Don't gamble on finding the right youth pastor for your church. Invest the time and energy in a deliberate, intentional plan for conducting the best search possible!
If you're looking for a shortcut to hiring your next youth pastor, this isn't the right resource. But if you're looking for a resource filled with proven tools and resources to guide you toward the best candidates, you've found it!
This CD-ROM is stuffed with documents, forms, letters, checklists, and spreadsheets that will help you conduct an effective, fruitful search for your congregation's next youth worker. They've been compiled by veteran youth workers and consultants Mark DeVries and Jeff Dunn-Rankin, who wrote the companion book
Before You Hire a Youth Pastor.
Avoid a "normal" search that produces predictable, normal resultsÑa youth worker who isn't aligned to the church's vision, a youth pastor who doesn't stay around long, or any number of other outcomes that limit the vitality of your youth ministry. Instead, use these tools to conduct an "abnormal" search that leads you to the right person for your congregation.
Here's a sampling of the items we've included on this CD-ROM:
- Job description for your search team
- Sample job descriptions for full-time and part-time youth workers
- Recommended sites to post your job opening
- Survey for examining your staff structure
- On-site and videoconference interview questions
- Reference phone calling guide
- Template for search timeline
- Candidate tracking spreadsheet
- First month on the job checklist
- Sample e-mails to candidates
- (Our tech team also may have slipped in a map to buried treasure, but no guarantees!)
Before You Hire a Youth Pastor offers a field-tested, step-by-step alternative to rolling the dice. You don't have to settle.
Mark DeVries is the founder of Youth Ministry Architects (ymarchitects.com), a consulting team specializing in working with youth ministries in transition. Mark is the author of Sustainable Youth Ministry and Family-Based Youth Ministry, and, since 1986, he has served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jeff Dunn-Rankin is Vice President of Consulting for Youth Ministry Architects. Since the late 90s, he has also been the Director of Youth at Christ United Methodist Church in Venice, Florida. Other writing projects include his GROUP
Magazine column and co-writing The Indispensable Youth Pastor with Mark DeVries.
