Number four is REAL important. A big part of the reason I did as well as I did choosing my first pastoral job (second career, by the way) is because of that.

Also, when in the final negotiations, leave NO issue un-discussed. They will NOT clear themselves up!

I recently interviewed for another position in a different church and after I candidated at the actual church, I found out that the salary offer would actually wind up being about $12-15K less and there was no insurance available.  No thank you!

By all means, talk to the local church association, the other area pastors, even people in the community who don’t attend that church. I think search committees mean well, but we should expect them to “dress up for the first date.” I naively entered a relationship with a church that had major issues, a recent split and traditional power struggles between pastor and deacons.  Some of these things I heard about before I accepted their call, but most of it came out later.  The Lord was gracious to us, and allowed us to serve for seven years.  Although it was difficult, I thank God for the opportunity to serve in a hard place.  I learned a great deal about surrender and hardship; loving God’s people, even when they don’t love you back. I don’t know if I would have accepted the call, knowing what I know now. And yet, if the Lord leads us to a difficult place, who are we to refuse the one who has purchased us at so great a price?

Yes, and more than once.  The first time was over the number of people attending.  When I arrived for, “preaching interview”, the church was packed with about 100.  later, I discovered the congregation was made up of about four families, most who did not attend the church regularly. (they showed up for pot-luck.) I got excited about many things that day.  The love poured out of them like a freshly discovered bee hive, only to find that it was limited to if I performed to satisfy “the family.” If the conflict was among two families, I was expected to side with one or the other.  The fight ended when I resigned just two years later.  By the way, I got absolutely no support from my district leadership, and I am convinced they knew the truth at the time of my interview. The second offered similar problems, and will end with my seeking another place where God can use me.  There’s got to be someplace where God rules!

I think the most common lie that I have experienced is, “Yes, we’re ready to grow and we really want to grow” They always forget to add, “if we don’t have to change anything we’re dong now!” I forget who I heard this from, and I am not sure I am quoting exactly right but, “If you always do what you have always done, you will always be where you have always been.” They cannot equate growth with drastic change or even a small change. Growth does not come without change. Every search committee has said the same thing, “We want to grow!” When I arrive and start to implement changes to cause growth, then it is another story.

Larry hit the nail on the head and drove it home with one swing!!

Search committees usually have rose colored glasses about their church. While few would state their intention is to dupe the potential pastor (be it associate or senior), the reality is that the espoused values and actual values often conflict.  The ideal reality (even if desired) and the actual reality can be world’s apart. Change is essential yet often not embraced. Experience has shown that asking multiple questions from many angles as well as doing one’s homework can help immensely to ensure fit.  A great book in my master’s program that helped me was “Confirming the Pastoral Call: A guide to matching candidates and congregations (Joseph L. Umidi).  It has many assessment tools for both the congregation and the pastor.  It has been a great help to many pastors I know. It’s a great tool for a search committee to use as they begin the process. It also helps candidates ask candid questions to move past the “dating” stage (stating only the positive, wonderful things. Doing “homework” can help one know the actual values along with the church’s readiness to change and many other realities. Pastoral fit is an essential ingregient of long-term fruit bearing in Kingdom advancement.

I’ve been duped.  I was called to a church where the search committee told me they wanted to reach children, youth, and young families.  They knew that if they did not do so that the church would die.  So I told them what it would entail if they wanted to reach this segment of their community.  This church was primarily an older church that had not grown with the growth of the community.  Once I was called as pastor we began to implement some changes to help reach out to the young, the unchurched and the the dechurched as well.  Within a relatively short time opposition mounted.  After 2 1/2 years I had to resign the church due to the pressure from a hand full of self appointed protectors of the status quo.  I believe they really wanted to reach the young audience, but I believe they wanted to reach them the way they were still doing things or the way they did reach them in the 60’s and it just was not working.  Needless to say the church today is still not reaching their community, but I pray that someday they will.  My advice to future pastors is try to understand what is being said behind what is being said.  Be as clear as you can up front and make sure that they understand what you are communicating as well.  And then they must communicate this to the entire church body so there will be no misunderstanding at a later date.

Justin,

I agree with you completely.  I DO think all of the questions should be asked, research done, etc. and that it would be foolish to enter a situation without first understanding it as well as possible.  My point, however, is that at “the end of the day” we need to be very careful that we’re not basing our decisions whether or not to accept a ministerial position solely or primarily on how “healthy,” “beneficial,” “preferential,” or an “ideal fit” the situation may seem to be or not.  Those are all important considerations and facts to be aware of, but I am convicted that the ONLY factor that should ultimately determine whether to accept or reject a position is a response to your best discernment of God’s will.  If that means going into a situation that you never wanted to, or nobody else would want to, them you still go - BUT with your eyes open and expectations realistic.

And, yes, there are times when the LORD can use some of this proper research to enhance and confirm our discernment of His will.  I don’t deny that.  The problem and fear that I do have is that it seems that we are much, much too quick to latch onto any negatives and automatically assume that must be a sign that God doesn’t want me to go there.  Why couldn’t that still be true?  Why wouldn’t God send you or I to a seemingly “impossible” or “insane” situation, a tiny church, a humongous church, a church with a tiny compensation package, etc. . .?

