To Seek the Truth We Must Listen and Have Faith

I predict that our parish, just beginning the search process for calling a new rector, will quickly be frustrated by what seems like glacial progress along that goal.  That frustration will be compounded because some of the most important work of the search committee will be done in private in order to protect the confidentiality of candidates and the integrity of the process itself.

That is why one of the critical elements of the search committee’s strategy as it begins its work is to find ways to engage and involve the parish in the search process in meaningful and appropriate ways.  Most think that this process can be done quickly just like filling any other job—you write a job description, post it, screen the many resumes you receive, narrow the field to the best fit finalists, interview them and make a selection.

Sounds easy, right?

Think again.  The call of an Episcopal Rector is both a spiritual and very political act.  The process is designed to allow time for the congregation to reflect on who it is, where it has come from, and what it seeks in calling a new rector.

Here at St. Timothy’s we have had the good fortune to be blessed with a series of good shepherds.  That is the good news.  But the corollary is we also do not know how bad it can be if you make a mistake and call a person to be rector who is not a good fit or does not ‘wear well’ over time.

So, count your blessings—St. Timothy’s has been twice blessed by God, first in helping us find and call the best person at the best time in our parish life.  And more importantly, because the call process involved God by taking time to listen, discern our needs and be open to new ideas God presented to us—-we also avoided making mistakes.

 

The result was a 22 year ‘run’ for Steven Strane as our rector, shepherd, confessor, guide and friend. And that will be a tough act to follow.  But remember, it started with a bold and audacious act of faith by the Vestry and search committee back in 1988 to call a young priest who had never been a rector to lead a growing faith community that had been happy with the rector just leaving.

It worked because God was with us and we took the time to do the search process right—listening to the congregation, being true to ourselves about our strengths and needs, and listening to God as He presented possibilities and opened our eyes calling someone at the end of that journey probably quite different than what the congregation imagined at the start of the process.

So what?

So the TOUGHEST part of the selection committee’s job is NOT calling a new Rector it is leading the congregation in a self-study process of discerning who we are, what we believe and a candid assessment of our parish strengths and needs to open our eyes and ears to the possibilities God will present to us.

In short, before the search committee can do its selection work it must do its discernment work—and it must involve us, include us, force us to be honest with ourselves and condition our hearts, minds, eyes and ears to be open to God’s plan for us.

The search committee met with the Vestry to receive its charge so now it is open for business.  The Vestry has adopted three broad goals resulting from the 20/20 Vision process to guide our parish future:

• Be a welcoming faith community open to all
• Invest in our kid’s faith foundation
• Live into the Mission work of the church.

These goals writ large speak to what St. Timothy’s has been about since our parish was founded in 1953 as part of an unbroken chain of faith that saw God call on the Bishop of California to send his obedient priest, Rev Wilfred Hodgkin, Rector of St Paul’s Walnut Creek, to plant a mission congregation in the San Ramon Valley.  Thirty days later St Timothy’s mission was formed—a pure and perfect example of God’s unconditional love and grace at work.

The job of the search committee is both simple and hard at one and the same time.  It is simple because all the search committee must do is listen to what God is calling St. Timothy’s to be for the future and then be open to the new possibilities he presents for their consideration.  It is agonizingly hard because the search committee must find ways—over and over again—to carry us along with the process feeling involved, consulted, engaged and committed—and open to new possibilities God presents trusting that God’s love and grace are with us every step of the way.

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What’s in a Question?

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church has embarked on two search processes.  The first is to find an Interim Associate Rector to assist Kathy Trapani, our Interim Rector, over the next year or two that the Rector Search process is expected to take.

Vestries and selection committees are not acting alone in a call process.  They represent the people of God in the congregation. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP page 854) tells us the call process is a God-given responsibility of seeking God’s will for the community where you are; as well as seeking someone whom God is calling to be our rector, pastor, confessor, guide, leader, teacher and friend on this journey together. Parish leaders and priests come together with God’s help to find common faith and a common call to live into their full potential and serve God with their full hearts.

