One site I particularly like is www.churchstaffing.com. The thing I like about this one is the volume of traffic this site gets. I posted the position (I think it cost about $200 for 2-3 months) I was hiring here and got close to 40 resumes within 6 weeks. In addition to the emails I got from prospects, I also had access to the resume database.

Another great site is www.youthspecialties.com. It also has high volume. The only downside is that the majority of people who post for a children’s ministry job also posted for every other job available and for me that’s a turnoff (I know, I’m a idealist snob). This is; however, where I found my elementary coordinator.

Other decent sites include www.churchjobs.net, www.ministrysearch.com as well as www.kidology.org. There are others that you can find with a simple google search.

Okay, here is my opinion though. I realize that there may be some people who whole-heartedly disagree with me, but I’m open to a discussion. I feel that if you are hiring for a high capacity staff member, you best bet is to hire someone who is already plugged in and serving somewhere. I don’t think that it’s okay to start shopping for a staff person at all the churches down the street (that’s just too close). I know this isn’t always the case, but sometimes there are reasons that people are “looking for a new job” and it’s not the best. Initially I tend to think that it’s wrong to steal someone away from another church since we’re all on the same team. However, I know that if I was happily plugging away at a church, I would at least want to know if the opportunity of a lifetime is available and not be disqualified from the chance just because I’m already at a church. If I’m really looking for the best, more than likely the best aren’t sitting around looking for a new job… they’re out there doing it!

My brother is an international consultant. Two years ago he had the privilege of helping start Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, a multi-billion dollar start-up. Part of his job was to place CEO’s CFO’s, COO’s for this new organization. I know that their strategy was to find the absolute best leaders in the business world by recruiting them away from their current post. I know that the business world can be a little more cold and… well… business like, but I feel the same strategy can be used when looking to fill a high capacity ministry position while being sensitive to the fact that recruiting a candidate may put another church in a bind until a replacement is found.

I’d be interested in your thoughts? Did I cross a line? Let me know.

Recently, as I was in the hiring process, I used this survey to get more information about a candidate I was interviewing. All I can say is amazing! I learned more about this person than I would have in several hours in conversations. As a result of the survery, I was able to conduct an interview that followed up on answers from the survey.

So, if you’re looking to hire someone in ministry, this survey may serve you well. If you’re seeking employment in Children’s Ministry, take the time to respond to the survey. It may help prepare you for interviews and formulate way’s you will communicate your history/vision/mission/strategy.

Children’s Ministry Survey

Rank these areas of ministry (1-10) with number 1 being you don’t like it and 10 being you like it a lot. In addition, fill free to add a comments to explain.

• Speaking or Teaching in front of kids
• Developing children’s leaders
• One-on-one time with kids
• Connecting with parents
• Counseling parents
• Team leadership (delegating, managing, motivating, spiritually leading, etc…)
• Goal planning and achievement
• Process building: putting a dept together from the bottom up
• Creative planning
• Technology, using computers for productivity
• Planning and executing events
• Writing curriculum
• Studying what other churches are doing
• Administrative organization, planning and follow-up
• Discipleship of kids
• Parent involvement
• Teaching other children’s leaders or pastors
• Ability to start things from the ground up
• Technical
• Strategy meetings (creative: what to do)
• Planning meetings (detail: how to do it)

Would you like an evaluation team for your ministry?

What would you evaluate?

How do you interface with the community other than through events?

Describe or discuss how you build teams, lead people, confront, cast vision, etc. – your personal philosophy or approach to leading people!

What are your favorite ministry accomplishments?

What would the children in your ministry say they like about you?

How do you see yourself? Rate 1 the least like and 10 the most like.

• Fun
• Serious
• Strict
• Intense
• Motivational
• Flexible
• Inspirational
• Loving
• Organized

What is your personality style (whatever test you know the results of and/or list your personality qualities like analytical, creative, outgoing, detailed, etc.)?

What is your process for assimilation? (children into the children’s ministry and their parents into the church).

Describe how you involve parents in the children’s ministry.

What is your approach to goal planning and achievement?

What are your hobbies, sport or favorite thing to do?

How do you handle disgruntled church members and overall grumbling?

Would all your references say that you are loyal?

Do you consider yourself to be flexible?

Are you a supportive team player?

What would past authority figures (bosses, pastors, key leaders) say are your weaknesses?

What have been your biggest frustrations or hurdles in ministry?

In this post I’m going to talk about the resume. For most job applicants, this is what will determine what will stop the process immediately or get you to the next level, which for me was an email or a phone conversation. Of the 40-50 resumes that I received, I only read half of them completely. First of all, a quick scan of the resume would tell me if you had appropriate experience. If the experience looked like it was lacking, I would look for anything that stood out, something that would impress me. Perhaps the candidate didn’t have all the experience I was looking for, but they had done something that demonstrated that they had the “stuff” I was looking for. If I didn’t see something that wowed me, then I’d close that resume and file it. If a resume did look like they had appropriate skills and experience, I’d begin looking closer and investigating the candidate. I’d usually check out the webpages of the church the candidate currently worked. Sometimes even from the church websites I could learn a lot about where the candidate was coming from. I’ll even search for a candidate on the web or on myspace. It’s all free and open content and I have learned things about potential candidates from their myspace page… most of the time this did not help the candidate at all.

