This post is for the lay leader serving on a pastoral search committee or otherwise providing oversight to a church between pastors. Lord willing, you’ll have a good pastor soon, but here are four practical steps you can take in the meantime.
- Pray
- Praise
- Prod
- Prospect
Pray
Pray as an individual first, but then prompt your search committee and your church to pray too.
You and your church will resist this step, not because you don’t believe it’s important, but because talking and planning will feel like better uses of time. But prayer is the first and best activity because you need God’s wisdom, guidance, and provision.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. God is here and hears our prayers.
Start your day with a Bible reading plan and a time of prayer. Simply tell God what you’re thankful for, ask him for what you need, and respond to him about what you’ve read in the Bible.
When you gather as a search committee, start by reading a preselected scripture like Psalm 123:1-2:
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he has mercy upon us.
Then say something like, “Before we begin talking about the way forward, let’s pray. Let’s tell God what we’re thankful for and ask him for what we need. Don’t feel any pressure to pray out loud, but feel free to.”
Then get the ball rolling by beginning to pray and leaving time for the others to chime in as they feel so inclined. When you sense the group has finished praying (usually when there’s about a 10 second silence after the last verbal prayer), thank God for hearing you and say ‘Amen.’
This is how all your pastoral search committee meetings should start.
Once you’ve established prayer as a centerpiece of your search committee, start a weekly churchwide prayer meeting to seek God’s direction and ask for a new pastor. You can lead these meetings with the same simple approach I described above for the search committee.
Don’t let prayer requests take up all the prayer time. Jump right into prayer and let folks simply take those requests directly to God.
Praise
Because discouragement will be a growing factor the longer you wait for a pastor, look for God’s blessings. Celebrate each one.
It will be easy to see declining attendance, atrophying programs, etc. It takes effort to see and praise God for the good things He is doing during your wait for a new pastor.
- Has someone stepped up to serve in a new way at the church?
- Has someone had an opportunity to share the gospel with a coworker?
- Has someone received an answer to prayer?
- Has giving remained steady during the wait?
Mention these at the beginning of your worship services and praise God together.
And if there are bigger blessings, like someone coming to faith in Christ or getting baptized, celebrate with a church meal or party.
Prod
By ‘prod,’ I mean come up with a system for contacting each of your church members and attenders frequently (I needed another word that started with a ‘Pr’).
Pastors do a ton of gentle prodding that you might not be aware of. It will be strengthening for your congregation if you can form a small team of spiritually mature people to take this up during the wait for a new pastor.
Pull together a list of all your members and friends of the church (attenders who haven’t joined). See to it that everyone on the list receives some sort of contact at least once every two weeks. These can be text messages, phone calls, drop-by’s—whatever seems most appropriate.
Check on them. See how they’re doing. See how you can be praying for them. Offer a brief encouragement. If they’re drifting away, tell them you missed them and invite them back.
“Hey John, just wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing this week.” Seems like a small thing, but it goes a long way to keeping the flock in the pasture.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Prospect
Once you’re praying, praising, and prodding, add prospecting. By ‘prospecting,’ I mean get in touch with me as your superintendent so I can help you find and evaluate prospective pastors.
You can reach me any time at 704-787-6445 or matt@theappregion.org.