The Search Committee has a big job and a key part of it is to ask the right questions of the candidates?

But what questions?

Often interviews are superficial and the question designed more to get the candidate talking so we can see how they perform on the spot.  Left to this, the call process is at risk of failing.  But questions designed to create a faith filled conversation that not only discovers the areas of agreement or disagreement on a topic but explores the options, examines new ideas, and sees new possibilities can produce eye-opening new ways of seeing God’s call for both.

The selection committee should use the process of framing questions to help frame the key factors that help the Vestry assess the potential of each candidate to live into a call in this parish.  Questions tend to fall into categories such as:

• Personal faith journey and formation process.
• Beliefs and theology and their consistency with the congregation consensus
• Leadership style, collegiality and participation in the work of the broader church
• Pastoral Care and ministry experience in areas important to the congregation
• Hot button issues and the overall sense of fit with the consensus of the congregation.

Written Questions Create a Consistent Baseline for Candidates

One approach to considering candidates is to develop a list of written questions to be used to screen candidates in the early round.  These written questions might cover all the categories and be designed to discover areas of agreement or difference between candidates and the congregation.

Examples of such baseline written questions might include:

• Describe your personal journey in faith, and why you are being drawn to our parish.
• Please reflect and write a sermon using the following (provide passages to be used)
• Describe your leadership style. What important parish decisions have you made and how did you go about making those decisions?
• Describe the best and the worst experience of your priesthood?  What did you learn from each?
• Why do you feel called to be a Rector? How do your experience and skills fit with St. Timothy’s?

From such a first round of questions combined with the candidate’s CDO profile and other application materials, the selection committee should be in a better position to evaluate each candidate against its list of criteria to be used to consistency assess and rank each candidate in the process of narrowing the long list down to a short list of about 10-12 candidates for further consideration.

Interview Questions Explore Best Fit among Candidates

When the selection committee decides to interview the short list of candidates it has another challenge in framing questions to go beyond meeting the position qualifications to be rector and focus more on leadership style, experience appropriate to the parish needs, and the “fit” issues that make the relationship comfortable, durable and satisfying for both rector and congregation over the long term.

These interview questions must be well framed and to the point.  This is the time in the call process to separate the strongest candidates from the qualified ones.  The questions should be to the point and force the candidates to be honest about their views, experience, philosophy and style.  This match making process is looking for compatibility but it is also designed to help the parish growth into its call from God for its future.

Here is a sample of question to whet your appetite:

1.  Give three examples of contentious issues you have dealt with and how you handled them.

2.  Describe your theology of ministry, mission, and evangelism. How do these beliefs shape how you do your job as a priest and Rector?

3. As has the whole church, our parish has struggled with the issues of inclusiveness.  How have you struggled with these issues and where are you now in this journey? Give us examples of how this struggle played out in your current parish or Diocese.

4.   What is your view on the Anglican Covenant and its implications for the Anglican Communion relationship for the Episcopal Church in the United States?

5. What successful outreach programs have you created or led? Why were they successful?

6.    How do you make the gospel relevant to your parishioners and/or colleagues in today’s world? How have you done this for the varied parts of a diverse church community?

7.     Many parishes and parish families today are struggling with financial pressures from the recession. How have these pressures changed your approach to growth and parish ministry?

8.     How have you encouraged interaction and a sense of community across a parish with multiple Sunday services?  Give us examples of experimental service types or styles you have tried.

9.     St. Timothy’s Vestry adopted a 50^th anniversary goal of planting a new mission congregation but we are waiting for God to help us discern how, when and where to do so. What is your experience with congregation development, growth strategies and evangelism to reach out to the unchurched and underserved to broaden the pledge base of the parish?

10.   In our 20/20 Vision long range planning process, the Vestry adopted three broad goals for St. Timothy’s future. What is your experience in each of these three goal areas:

a.       Be a Welcoming Parish Open to All

b.      Invest in our Kid’s Faith Foundation

c.       Live into the Mission of the Church

11.   What experience do you have with childrens and youth ministry? How have you engaged pre-school, elementary, middle, and high school youth in your current or past positions?

