on Ministry representative. We are not discouraged and we take some comfort in the fact that most churches take two years in the search for the person that God has called to minister to them. With your continued prayers and the grace of God, we will find the right pastor to lead BHPC into the future that God holds for us.
Doug Adamson
Joan Burns
Jan Hauck
Ed Hummers, Chair
Al Kingman
Cathie Lutter
Margaret Rick
Yoshi Sei
Jennifer Snow
November 6, 2007
The PNC has continued to meet weekly to review the qualifications of candidates and interview candidates and references by telephone. Because of the busy schedules Thanksgiving and Advent impose upon pastors, we have been forced to delay the initial extended in-person interviews with the candidates that are on our “short list.” Presently, one interview is scheduled for before Thanksgiving and three are scheduled for January. The list will be shortened following the initial in-person interviews and more intense dialogs with the remaining candidates will be undertaken. We will continue to accept Personal Information Forms from interested persons as we continue to seek to find the person God has called to serve Bradley Hills.
To date, we have received PIFs from 108 candidates from throughout the country. Competition among the churches for the best candidates is strong. In the National Capital Presbytery, there are presently 20 congregations looking for new pastors.
August 27, 2007
The PNC has met virtually every Monday evening this summer and moves into the fall with a full workload. To date, we have received almost 100 applications for our HOS position. From that group, we have had a telephone preliminary interview with many and have reduced our working list to eight individuals. However, we will continue to accept additional applications for the foreseeable future. Our next step is the significant task of telephone interviewing the references provided by each of the applicants. We hope to be down to our “short list” by November or December.
We have been asked why we have not considered Scott and Jon for the HOS position. As much as we would like to, the Book of Order in Section G 14.0500(d) prohibits the consideration of a church’s Associate Pastor and in Section G 14.0513(b) prohibits the Interim Pastor for the HOS position in the church in which they are currently serving.
We ask for your continued prayer for our efforts.
May 11, 2007
The PNC continues to meet every Monday evening to review Personal Information Forms that it has received from candidates seeking the BHPC Head of Staff position. We presently have received 53 PIFs. We have narrowed the list significantly but we continue to receive additional expressions of interest as a result of our ads in the “Presbyterian Outlook” and “Presbyterians Today” and our solicitation of expressions of interest from the Presbyterian community. We expect to begin preliminary interviews of the more promising candidates in June.
April 10, 2007
The PNC recently completed the required Church Information Form in record time and filed it with the Church Leadership Connection (CLC) in Louisville. The Vocation Office in Louisville conducts a computer match with the Personal Information Forms filed by clergy seeking a new opportunity. To date, we have received from the CLC and directly from others 33 PIFs; some from the CLC and others directly from applicants interested in our Head of Staff position. Our CIF has been posted on the Church’s website for access by all interested parties and we have placed advertisements in two church publications. In addition, the PNC is actively seeking recommendations from clergy and others. If you know of clergy that you believe the PNC should consider, we ask that you refer that person to our CIF. Should person be interested, ask her or him to file a PIF directly with
Ed Hummers, Chair, at mared58@verizon.net. The PNC continues the difficult task of evaluating candidates.
February 13, 2007
The Pastoral Nominating Committee (PNC) has chosen Ed Hummers as Chair, Cathie Lutter as Vice Chair and Jan Hauck as Recording and Corresponding Secretary, and has met with Tressie Muldrow, its liaison with the Presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. Background material is being studied and preparation of the Church Information Form (CIF) has begun. The CIF will describe the mission and ministry of our congregation together with a description of the skills, experience, and interests needed to meet the expectations held for the new pastor. When completed, the CIF will be added to the PCUSA electronic Church leadership Connection where it will be available to interested candidates. While the deliberations of the PNC are confidential, the congregation is welcomed to submit written comments to any member of the PNC at any time.
