Selecting Pastors and Church Members

Church congregations make few decisions that are more important than selecting their next pastor. Not only will the pastor selected be confronted by a new congregation and its' Level of spiritual maturity, traditions, and customary activities but every active member will also be faced with getting to know their new pastor and his family, including his level of spiritual maturity and his expectations, plans, and vision for their church .
Failure to make the right choice will affect both the incoming pastor and church members, usually not in a good sense and often for years to come.
Unfortunately both pastors and churches often approach the selection process without fully realizing what is involved in making a choice which, hopefully, is directed by the Holy Spirit. Our Baptist leadership, in recognition of this problem, have published articles and/or pamphlets designed to help churches find pastors they can recommend to their congregations. These materials are helpful to some extent but their usefulness suffers from a full appreciation of the scope of the problem and a failure to stress the need for Elders to guide the selection process. Accordingly an effective process is usually doomed from the start. Later on in the book there will be more about Elder leadership and its responsibilities toward selecting both new pastors and new church members.
My purpose in addressing this problem is to try to identify what both parties (pastor and church) need to know, in order to build a mature, fully functioning congregation with a deep appreciation for the mission of the church. Normally, when a church is placed in the position of having to call a new pastor, the church will select a pastor search committee, usually called a pulpit committee or team. Several church members will be chosen to serve on this committee. Regrettably this group often receives little or no specific training or help in what they should do in preparation for finding and recommending a pastor for the church's consideration.
Regarding new members, all churches should have prospective member classes for those requesting membership. Such classes are a great help in determining whether the new member will become an effective part of the body of Christ in the local church.
DEFINING THE PROBLEM.
In what follows I am suggesting that there are four basic concepts, the understanding of which is critical in selecting a pastor and about which all pastors and churches should have basic agreement. Briefly put they are:
1) New Testament Spiritual oversight and leadership,
2) New Testament church stewardship,
3) New Testament Church membership,
4) New Testament Church fellowship.
Armed with a sound understanding of New Testament scripture in these four critical areas, basically the responsibility of Elder leadership and teaching, a church should be able to proceed with confidence in selecting and recommending a pastor for consideration.
All too often churches themselves have not received comprehensive New Testament teaching in the above four critical areas, leaving them without a clear understanding of what they need to know and consider important in choosing a new pastor.
So if either the pastor or church have only vague ideas concerning New Testament teaching for churches in leadership/oversight, stewardship, membership, and fellowship, a good decision is unlikely. The problem may be further complicated by a church's traditional beliefs, many of them contrary to New Testament scripture. To help remedy this situation and encourage serious consideration of the guidance provided in the New Testament is the burden of this book.