[Magdalen] Once again we begin again......

[Lynn Ronkainen]

When I was on a search committee we visited at least 4 churches, one out of town and the rest were phone interviews before face time or Skype. There were 6 of us at a time designed to visit. We coupled up and came in separately, posing as out of town or new in the area visitors. We were mainly concerned about the priest/service in this "exercise" so only one of the "couples" stuck around briefly after the service or Sunday school/coffee hour.  When out of town we met about an hour after the service at a restaurant with the priest and spouse for a meal and then a private interview w/out the spouse afterwards. 
Another way to handle seeing the candidate "in action" is to see if they can arrange (or someone on the committee can arrange) to be a guest preacher and celebrant at another parish somewhere in the area, then you're not even in their actual church so no "alarm" bells go off. 

Just some already tested ideas. 
Lynn 

On Aug 18, 2019, at 8:01 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com> wrote:

With the typical search process, the search committee can do only so much.
Ideally, if they could spend time interviewing the priest's current
parishioners and especially vestry members, much insight could be gleaned.
But the need for confidentiality with the priest's current parish (which is
common out in the secular job market as well -- you usually don't want your
current employer to know you're applying for jobs in other places) normally
precludes that.

I know many committees travel to the finalists' current parishes to see
them in action there. If that can be done anonymously, great. But so much
can blow the cover: the wrong sort of questions, or seeming nosey-ness in
general, a fixation on finding out about the priest and not seeming to be
interested in joining or visiting again...

On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 4:27 PM M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

>>>> I've come to the conclusion that the search process in TEC is deeply
> flawed
> because I've seen it really seriously screw up<<<
> 
> I was on only one complete pastor search committee, and it ended up a
> total failure.  And, it was mentally and emotionally debilitating.
> 
> Here's to the Roman system.  (Sort of.)
> 
> M J (Mike) Logsdon.
> 
> "Aaugh[.]" -- Charles Brown.
> "Avoid dull needles and use a soft cloth." -- E Kovacs.
> "Because that's the kind of guy, I'm." -- C Reiner, "Your Show of Shows",
> skit: "From Here to Obscurity".
> 


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA