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How Do You Handle Resumes?

3/6/2018

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As Associational Leaders, we are often inundated with resumes of candidates for pastor, associate pastor, as well as for ministry positions of music, youth, children, etc. If you are like me, I receive many more resumes than I have positions open in my churches.
 
What do you do with all these resumes? How do you respond with love, care, and concern to the person sending the resume, and yet not give them false hope? Do you “screen” your resumes before sending the names on to Search Committees to try to protect your churches, or not?

I am sure there are many ways to handle resumes with care and concern for the candidate without taking an inordinate amount of time, but over the years, here is the process I use.
 
Whenever I receive a resume, I send a form letter such as this:
 
Thanks for sharing your resume with me.

I will be glad to share your resume as God leads once you complete our Confidential Follow-Up Form and return it to me.
 
If you, as an Associational Leader, want my Confidential Follow-Up Form that I adapted from another DOM, here it is.
 
Once I receive the Confidential Follow-Up Form and verify that there are no major red flags, then I save the resume by the year I received it in my Resumes Folder. I let the candidate know that I keep resumes in my active file for 2 years. In my Resumes Folder I categorize the resumes by the type of position: Pastor, Music, Students, Children, Education/Discipleship, etc.
 
When a church asks me for resumes, I find out the type of candidate they are looking for, and then I prayerfully go through my resumes and “match” the candidates with the profile as much as possible. I never send just one resume if I can help it. I always try to send several unless I am specifically recommending a candidate because I am a reference for that person.
 
Those are my thoughts, what are yours?
 
To the praise of His glory,
 
Ray
Pr. 3:5-6
 
Quotable Quote: The association must be proactive! We have the most strategic role in the SBC.  Jim Breeden, St. Louis Metro Association, speaking to Atlanta Area DOMs about churches in need of revitalization, 11.29.17
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    I’m Ray Gentry, the President/CEO of the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders (SBCAL). I’ve served Southern Baptist churches & associations in various roles for over 35 years. I have served as an associational leader for five associations, starting in 1993. The most recent one being the Southside Baptist Network, McDonough, GA.

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