Converge P3 Pastor Placement process?

[Vizio]

Anyone here have any experience or know of anyone that used the Converge P3 Pastor Placement Process?

I'm extremely leery of shelling out $175 for a non-guaranteed search firm to interview me and match me up with a church they feel is a good fit.

http://convergep3.com/V3Home.php

 

[TCassidy]

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding:
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

 

[Vizio]

I get what you're saying...I really do. But how do we know that God won't use such a process to do his will?

Fact of the matter is, a lot of good, solid churches use this process exclusively to find pastors. For that reason, I wanted to see what others thought of it. I appreciate your feedback, though.

 

[exscentric]

Why, I'd sell ya a bridge in New York for 175! You've had the best feedback youre going to get in my humble opinion! Good solid churches do a lot of things that make them not so good and not so solid

 

[TCassidy]

Calling a pastor is one of the most important things a church can do. The pastor will set the tone of the church for his entire tenure. To leave that to an outside "talent agency" removes the church too far from the process.

To call a new pastor a church should form a pulpit committee made up of the most spiritual men in the church.

Those men, before doing anything else, should spend time together in prayer. Asking God to open their hearts and minds, and to lead them to the man He would have as their pastor.

They should spend some time discussing exactly what they are looking for in a pastor.

Then they should start to interview candidates. One at a time. It should not be a popularity contest. Each candidate should be interviewed by the pulpit committee, given an opportunity to teach and preach, answer questions from the congregation, then be voted on by the pulpit committee, and if they approve then by the congregation. A straight up and down vote in each case.

If he is not selected, then the next best man on the candidate list should be contacted to do the same again.

And keep doing that until you find the man God wants to be the pastor.

This process does not do much to introduce men looking for a pulpit to the committees, but there are several ways to make it known that you are available.

1. Notify all the churches in the area that you are available for pulpit supply.

2. If you are a member of a church denomination that has local and regional associations, notify them you are available for pulpit supply.

3. If you have a local, regional, or denominational paper or publication put a notice in the paper or publication that you are available.

There is a lot more, but that is enough to think about for now.

 

[Vizio]

Why, I'd sell ya a bridge in New York for 175! You've had the best feedback youre going to get in my humble opinion! Good solid churches do a lot of things that make them not so good and not so solid

Great comment.

I know I paid a lot of money to go to seminary. One spends a lot of money to buy nice clothes to interview. One may spend money on travel and may jump through hoops to get a job in any field--even the pastorate. I do consider the pastorate to be special, it's not "just a business", but the fact is, there are churches that simply don't know where to begin to find a good pastor, and they're lost, so they look to the denomination for help. That's what this is--it's their screening process. It's the same as a committee of men going through an email inbox and deleting resumes that don't match up with what they want. It does not replace a pulpit committee, but instead pares a list of 200 applicants down to 10, or 15.

I have elected NOT to go through this. My skepticism of it really outweighs any potential benefit.

 

[Vizio]

Calling a pastor is one of the most important things a church can do. The pastor will set the tone of the church for his entire tenure. To leave that to an outside "talent agency" removes the church too far from the process.

To call a new pastor a church should form a pulpit committee made up of the most spiritual men in the church.

Those men, before doing anything else, should spend time together in prayer. Asking God to open their hearts and minds, and to lead them to the man He would have as their pastor.

They should spend some time discussing exactly what they are looking for in a pastor.

Then they should start to interview candidates. One at a time. It should not be a popularity contest. Each candidate should be interviewed by the pulpit committee, given an opportunity to teach and preach, answer questions from the congregation, then be voted on by the pulpit committee, and if they approve then by the congregation. A straight up and down vote in each case.

If he is not selected, then the next best man on the candidate list should be contacted to do the same again.

And keep doing that until you find the man God wants to be the pastor.

This process does not do much to introduce men looking for a pulpit to the committees, but there are several ways to make it known that you are available.

1. Notify all the churches in the area that you are available for pulpit supply.

2. If you are a member of a church denomination that has local and regional associations, notify them you are available for pulpit supply.

3. If you have a local, regional, or denominational paper or publication put a notice in the paper or publication that you are available.

There is a lot more, but that is enough to think about for now.

How about if you're in a pastorate already, and you're looking for a new one? What then? I'm not going to advertise that I want to move. Nor am I going to ask for pulpit supply. There are legitimate reasons of WHY I wish to move from where I am, but the last thing in the world that I'd want to do is to put the people on notice here that I don't want to be here any longer -- because that would hamper the ministry here in the short term. It's going to be bittersweet when we leave, and we love these people, but we do believe it's time to move on.

 

[TCassidy]

There are legitimate reasons of WHY I wish to move from where I am, but the last thing in the world that I'd want to do is to put the people on notice here that I don't want to be here any longer -- because that would hamper the ministry here in the short term.