Here are a few big things I notice about resumes (Be aware that these are just my opinions. However, my opinion matters heavily if you are looking to fill a position that I posted. Remember that when seeking a position, you don’t really know the person who is reading over your resume, so their opinion is what matters):

Quick side-note. These things I list may seem trivial. However, I believe the resume is much more important than some people believe. Your resume is the only thing your potential new boss knows about you and you need to present your best… YOUR VERY BEST! Your potential boss may make assumptions about you based one the wording you use, your choice of format or any other thing. Be sure to invest appropriate time into developing the best possible resume you can.

Resume format and title:
This is a simple thing but super important. When I applied for my first full time ministry job over 7 years ago, both my Dad (had tons of executive management experience) and my brother (an international consultant) reviewed and helped me craft my resume. One thing my dad insisted upon was for me to mail my resume. The church I was talking to asked for me to email my resume, but my dad insisted that I print it out on nice paper and overnight it to them. Why? There was no guarantee what the resume would look like when they opened it up. If they had different fonts, or an older version of MS Word, there is no guarantee that all the time I spend in formatting would carry over to what they open up. They could also assume that my jacked up resume was something I created and would be a poor reflection on me. Mailing them a hard copy was my guarantee that they got what I wanted them to see. I would not recommend mailing a resume today with easy to access programs like Acrobat. I do suggest that you save your resume as a PDF and send this this way. I’ve seen too many resumes designed in Word where the formatting looks a little funny.

Second of all, pay attention to what you name the resume file. Honestly, I’ve got a resume named JoeGoodResume. My inital question is, “if you have a good resume, do you also have a bad one?” I know that when I was searching for a job several years ago, I had 2 or 3 separate resumes, each that emphasized different strengths. I kept each of these resumes saved in separate folders that described what resume it was. Each of the resumes had the same name… KennyConleyResume. I know this one is picky, but I notice these things.

Style of Resume
I read recently on a children’s ministry website that recommended to add lots of color and images to a resume to show creativity and to get it noticed. Personally, I think this is bad advice in most cases (I told you this was my opinion). Unfortunately, people who read that advice may have taken clip art from the web and pasted this into their resume or included lots of pictures and not know the design principles of placement and sizing. No matter how good you may think it looks, it may not look that great to the person viewing it. If it doesn’t look professional, the colors and graphics are going to kill your resume. Unless you are a graphic artist and fully understand the rules of color and design, I would completely avoid anything flashy. As I’ll say later, let your solid experience and skills be the flash, not colors and pictures.

I’ve always had a simple black and white resume that separated education, experience and skills. I paid special attention to follow a nice format and stay true to the format all the way through. I would have 3-5 different people proof read my resume multiple times ensuring that there were no mistakes anywhere to be found. Even Microsoft Word has some great resume templates. The guy I just hired used this one joesmithresume.pdf and I totally loved it. It actually uses color, but I really liked the way it looked. It maintained the professional style, but incorporated a modern look with relevant colors.

Content of Resume
Most people have told me that if you are young or new to the field, don’t go over one page on your resume. Maybe a cover page and a reference page, but keep the resume to one page. As you gain experience, your resume may expand to more pages. If you’ve had a bunch of unrelated jobs, it isn’t important to list the 6-8 things you did in each of those jobs. Also keep in mind that a resume doesn’t have to be long to be impressive. Fluff is quickly noticed, so don’t make it your mission to fill out a resume. If anything, your goal is to make your resume as short as possible yet still adequately describe your skills and experience. Remember, if you don’t meet all the requirements of the job, explain clearly why you should be considered anyway.Â

I believe the style and content are very important in a resume. A very nicely formatted resume speaks to me about a candidate’s ability to be thorough, and orderly. Typos and common mistakes speak heavily against a candidate. If a candidate doesn’t care or repeatedly misses the mark in a resume (a very important document), this tells me about how they may work out in a staff position. Good style and formatting though is the icing on the cake. What matters most to me is the content. I want to be wowed, impressed and intrigued by the content. Get your content down and then worry about style. So for me, your content is going to speak the loudest and either your style/formatting will be the icing on the cake or cause to be concerned.

Wow that was a long post. I hope that helps with resume building. Be sure to search the web for resume help… there are a lot of great tools and examples to follow. I would advise everyone to always have an updated resume on file. You never know when you may need it. Writing a resume from scratch can take a really long time, but spending 20-30 minutes updating it ever 6 months to a year is a manageable task.