Our Process - For Churches

Congratulations on being chosen by your church to serve on the pastor (or staff minister) search committee! What an important task is before you. And what great trust and respect your church must have in you to have chosen you to represent them in this way and to act on their behalf.

Our mission at CBF is to "serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission." We are committed to assisting you as you seek the leader who will serve with you in the unique mission of your congregation.

You may be feeling a bit overwhelmed. And it is possible that none of your committee members has ever served on a search committee. Whether or not that is the case, it is important for your committee members to get to know each other well. Your trust in one another is of paramount importance as you work together. There is no place on a search committee for personal agendas, unrevealed reservations about the process or a candidate, or power struggles. You will need to bathe the process in prayer and be committed to each other and to the good of the particular Body of Christ whom you represent.

As you enter the search process, CBF’s LeaderConnect will guide you in developing a detailed profile of your church, including the available position. Developing a well-defined profile requires that we ask many questions. Some of them may not apply to your particular situation, but we have tried to be thorough in asking relevant questions to help refine the matching process as accurately as possible. Answer as many questions as are appropriate. Click here to print out a PDF of the questions if you wish to discuss them as a committee before entering your information.

Once the Reference and Referral team receives your profile, you will receive email confirmation. A member of the Reference and Referral team will then reach out to you to review the profile and position details, ensuring all information is correct and gaining a deeper understanding of your needs, desires, and location in the process.

Candidates will also enter information into LeaderConnect, which generates a profile along with their resumes. The information you each provide will then be used in a matching process with the selection of profiles and resumes of those candidates who might be a good fit for your church. Once the matches have been reviewed and verified by the Reference and Referral team, they will be sent to you.

Strict confidentiality is provided in that churches are unable to review all resumes, just as candidates will not have access to all of the information provided by churches.

The Reference and Referral team will then be in contact and available to follow-up and further assist you as needed throughout the process. If at any point you have questions, you may contact the Reference and Referral team at 770-220-1635 or referenceandreferral@cbf.net.

We have also compiled a number of resources (found here), which are designed to assist you as you go about this task. We hope you will find these useful.