If there is sufficient reason to leave what difference does it make? If God wants you to leave, leave. If God wants you to stay, stay. If you are in God's will where you are, why seek some place else?

It's going to be bittersweet when we leave, and we love these people, but we do believe it's time to move on.

If God wants you to move on. Move on. If it is in His will He will lead you to your new place of ministry.

When God moved me into vocational ministry I first resigned my secular job which paid $119,000/year. We sold our home and moved into a rented house so when a call came we would not be tied down.

I met with a church and they issued a call. Three days before we were scheduled to start they called and said they changed their minds.

We stayed in the rented house until our savings ran out. On the day I was going to call my former employer and beg for my old job back the phone rang and the caller asked if I could meet with their pulpit committee that evening. I did.

I spent the next 27 years as their senior pastor. God has a plan. Just be patient. He will bring it to pass in His timing.

 

[TimB]

Great comment.

I know I paid a lot of money to go to seminary. One spends a lot of money to buy nice clothes to interview. One may spend money on travel and may jump through hoops to get a job in any field--even the pastorate. I do consider the pastorate to be special, it's not "just a business", but the fact is, there are churches that simply don't know where to begin to find a good pastor, and they're lost, so they look to the denomination for help. That's what this is--it's their screening process. It's the same as a committee of men going through an email inbox and deleting resumes that don't match up with what they want. It does not replace a pulpit committee, but instead pares a list of 200 applicants down to 10, or 15.

I have elected NOT to go through this. My skepticism of it really outweighs any potential benefit.

The big problem for me is right now I can't afford to go through the process. So there was a church that advertised needing a Senior Pastor that seemed like a completely perfect fit for me, but I can't afford to apply to it. Seems like a way of weeding out some good candidates. I understand why they do it, but it's a bummer. I know God will open other doors, but I was excited for that one.

 

[RobertS]

I have done it & I would say my opinion is mixed.

PROS

• You get something for your money. Paying just to fish a for a job in Converge's pond is a decision worthy of reflection & prayer. However, I feel I got my money's worth with the assessment test tools. I did not get my job through Converge because they took too long to do anything - but I did get to use those assessment tools with all the jobs I applied for outside of Converge. Those assessments (DISC, Golden, Matrix, StrengthFinders) are each pricey & the $175 was not wasted by getting them done.

• You only have to fill the questionnaire once. On the applications I did outside of Converge, nearly every church had its own questionnaire for me to fill out - which is very tedious. One church actually gave me a 43 essay answer form that took well over a week to fill out. With P3, you fill out one form & thats it.

• You get to do a preinterview. You either call in to your local Converge office, or you visit in person. I highly recommend an in person interview. They will get a feel for you & write up a summary of their impressions - which is like giving the prospective churches an interview to start off with. Always a good thing.

• Your needs are translated correctly. Its always a tricky thing to answer what your desired pay scale is on a form. I live in CA & interviewed across the country. What I need in CA in certainly not what is needed in OH. Converge will take all your needs & translate them into the other church's context. If a church in WV can pay a certain amount, Converge will match them with you knowing that it is the equivalent to your stated need. No more worries that you will scare away prospective churches with a number.

• You can keep your toes in the water. With Converge, you can keep a profile active or even sub-active. You can get a new church job, but still have Converge prospects look at you. You never know if after a few years into your new job, God lets you know that you really need to move on to something else. In that case P3 is like LinkedIn, where you can get a feel for the kind of churches that respond to you. That may play a big part in discerning your next steps.

CONS

• Converge P3 is a VERY slow process - months just to get started. It took a week to finish the profile, a week to do the assessment & get the results, then the interview took 3 weeks to do, and over a month later I still was not fully up and running with P3. In the meantime, I was doing my own applications, and a church called me to serve with them before P3 happened.

• They kept changing their systems and I had to redo assessments or update the profile - which added weeks to the process. I found that very frustrating to think that P3 was working for me, only to find out everything was on hold until a new thing was done.

• After your part is done you just wait. Its a "don't call us, we'll call you" set up. That for me was difficult to stomach. I had no idea who saw my profile, who was even hiring, what the feedback was to my profile. You just check in day after day to see if a church wants to move ahead with you. Day after day of nothing. That can be really hard to handle when you could instead be searching jobs, looking at churches online, emailing them, researching, etc.

THE UPSHOT
In the end, I found a great church position through ChurchStaffing.com. I applied, emailed them, had several interviews, a candidate trip, and an offer in the time it took just to get P3 up and running. However, it was not a waste because that church was really impressed with the personality assessments I was able to show them - which I got through P3. I am happy in my new role, but my P3 profile is now in subactive mode, since I've paid for it, and from time to time I'll check in to see if churches are looking at my profile.

 

[Squire Robertsson]

This zombie thread from 2017 is closed.