17. Tomorrow churches - Pastoral search and congregational search 尋牧與尋羊

2020/4/17 18:27
A new task from the first virtual meeting : design a table with list of members' names and the categories of representation to be addressed; a table of members' names for the nomination committee members to keep track of how many are known to the nomination committee; a table of members of the nomination committee for the members to check off those they have connections.

2020/4/17 12:11

The nomination committee-2020 will have the first meeting this after at 4:15 I need to speed up with the drafting of some basic issues involved.

The latest thoughts is about the qualification and the preferred attributes of the members of the pastoral search committee members.

I guess that

1. out of the two possible ways of selecting the members to serve the pastoral search committee, the Presbyterian church emphasizes the representation more than the ability of the potential candidates. Nobody can practically and correctly judge the ability of a church member. The knowledge, attitudes, and the skills of the nomination committee can and need to be developed by the church. Also, a  congregation should be able to develop the ability of the members continuously rather than comparing people with their judged ability at certain point of time. Jesus didn't select people based on their previous performance appraisals.
2. One of the foundation for selecting the candidates to serve the pastoral search committee is the knowledge of "how every potential candidate know the needs, the disadvantages and the advantages of the congregation". In other words, the nominating committee needs to find out how much we know the candidates to be nominated.
3. The church should provide written statements of mission as well as the requirement for the pastor search committee. The advantage of written statement over the oral statement is the consistence source of information everybody receives.

If the session could not provide the statement of mission and requirements to guide the pastor search committee, its committee members, and the nomination committee that select the members to serve the search committee should the nomination committee go ahead to draft one for the session to approve? (15:18 2020/4/17)

to be continued.....


2020/3/8 20:01
The title is quite ambiguous at this time. I believe it can be clarified easily.
The pastors are constantly looking for the next congregation and they obviously have to turn down the calling from some congregations. There are reasons and reasoning involved.

Congregations are constantly looking for the next pastor and they obviously have to turn down the suggestions from some sources. There are reasons and reasoning involved.

In my previous experiences in search committees and based on what I heard about how my father responded to callings, I thought some joint workshops bringing the experiences from both side might be feasible.

What kinds of pastors might openly share their thoughts about selecting congregations and communicating with the pastor-search committees? What should we be aware of and preparing for when we invite pastors to the workshop? 2020/3/8 20:07

https://hopegardening.blogspot.com/2020/02/workshops-for-churches-of-tomorrow-beng.html
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I would start the exploration with the mission and the tasks of the pastor-search committees.
At the same time privately ask the pastors who care to share anonymously about what they are looking for about the congregations for decision-making as well as for preparation for responding to callings.

Congregation:

1. Qualification of the pastor required by the denomination and the flexibility involved.
2. While age should not be on the table the potential years of services might be brought up under the table.
3. The special challenges and the experiences of dealing with the challenges in ministry.
4. The attitudes toward, and the experiences in handling,  new challenges and bringing the congregation forward.
5. .... to be continued 20:35 

2020/3/10 6:28

The missions of pastoral searching:

1. Study and interpret the mission and the vision statements provided by the session in manners accessible and comprehensible to the potential candidates as well as the supervising Presbytery.
2. Report to the supervisory Presbytery the plan and the status of the progress and to assure the proper methods are applied.
3. Respond to the session and the supervisory Presbytery entities regarding suggestions received. 
4. Implement some processes of pastoral searching in order to present candidates, one at a time, to the session for voting by the congregation.
5. Maintain the minutes of decisions made in meetings. Supply the minutes content, skipping the personal information of the candidates being discussed, to the session as subpenaed, including the ruling decisions about the date for demolishing the confidential records. 
6. Determine the basic principles of pastoral searching, report to the session and the other supervisory entities, including the mode of searching: USA way or Taiwanese way, and the methods of maintaining confidentiality. (The USA way keeps the names and the related information confidential among the committee members while the Taiwanese way spreads the words around to solicit information about the candidates being considered without letting the candidates know.)
7. Determine the moderator, the secretary, the rules and methods of confidentiality, the quorum of the regular meetings, and the rules on acting moderators. 6:19