Being without a pastor or preaching minister can be a scary experience for a church. Even scarier is the prospect of concluding an exhausting search only to find out a few months later that your new pastor isn’t a good fit for your congregation.
What if you could minimize the chances of this happening by asking better questions during the search process? Questions that will help you and the candidate you’re interviewing dig into some deeper issues that usually don’t surface until its too late.
Before You Go is full of such questions. It will not only identify some of the most important issues to cover during the interview, it will also give you a better understanding of some of the questions and concerns candidates bring with them. The more prepared you are to address their concerns and answer their questions, the better chance you have of finding a pastor who fits your church.
I recently had an elder from a church currently looking for a new minister say, “I wish everyone in the church could read your book. It would give them a better understanding of what it’s like to be a minister.”
In an effort to make it as easy as possible for churches to put Before You Go into the hands of everyone involved in the search process, I’m offering an “Unlimited Distribution” PDF version to churches.
For a limited time, you can buy Before You Go and distribute an unlimited number of copies within your church for $24.95.
Download the PDF version and email it (or print it out and hand a hard copy) to every elder, deacon, staff member, search team member, and anyone else in the church who will benefit from reading it.
One purchase. One download. Send it to everyone in your church who needs to read it. 
If you’re leery of paying $24.95 for the rights to distribute an ebook you haven’t read yet, don’t worry. It comes with an money-back guarantee. If you buy it, download it, and read it and don’t think it will help improve your search process, let me know within 30 days and I’ll gladly give you a refund.
You can pay with a Credit Card via PayPal or Google Checkout. After paying, you will be given instructions for downloading the PDF.
I’m no preacher; just an elder — and so the book is kind of a backward read for me. It doesn’t so much speak to my needs as the needs of those I interview. And that’s a very good thing.The book helps me understand where the interviewee is coming from. It might even help me help him avoid making a mistake.
Jay Guin
One in Jesus
I find the material to be unlike anything I’ve even seen. This work will bring clarification and simple guidance to preachers, elders, and the search committees involved in ever-crucial moves of the future.
Terry Rush
Senior Minister
Memorial Drive Church of Christ
An excerpt from the Introduction:
In 2003, when I accepted a call to a new church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I believed I was stepping into a ministry with tremendous potential. After being there for less than a year, I found myself in a quagmire of conflict and financial turmoil. A key staff member, someone who was crucial to my effectiveness there, resigned unexpectedly. The leadership team that looked so healthy during the interview started manifesting old dysfunctions that we all hoped had been exorcised. I was angry and disappointed. Angry at the leadership team for falling apart and disappointed in myself for getting caught up in such a volatile church system. As the situation continued to unravel, and as each month presented yet another unsolvable problem, I repeatedly said to myself, “I didn’t sign up for this!”
Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I ended up in such a difficult situation. Hindsight is supposed to be twenty-twenty, but my perspective on what happened, and why, is still a bit fuzzy. I can, however, make several observations. First, I was desperate to leave the church I was working with when I interviewed with the church in Tulsa. Before I even began the interview process I knew that I would accept the job if they offered it to me. Second, there were a number of important questions I failed to address throughout the process. I either didn’t ask these questions because of inexperience or because I didn’t want to know the answer. Desperate people don’t ask questions they don’t want to know the answers to. Third, the most important questions that needed to be asked were not questions about the church, but questions about myself. Changing churches didn’t change me. I was the same guy in both places and that was part of the problem.
This is a resource for ministers thinking about moving to a new church. You may be in the early stages of sending out resumes or you may be on the verge of saying “yes” to the church of your dreams. You may be as desperate to move on to a new ministry as I was, or you may be a rookie hoping to land a job with your first church. My hope is that what follows will give you some good questions to help you discern whether or not to make a move. Most of these questions are the product of mistakes I’ve made over fourteen years of ministry. I hope you can learn as much from my mistakes as I have.
This can also be a valuable resource for search teams who are looking to call a new minister to their church. I hope this will give you an idea of what kind of questions should surface during the search process.
You can pay with a Credit Card via PayPal or Google Checkout. After paying, you will be given instructions for downloading the PDF.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: I Didn’t Sign Up For This!
A Word to the Desperate and Lovesick
I’m Not Suspicious, I Just Don’t Trust Anyone, Including Myself
How To Read This Book
A Few Navel-Gazing Questions About Yourself
A Few Questions About The Church’s Vision
A Few Questions About the Church’s Leadership Culture
A Few Questions About Your (Un)Stated Job Description
A Few Nitty-Gritty Questions About the Church
A Few Bonus Questions for Young Preachers
So How Do You Know When You’ve Found The Right One?
It’s Not All Doom And Gloom
Conclusion: I Still Didn’t Sign Up For This!