St. Andrew Presbyterian Church PNC Search Process
This information is provided to describe the Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) for St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and our search process. The PNC is a large committee (nine members and two alternates) that meets at least once a week. The following describes our process.
PIF (Personal Information Form) is received and reviewed to determine if the candidate is a viable match for our church. We request an audio or video service/sermon tape from viable candidates.
Upon receipt, the service/sermon tape is reviewed. For candidates who are still considered viable, we will attempt to schedule a telephone interview with the candidate.
Following the telephone interview, the committee will again discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate and whether the candidate would be a good match for SAPC. If the committee is still interested in the candidate, we will send a set of questions for the candidate to answer via email.
Upon receiving the candidate’s answers, we will again make a decision whether we want to continue to consider the candidate. If so, a subcommittee will begin to check the references listed by the candidate in the PIF.
Following the report of the subcommittee concerning the references, the committee will again decide if the candidate should continue to be considered.
For candidates still under consideration, the PNC will begin to seek an opportunity for a preliminary face-to-face contact. Such a contact may take a variety of forms: PNC members driving to the candidate’s home church if feasible, inviting the candidate to preach in a neutral pulpit in our area, meeting the candidate in some halfway location for discussions, etc. In addition, at this time, the PNC may seek secondary references not listed on the candidate’s PIF.
When the pool of candidates has been narrowed down to a few finalists, the committee will arrange for a neutral pulpit in our area to hear the candidates preach again and for a more intensive interview opportunity.
Our PNC has made the decision to work with multiple candidates at the same time rather than to consider them one at a time. At any given time we may be reviewing multiple service tapes and setting up multiple interviews. We trust that God will help us to discern the right candidate for our church. Until we are confident that both we and the candidate have heard God’s call to join together, we will continue to seek new PIFs, review tapes, talk with candidates, listen intently, and remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.