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The role of the Executive Pastor is growing to be an important position in mid-to-large sized churches. In fact, executive pastors often are the second most important role to hire for, aside from the senior or lead pastor.

What is unique about this role, however, is that churches may not need to hire for it until they are growing and expanding in a way that an executive pastor would be able to build upon. Many churches may not know exactly what an executive pastor does, so interviewing for the position can become difficult.

One of the more common conversations we have with churches is about how they should deal with an internal candidate. Sometimes it’s a potential successor for their Senior Pastor transition, but other times it’s moving an associate into a director-level role. Whatever the transition, internal candidates can be tricky and emotional waters to navigate.

Should you find yourself in this situation, it’s important that you handle it with care. There is not only a job at stake, but a relationship to consider as well. We’ve walked alongside several churches as they navigate this situation and below is our best advice for doing this well.

As we seek to find the right people for church staffs around the country, Vanderbloemen Search Group has conducted hundreds of background checks for candidates. In our experience, these are the five most common red flags of candidates that come up during the background check process.

As we partner with churches and organizations to help them build their best teams, we often hear similar criteria for potential candidates. The inevitable questions that many churches ask are: How big of an environment did this candidate work in previously?  In our search for quality candidates, is it possible that we’re asking the wrong question? Does the size and scope of a previous ministry matter to this hire?

While scope of work is important, it shouldn’t tell the whole story of a candidate. Instead, the question should be: What is his/her leadership capacity? We’ve seen candidates from smaller churches who could easily handle a much larger scope of work, as well as candidates from larger organizations and aren’t equipped for broader responsibility.

One of the most difficult parts of searching for a new position is determining whether an organization will be a good culture fit for you (and vice versa). Just because an organization is in the same location, size, or denomination as your previous roles, there’s no guarantee that you will instantly feel at home on the staff team.

Starting a new job will always be difficult, but if the existing culture lines up with your values, work ethic, and interests, the transition will be much smoother.  Here are 6 questions to assess if an organization is a good fit for you.

Ten years ago, it would be uncommon to find the technical director position on most church organizational charts. Since that time, technology has been woven into nearly every aspect of our everyday lives, including the church. In our work at Vanderbloemen, we often hear concerns of clients about the technology aspect of weekend worship services. We usually get the same three questions that center around the idea of hiring a technical director.

Every time we launch a new search, we will receive an email or two from our client letting us know that they’ve been approached about the position we are helping fill. This shouldn’t surprise me, but I always wonder why individuals try to skip out on the benefit of using an objective third-party in their job search. I’m sure there are several reasons, the most common being that they know someone on staff or want to have a personal connection with the church.

It’s no surprise that the youth pastor position has one of the highest turnover rates on a church staff. The role is increasingly becoming harder to fill and it’s extremely rare to find a youth pastor who desires to stay in his or her position for life.

However, not all hope is not lost for your student ministry! These 3 ideas for church leaders will help them retain their quality youth pastors for the long haul.

Firing a staff member is tough. Firing a ministry staff member is even tougher. Maybe you’ve walked this person through varying stages of life, or raised him or her up to be a leader in the church from an early age. Regardless of the history, one of the hardest things a church leader will have to do is fire a staff member, especially when it’s out of the blue.