Pastoral Candidate Interview Questions

1. Describe your call to ministry.
2. How do you view the relationship of a senior pastor to the associate staff positions, other members of the staff and the elders?
3. Define your understanding of an elder form of church government.
4. Please define discipleship and explain how it functions within a local church. How do you envision assimilating a person new to their faith or from a different background.
5. What are your priorities in relation to your life and your ministry?
6. What is the role of a senior pastor in a local church?
7. Do you hold any doctrinal positions that are outside of traditional Baptist doctrine?
8. What is the role of a church in the life of a family?
9. What magazines do you subscribe to and read regularly?
10. Give some examples of how you have led your church to be actively involved in the community and present a salt and light testimony to the world.
11. What interests do you have outside of the ministry and your family?
12. Have you ever left employment or a ministry position involuntarily?
13. Please briefly comment on your view of the following:

• The charismatic movement
• Tithing
• The end-times
• Eternal security
• Divorce and remarriage
• The role of women in the church

14. What do you believe is your spiritual gift/gifts?

15. What is your greatest strength? Weakness?

16. Describe your personal devotional life?

17. In working with members of the opposite sex, what steps do you take to demonstrate a lifestyle that is above reproach?

18. Why do you wish to relocate?

19. Apart from money owed on a home or other appreciating assets, what consumer debt do you have at this time?

20. Would you object to our church performing a credit check on you?

21. How many hours a week do you currently work and what do you feel is a reasonable schedule considering the needs of your family?

22. What is your philosophy of working mothers?

23. As you have thought and prayed about Grace Church what, if any, thoughts has the Lord placed on your heart?

24. How does your wife perceive a possible move to Des Moines?

25. What aspect of your work do you find the most personal fulfillment–and why?

26. What areas of your work cause you the most personal stress and frustration–and why?

27. What is the most helpful thing you can tell us to truly understand “the real you”?

28. What roadblocks do you feel are currently holding you back in your current ministry?

29. What is the one thing that truly demotivates you?

30. At this time do you sense any leading from God regarding Grace Church?

31. Have you come to a place in your life where you are no longer searching for answers to fundamental doctrinal questions?

32. Have you ever read through the entire Bible?

33. How would you describe the spiritual condition of your children?

34. Do you believe you have reached a point in your life you are willing to make a long-term commitment to a church and to a community?

35. Describe your vision of a growing, vibrant, biblically-based new testament church functioning in today’s American culture.

36. Do you have a preference for denominational affiliation or independence?

37. Describe how you would work with a confrontational staff member or elder?

38. Are you able to think critically without becoming critical?

39. Are you a natural encourager to your staff and elders?

40. Do you enjoy a wide network of friends and professional associates outside of your church family?

41. How do you handle defeat?

42. Do you have any preference regarding the current staff?

43. Of the three critical roles for a senior pastor, preaching/teaching, vision casting and leading/managing the staff, which would energize you and which would drain you?

44. Looking at former staff members or elders who have left, what would they say frustrated them about you?

45. Are there personal discipline issues in your life that you have struggled to overcome?

46. Give some examples of how you relate or don’t relate to unsaved people?

47. If God chooses to leave you in your current setting for another ten years, realistically how will it look different than it does today?

48. Iowa is not a part of the Bible belt. How will you minister in a location where Methodists and Lutherans outnumber Baptists 4-1 and where the word “Baptist” is considered by many to be a negative.

49. Think for a moment as a church planter. If you were starting a church in Des Moines, IA from scratch, what would it look like? What would the worship be like? What would your priorities be?

50. Describe how you would minister to a homosexual in truth and in love?

51. Do you relate better to white-collar professionals or blue-collar factory workers?

52. If you can only be remembered for one thing in your life, what would you like it to be?