SEARCH PROCESS: THE COMMITTEE
In the Reformed Church of America (RCA), the elder board has the responsibility for calling a new senior pastor. According to our denominational bylaws, the elder board “shall endeavor to learn the mind of the congregation” for such a hire, and “the judgment of the congregation in such matters shall be considered to be of significant weight but not binding.”
The elder board started by interviewing dozens of congregants as they considered how to craft the job description, in order to learn the congregation’s mind.This job description named the outcomes that our congregation wants to see, and the key competencies we need in our next Senior Pastor. These outcomes and competencies guided the structure and substance of our search.
The board then recruited a search team – using congregational input and nominations – which was responsible for running the process. This committee included eight lay people, three elders, and one staff representative empowered to run the search. This team served as the representatives of the congregation, staff, and board as we crafted the interview process and carried it out. This team’s judgment would ultimately recommend a candidate to the board, and the board carries the final responsibility to decide about making a call.
SEARCH PROCESS: RECRUITMENT AND INTERVIEWING
PHASE 1: Soliciting and Screening Candidates
As a committee, we reached out to our collective church networks; we also posted the job description to a variety of ministerial job boards and seminary alumni networks; and Fred reached out to colleagues in ministry across the country to solicit candidates.
As applications came in, the committee screened candidates against the job description. Ultimately after an initial round of screening conversations, the committee invited four candidates into a deeper round of interviewing.
PHASE 2: Going Deeper
In this phase, each candidate sat for four one-hour interviews, where we dug into topics like vision-casting and leadership experience, personal and ministry biography, congregational and pastoral care, and management ability. All of our conversations were guided by the three core outcomes described in the job description:
- How will this person inspire City Church with a vision of Jesus-centered discipleship, inclusion, and service?
- How will this person create a warm and welcoming environment where everyone can belong?
- How will this person lead the City Church staff with health and grace?
When these interviews were complete, each interview team shared our evaluations and prayerfully discussed each candidate. One person clearly emerged as the candidate who deeply impressed us all, and we invited her to a third, in-person stage.
PHASE 3: Final Interviews
At our invitation, Emily flew out to visit City Church from April 20-24. During her visit, she spent time with small groups of congregants, members of the search committee, the elder board, and the staff. She also spent time with the leaders of the Faith and Justice Network and City Hope. There were opportunities for informal conversation and connection, as well as an entire half-day of structured interviewing with the committee and elders.
Prior to her visit, we also conducted a number of in-depth reference calls, all of which served to confirm all that we had seen and experienced over the preceding months.
RECOMMENDATION AND CALL
After Emily’s visit to San Francisco, every individual on the search committee prayerfully reflected and wrote up our experiences before gathering to share them with one another. Out of that conversation, we came to the unanimous decision to strongly recommend that the elder board extend a call to Emily to serve as our senior pastor. You can read our recommendation letter here.
The board received our letter, prayed individually and together, discussed it along with their own experiences with Emily during her visit, and also unanimously voted to extend her a call. Alex Lim and Sarah Dahl offered her the position on May 5, and to our delight she enthusiastically accepted!