Friday, April 24, 2009

What are their expectations?

Here's an interesting and helpful idea from David Gordon at Gordon-Conwell Seminary:

Dr. Kenneth Swetland, from Gordon-Conwell, recommended a good practice for our students when they were candidating for church positions: that in the later stages of that process, whenever possible, the candidate meet with the appropriate committee and, with a chalkboard or whiteboard, ask the committee members what they expected a minister to do. Dr. Swetland recommended that after listing the variety of activities on the board, the candidate then ask the committee how much time it would take to perform these tasks, including the preparation time. Ordinarily, the result of this exercise is that the committee realizes that the minister is expected to work about seventy-five hours a week, and also to be a good example of a family man!



[T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can't Preach (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Books, 2009), p. 107.]

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