For ministers in the search & call process, there are times when you look at a prospective church’s profile or job description and think, “Can this search team see inside my brain?” The responsibilities align with your gifts, the congregation professes values similar to yours, and the salary range is exactly what you’re looking for. When the search team representative contacts you to set up an interview, it’s the start of an exciting possibility.

You will likely not feel so clear or enthusiastic about every initial interaction with a search team. This is normal! If it’s obvious that this is not the role or place for you, graciously withdraw from consideration. After all, your focus is better spent elsewhere, and search teams are made up of volunteers who are giving a lot of time and energy to looking for a leader. If, on the other hand, you are intrigued by what you read or hear but have a lot of questions, or if the position or context sounds great but seems like a stretch for your experience, don’t prematurely end the conversation. The Holy Spirit might be up to something.

That something might not turn out to be a great fit. But a search is about more than a minister finding a job and a congregation finding its next pastor. When you talk with search teams, you are changed - hopefully most often in positive ways. You meet new people who might end up playing a surprising role in your journey. You receive feedback that helps you grow. You practice showing up as a pastor in interviews.

Search teams are shaped as well by their interactions with you. It could be that you nudge the search team to make its process more hospitable, both for yourself and for others. Perhaps you ask a question that pushes the search team to face a reality or that challenges them to think bigger or that sends them back to the congregation for more discussion about identity or direction. Maybe your very presence, particularly as a “first” of some sort, cracks the door wider for someone else to serve this church on down the line. You might never know the results of your interactions with congregations that don’t immediately jump out as your dream scenario. This willingness to engage, though, is part of what it means not just to be surrounded by a cloud of witnesses but to be part of that community of the faithful across time.

So yes, absolutely look for that best fit and negotiate for what you are worth. And, along the way, remember that you are in ministry to churches through the way that you search, not just in the position to which you are ultimately called.

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash.

At The Young Clergy Women Project conference this summer, keynote speaker Dr. Margaret Aymer taught participants how to design contextual Bible studies with a missional bent. Every discussion of scripture, she said, should conclude with a commitment to action: what small, immediately-doable step can we take in light of what we’ve learned together?

Dr. Aymer used a fruit tree metaphor for sorting possible action items. Low-hanging fruit can be gleaned without too much effort. As you reach for fruit further up the tree, you’ll need a taller stepladder, exert more energy, and take more risk. (You’ll also be able to pick fewer fruits at a time, since you’ll have to juggle your harvest and hold onto the ladder.)

I’ve found the fruit tree metaphor very useful the past few weeks:

What fruit is hanging within easy reach? What small course corrections can I make that will yield big results?

What low-hanging fruit do I need to leave hanging so that others can glean it? How can I be a Boaz and empower the Ruths around me?

When do I really need to break out the stepladder? Have I plucked all the fruit I can/should with both feet on solid ground? Or is the fruit that grows further up somehow more substantive?

How can I minimize the risk? Or, shifting perspective a bit, whom do I need to hold the ladder for me as I climb and to tell me how to reach fruit I can’t easily see?

May your theological discussions and the initiatives that come out of them be fruit-full.

Ah, the first semester of seminary. That magical time when I formed my still-strong circle of friends, I finally heard women preach (from the pulpit, and their messages were called sermons rather than “talks”), and people in authority really wanted me to ask my many questions about the Church and the Bible.

My world was rapidly expanding. And I was introduced to an image in my History of Christian Thought class that helped me make sense of it. This image still serves as the lens through which I interpret my ministry, politics, and personal relationships:

“Suppose we were to take a compass and insert the point and draw the outline of a circle. The center point is the same distance from any point on the circumference. Let us suppose that this circle is the world and that God himself is the center….To move toward God, then, human beings move from the circumference along the various radii of the circle to the center…The closer they are to God, the closer they become to one another; and the closer they are to one another, the closer they become to God.” (Sixth-century monk Dorotheos of Gaza, quoted on p. 25 of To Love As God Loves by Roberta Bondi)

As a visual person, I realized I needed an artistic representation of this picture in words both to tell other people what my ministry is about and to keep me inspired. There was no question where I would turn for this rendering – Silver Tree Art, a ministry provided by my friend Suzanne L. Vinson. Suzanne took the Dorotheos quote and used watercolors and ink to interpret it. I love her creation, which includes leaves, hearts, arrows, and an equal sign along the radii. I hope and trust you will appreciate it as well, because I will be using it every chance I get!