Well, to begin with, this post may come across as mean or evil towards the Church, but it's not. It's bringing up the small tiny factors of the church that drive only a few insane. And with such information in your hand, I say this from a perspective of someone trying to get into a church to work, and finding many things that I am unhappy with. So this more or less is my rant against the church without getting fully upset with the Church. So below is my rant to vent and get things off my chest.
The Double Standard: This has been something that is driving me really insane for a while now. In almost every church I go to, they talk about getting people to volunteer and help out in ministries. The pastors talk about God qualifying the called, and not calling the qualified. This is all good, and the support in the bible is very strong for this. (Paul, Timothy, Peter, and many more.) The problem where this becomes the double standard is in the hiring process. When a church is looking for someone to fill a position that they have, this reasoning goes out the door instantly. I have been apart of far too many interviews that have come back without a job because I am not "Qualified" for their job position. This has become a big issue for me, as most of the reasoning behind me not being qualified is completely human in nature and leave God and the Holy Spirit out of the equation. In fact, most hiring processes leave the Holy Spirit out of it as the church goes looking for someone to be qualified for a position that they setup, rather then letting God bring them the right person. Yes, the hiring staff end up relying upon God to help them fill the position, but the position is fully looked at through human eyes, human standards, and human wants. It brings up a point that I actually hated when pastors used the saying, "Today's church would never hire the Apostle Paul." At first, I thought that such an idea was ludicrous. How could someone say that? But then the more I got involved within churches and their interviewing processes, the more I came to the full conclusion that such a statement is far too accurate.
This goes for a full interview processes as well. I've struggled to compile my resume together for churches, as I've altered it close to a thousand times by now. It's hard to boast about myself being someone who prefers to go unnoticed. But when a church wants you to... Or rather, wants you to do so until you're hired. That whole "Boast and show off to us, but you need to cut that out once you're hired, or else you'll be fired." mentality is something that is very prevalent within most churches. It's hard to cater a resume fit for each church not fully knowing what exactly their stance is on every small specific detail on life. It's become a trap game for most youth pastors. A church is either looking for someone completely fresh without any experience, or they want someone who has 5 years with a large church/youth ministry. (The later is far more prevalent than the first.) With standards like that, people like me are left in the middle. 3 years experience with churches, and they won't count the side extra stuff that I've done around the other 3 years. I am slowly being convinced that with some of the standards churches have, I must throw myself out of the running, or throw myself into full debt just to meet their standards. (At which point I no longer am a good steward over what God gave me.) What are some of these standards? Well, I lack a wife, as I am too old to still be single. I don't have enough paid experience with a church, or I just simply don't have enough. My track record of being heavily involved with one church for over three years, then going from place to place in the secular world doesn't look good to them. (That last one is the whole reason why I've stuck around at a crappy job that I hate and isn't good for me spiritually for so long.) And all of this really stems from the church using human standards to hiring people, rather than God's.
The last thing I will rant about is interviews in general. Without coming across as completely messed up, If your church is in California, and you have two applicants, one in California, one in Maryland, don't expect for the one in California to volunteer in your church before being hired without having the same standards for the one in Maryland. I'm sorry to say it, that thinking is very human and is without a doubt a double standard. (I've been hit with this one multiple times.) And truth be told, it doesn't make me want to jump in, but rather, withdraw my application.
Overall, I've actually only been apart of two interviews of my thousands that made me want to be apart of the church, or walked away without the job feeling good about it. There is a right and wrong way to handle the hiring processes within churches. Sadly, only about 2% of churches are doing it right. Within your process, you need to have your candidate convince you that they could fit well with your church. The second part is equally as important. You need to convince the candidate that they could thrive under you. That second part is left out far too often. You're a church, not a business. You need to show your church side within interviews. You also need to make sure that you are not stepping in front of God during these processes. If it's a God hiring, they candidate should stick around for 5 years at the earliest. If they don't, you stepped in and took over God's role during the hiring processes.