12.   What is your training and experience with regard to stewardship? What methods or programs have you deployed to successfully increase participation in pledge, endowment, or capital campaigns?

13.   The Vestry said it wants to double the pledge base of the parish in 10 years-–how would you do it?

14.   Describe your approach to pastoral care? What are the qualities or sensitivities you believe are important to ministering to the needs of the congregation at their most critical times? How would you involve other clergy and support resources in meeting the pastoral care needs of the congregation?

15.   What attracts you to the Diocese of California? Or, if you are already a priest of the Diocese, what attracts you to continued ministry in California?

16.   Describe how you would participate in Area Ministry if you were to be called as rector of our church. (For a full description, see www.diocal.org/areaministry.)

17.   Describe your experience in a parish long term strategic planning process. Give examples of your leadership role(s) in implementing strategic goals.

18.   St. Timothy’s Vestry has adopted three broad goals to date from our 20/20 Vision planning process.  How would you help us live into these broad goals and make them more actionable? (Provide candidates with 20/20 Vision Presentation Summary).

Additional Interview Process Resources

The table below offers links to additional resources for the interview process including examples of questions to consider asking the candidates:

Interview Resources	Link
Clergy Interview Guide	http://www.epicenter.org/Images/edot/Documents/PDF/STAR%20Training%20for%20website.pdf
Search Committee Summary of Congregational Feedback, Christ church Dearborn. MI	http://www.christchurchdearborn.org/dl.cfm?file=downloads/CongregationalFeedbackMaterials.pptx  Good power point summary of the search committee’s sense of the Congregational Feedback to frame the criteria for calling a new rector.
CDO Profile Example, Christ church Dearborn MI	http://www.christchurchdearborn.org/dl.cfm?file=downloads/cdo_profile_expanded_final.docx  The National church posts a summary of the rector openings using a profile of the parish.  Here is a good example from Christ’s Church Dearborn, Michigan now underway.
National Church CDO webpage	http://www.episcopalchurch.org/cdo/
Interviewing in the Call Process	http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/CDO_Interviewing_in_the_Calling_Process_May2009.pdf
Strategic Visioning process Report, Christ church Dearborn, MI	http://www.christchurchdearborn.org/dl.cfm?file=downloads/cec_strategic_plan_aug2.pptx  20/20 Vision is a work in progress but it likely needs to pause until the search process is finished and a new rector is called.  This is a good example of a finished Strategic Vision for Christ’s Church Dearborn.  The categories might offer insight about questions to ask candidates.
Calling a Youth minister in Diocese of Colorado	http://www.coloradodiocese.org/03_faithformation/PDFs/Man_hir_2005.pdf
Tasks for the Search Committee	http://www.dioceseofeaston.org/Tasks%20for%20Search%20Committee.pdf Checklist of tasks used in the Diocese of Eastern Oregon call process.

Interviewing candidates for a position whether it is rector or any other job is a lot like painting your house.  Most of the work is scrapping, sanding, and preparation until the house is ready to accept the paint.  Then there is the base coat or primer that is similar to the call process screening and narrowing of the field to get down to the short list.  Only then can you apply the final coats of paint to see the true color of the house.  After that top coat of paint is applied comes the real test—do I like what I see and does it fit with my expectations?  If you don’t like the choice and don’t feel you can live with it for the long term—that is the time to change the paint color.  And so it is in the final round of interviews narrowing the field to the final three to recommend to the Vestry.

Ideally, the selection committee will give the Vestry a list of finalist candidates that offer the same high standards of quality, preparation and experience but offer a choice of styles to enable the Vestry to measure the true color of the ‘curb appeal’ of the candidates today and the ability to judge how well they will wear for the next 22 years.

We are praying for you and know that, with God’s help, your work will serve the congregation well.

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