SEARCH COMMITTEE
The first step in this process is to decide who will be on the Search Committee. According to our polity, it is the role of the Search Committee to hire a new pastor. The Search Committee is chaired by BIC denominational staff and is comprised of the Church Board plus any additional congregants that the church board wants to invite into the process.
Sometimes, church boards will invite a particular demographic they don’t believe is represented on their church board. Sometimes, if the church board is small, they choose to make the Search Committee larger.
However, it is at the direction of the church board as to the size or representation of the committee. Individuals on the Search Committee do not have to be members of the church.
CONGREGATIONAL SURVEY
The primary purpose of the first meeting will be to create a posting to advertise for the open position. To achieve that goal, we encourage the church board to solicit input from people in the church. Who participates in the survey is at the discretion of the church board. BIC will provide a link to a survey that can be sent to whatever group of people the board sees fit. The results from this survey are tabulated and then we will use the results in discussion with the Search Committee to create a job posting.
The board chairperson is encouraged to trust their judgement to move the process at the right pace for their church.
INTERIM ROLE
The first step toward hiring an interim pastor is for the board to create a job description for the role. Samples are available from the denomination upon request.
Once a job description has been created, a denominational staff person will create a compensation agreement based on the requirements of the role. The church board will review the compensation agreement before it is sent it to any candidates.
COMMUNICATION
The board chair will be added to our mailing list of pastors until an interim pastor is in place. This ensures that your church does not miss any communication that normally gets sent to the pastor at the local church.
