Welcome to my pet peeves.

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Desperately seek any job availableÂ
I am a Children’s Pastor who absolutely loves kids and those who minister to kids. When I’m looking to fill staff positions, I’m going to look for others that have a passion and calling for kids. As I searched resumes on a variety of church job opportunity websites, I was amazed at how many people posted across 2,3,4 or even more job categories. I generally stayed away from those who were willing to be a Children’s Pastor, Youth Pastor, Associate Pastor or even Music Pastor…really, whatever you have available. Ultimately, this just makes you look desperate, not well rounded. I understand the desire to get your foot in the ministry door and being willing to do anything, but don’t be afraid of waiting for the job that best “fits” you. As an employer, I want someone who fits just right and not someone who “can” do the job, but probably shouldn’t.

The proof is in the pudding
When inquiring of a position and sending your resume to the search team, be sure that your resume displays experiences, training our skills to help you meet the expectations of the posted job. For example, if I was looking to hire a ventriloquist (I’m not sure why I ever would), your resume should show that you’ve had some if not significant experience working with dummies (Lord knows I have!). The job post I had up stated that we were looking for someone with experience dynamically speaking to and leading crowds of over 400 kids. In response, I got resumes from school teachers as well as one person who had significant nanny experience. However, I don’t believe that you can’t inquire of the job if you don’t meet the exact expectations. If you don’t meet expectations you better have something marvelous that’s going to make me overlook the missing skills/experience. I certainly admire some people’s faith when they’re willing to try for something “larger” than they can imagine, but I would encourage you to be practical. Sometimes you have to build up your bank with good experience before moving up to bigger.