I currently joyfully serve in a church in the Northeast in an area that has long (had and still has) a national reputation as being a “Pastor’s graveyard.” Historically, the rep is that pastors in this region don’t last long and are regularly chewed up and spit out by their congregations.  Does that mean God has abandoned them?  That He would no longer call anyone to pastor churches in the region?  If everyone followed some of the advice and guidelines I seem to be reading here, there would be a vast area of empty churches without anyone to pastor them.  Instead, someone has stepped forward in faith, ignored the advice of skeptics and “experts” and followed God’s call to pastor each church in this area.  As a result, real and meaningful (though certainly not perfect) ministry is being done, people are being saved and discipled - in spite of the generational dysfunctions, dissenters, church politicians and “ruling families.”

[BTW:  From one Todd to another, these were some excellent questions and discussions you have sparked this week.  Thanks!]

I agree with P T ,if god calls you to a church you should go, no matter what the church is like, god knows what he is doing, sometimes it takes a while to get the people on the right road, and that would be doing things gods way. god does call us into hard places, and god still works with us with his word. i have seen god do miracles with people in church. i say god bless this man that dare do what god wants him to do, he is a rarety, and for as his family is concerned, god will take care of them,if a pastor is looking for a church that is perfect, forget it, and if you are preaching just for a fat salery your in the wrong buisness, this is gods buisness and there are hard places, and he needs some faith filled preachers that will answer His call , not a certin, where we want to go call, if a church is messed up, god knows how to fix it, leave it to him, its gods buisness to help people. he started it let him finish it, it is a preachers job to preach the word, and the word is still the gospel unto salvation. its not what we can do anyway it is what jesus did for us.

I love reading these posts, but rarely comment. However this one hits close to home. Duped, Lied to, Decieved, mislead, yup thats what happend to me. Not as senior pastor but as Youth/music pastor.

This was to be my first church. They were a SBC church in the south, who had turned slightly charasmatic (I know thats an oxymoron but its true!) and charasmatic as in people getting a word from the Lord right in the middle of the sermon and sharing it right then. Not disclosed. They were also a “family “ church, which I came to understand meant that 1 they were all related somehow and if not they were “adoptive” family. and 2 they had a “bless us 4 no more” mentality.  Again not disclosed. They did tell me that they wanted to grow, attract younger folks, and reach people for Christ.  We must have been speaking about two different things.
The church was run by about 5 people who formed the majority of our committies.  The youth council as it was called was in their opinion bound to oversee my every decision. Again not disclosed.  We had a monthly Youth council meeting which I became know to my wife & I as my Monthly Crucifixion Session.  The majority of the Youth council was comprised of bitter divorced women. YEAH!
The pastor’s resigned the week before I was supposed to move. This was partially disclosed. (I found out later that the church had a fire that had been set by the preacher’s son.) Having partial info I decided to make the move anyways and my first Sunday was his last, leaving me as the only staffer.
They called a new pastor after 3 months who would fit their idea of a pastor. A country guy who would go their way.  He & I didn’t see eye to eye about much. He being 50ish and I being 22 didn’t help much either.
Salary was discussed before I wanted or thought it needed be addressed but I ended up with a parsonage. (I will never live in one again based on this situation.) Most things they told me about the house were borderline.
I lasted 13 months. In all fairness the head of the search Cmt. came to me and appologized for the way I was being treated and they gave me a very nice going away preasent. They paid to move me back! LOL
I’m not sure that they intentionally lied to me but they deffinately had a different view of their church than was real.  No hard feelings now, but it took a while to get here.  The lesson I learned was sumarized by the questions posted above! You can’t get too many questions answered. But at the end of the day, God used that situation to hone my skills as a minister, grind a few rough edges off of me, and make me sure of my calling. 
Good dialog on this one!!

I am now, at a church, like where Brother Bruce was at. When I came to this church, the congregation, (All over the age of 60), assured me that they were wanting to evangelize the lost and make the church a lighthouse to the neighborhood.

However, after just 6 months, the honeymoon was over. We were bringing in the neighborhood kids, and their families, but, they did not look like them, they were rowdy, and the congregation was not pleased.

That was when I fully realized that the major movers and shakers did not even live on the same side of town as the church. They had started the church in the Sixty’s and had a modicum of growth, however, when the neighborhood demographics started to change in the 90’s, they all moved out, (so much for loving their neighbors)! Because they started the church, they wanted it to be the same type of church, (White Bread only, thank you very much), they did not really want to reach the lost in the neighborhood, (Hispanic, Black, low income Whites). After some temper tantrums, (and roast pastor in the parking lot), and trying to vote me out, (Without a quorum vote). They left in mass, leaving us holding the bag for all the support. This meant I had to take a cut of more than half of my salary, (Can you say ouch)?

This is where, belatedly, I came to Church consultant, Aubrey Malphurs. Malphurs wrote a book called, “Advanced Strategic Planning”. In one section he describes this very same scenario. There are, “Perceived” values, and “Actual” values in our churches. Who, after all, in their right minds, would tell a prospective pastor, that they, as a church, did not care a hoot for the lost? Of course they lied, but most importantly, they lied to themselves first. They said they wanted an evangelical pastor, but, what they really wanted was a Chaplain that knew how to cook up a good pot-luck.

Well, I would like to say that all is roses without them, however that is not the case. We are struggling financially. Sometimes the discouragement is overwhelming, however God is not letting me give up on His Church here in this neighborhood. We are reaching the children of this predominantly gang infested, drug abusing, child abandoning, parent detached neighborhood. We are doing Christ’s work. I, and my family may go broke, however the Whole and True Word Of God is still being proclaimed to all who will come and listen.

If you are in this same position, I can only tell you this is what God wants for me, and my family, you need to see what He has in mind for you. Sometimes you need to run as fast as you can, other time you may just be the one that God has given the vision, to stay, and make it right.