MinisterConnection

Connect Looking for a pastor open to placement? Are you a senior pastor looking for ministry staff at your church? MinisterConnection will help.

MinisterConnection

MinisterConnection allows a candidate and a church to create a matching profile. The questions used for matching have been selected to assist candidates and churches in the initial stages of the placement process. The result of this preliminary screening should be a number of individuals who show promise as potential candidates.

MinisterConnection is intended to be a ministry to candidates and churches seeking God’s direction in placement. It is not a replacement for prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit. The human elements of wise counsel, good references, and appropriate background checks remain crucial to the process. MinisterConnection is based on four principles.

Collecting Information

There is a great deal of information that churches and candidates generally want to know about each other for placement, especially in the preliminary stage of a candidate search. In addition, research has suggested that there are a few key issues that, if explored early on, can greatly reduce the number of candidates a church looks at who eventually turn out to be incompatible. MinisterConnection asks a church or candidate to provide this information once in a standard format. It is then used for all placement requests. The advantages of this approach are an obvious savings of time and, we hope, an increase in the accuracy and clarity of the information provided. Two types of information will be collected from you.

Objective information (which is used for matching)
Support statements and documents (which are not used for matching)

MinisterConnection uses self-assessments by the candidate and church. In this manner what is said about you is what you want said, although MinisterConnection does use a Gatekeeper to review the information.

Matching Information

MinisterConnection uses the ability of a computer to identify potential matching candidates and churches based on the objective assessments they provide. No one can measure and predict what in the end is a work of God. A computer program cannot determine the Spirit’s leading of the church. However, most Christians agree that wisdom is commonly one of the ways God directs the church. MinisterConnection can assist a candidate or church in obtaining needed information and understanding of what that information means.

A special feature of MinisterConnection is that churches and candidates can give more or less weight to many of the items used for matching, thus creating a true custom matching process. If your initial matching does not yield many potential candidates or churches, you should review how strictly you asked for matching on the various matching items. Sometimes just a little more flexibility can create a significantly larger pool of potential matches.

For some churches and some candidates, there is no need to pursue a match if certain criteria do not match. If a candidate or a church chooses the "Must match exactly" option for a criterion, then irrespective of how well the candidate and church match up elsewhere, the candidate will not be matched to the church unless both have indicated the same position. In other words, any single item with a "Must match exactly" option can be used by a candidate or church to stop the matching process irrespective of all other issues. Since it is very likely that an otherwise good match will be eliminated by this one item, it should be used only after consulting with your gatekeeper. If you do not want a particular criterion used as "kick-out", then do not use the "Must match exactly" option.

Communicating Information

Key to the usefulness of MinisterConnection is the ability to communicate information through the WWW in both the collection stage and after matching, anywhere and at any time. Gone are weeks spent mailing forms back and forth. A church that has had few matches can ask its gatekeeper to come to a meeting, log onto the MinisterConnection WWW site, and in real time see what a few changes in preferences will mean for the number of matching candidates.

Gatekeepers

MinisterConnection provides information. Effective placement requires guidance for both candidates and churches. Thus, MinisterConnection uses a gatekeeper who reviews the information from a candidate or church before it can be submitted to the database. In addition to the needed element of wisdom and an impartial opinion, this human element is a significant security wall for a WWW based process. Many gatekeepers use the MinisterConnection as part of a developmental philosophy for the pastors and ministers they supervise. Gatekeepers typically are regional denominational leaders (e.g., a District Superintendent), denominational placement officers, or seminary placement staff. Churches that are not part of a participating denomination should contact MinisterConnection for names of gatekeepers in their area who will be able to assist them in effectively using MinisterConnection.

IMPORTANT CRUCIAL NOTICE

Neither MinisterConnection, nor the Evangelical Free Church of America, nor its District Superintendents have undertaken background investigations with respect to all of the candidates who may be listed in the MinisterConnection database. Such background investigations (e.g., criminal history investigation, reference checks, verification of prior employment history, and so forth) remain the responsibility of the church, congregation, or organization considering the candidate.

MinisterConnection