Tell us how you came to Christ, and then how you came to be a pastor. Not the resume. The story.

Good: a specific account of conversion and of a call confirmed by others, usually with reluctance along the way, and with the church involved in affirming it.

Concern: a career path with no sense of calling; a call that no church or older pastor ever confirmed; a story told so smoothly it sounds like a presentation.

Why: the biblical pattern is an inward call confirmed by the outward call of the church. A man who called himself is on shaky ground.

Describe a time you were seriously wrong about something in ministry. What happened, and what changed in you?

Good: a real failure, named plainly, with repentance, consequences, and something that is different now.

Concern: a “weakness” that is really a strength (“I care too much”); a story in which everyone else was at fault; no story at all.

Why: you are hiring a sinner. You need to know whether he knows it and what he does about it.

Who holds you accountable, and what do they have permission to ask you about?

Good: named men, regular contact, specific areas including purity, money, and family.

Concern: “my wife” and no one else; no one; “I’m accountable to God.”

Why: the pastors who fall almost always fell alone first.

How is your marriage? How would your wife answer that question if we asked her, and may we?

Good: honest, warm, not defensive, and an easy yes to asking her.

Concern: a one-word answer; visible tension; hesitation about letting you speak with her.

Why: “He must manage his own household well” (1 Timothy 3:4). You will meet her anyway; this tells you whether he wants you to.

Tell us about your children. How do they feel about the ministry, and about the possibility of moving?

Good: specific, warm, honest about the cost ministry has had on them and what he does to protect them.

Concern: he has not talked with them about it; resentment in the family that he minimizes.

Why: a pastor whose children hate the church will not stay, and should not.

What do you do with your time off, and how much of it do you actually take?

Good: a real day off, real hobbies, real friendships, vacation actually taken.

Concern: pride in never taking a day off; no life outside the church; or the opposite, a man who sounds like he is already half-retired.

Why: burnout is the second most common reason a pastorate ends badly.

Is there anything in your past, if it came to light, that would embarrass you, your family, or this church?

Good: a direct answer. Many men have something: a past divorce, a season of sin before conversion, a church that ended badly. A good answer names it and tells you how it was handled.

Concern: evasion; irritation at the question; something that surfaces later in references that he did not mention here.

Why: it will come to light. Better now.

Walk us through the gospel as you would explain it to a new believer in your office.

Good: God, sin, Christ’s substitutionary death and bodily resurrection, repentance and faith, in plain words, without notes.

Concern: vagueness about sin or the cross; a gospel that is mostly about belonging, purpose, or healing; or a technically correct answer with no warmth, as if he has never actually said it to a person.

Why: everything else is secondary to this.

You’ve read our doctrinal statement. Is there anything in it you would word differently, or could not sign without qualification?

Good: a candid answer, including a small disagreement openly stated. “I’d affirm all of it; on article nine I’d say it slightly differently, here’s how.”

Concern: “I’m fine with all of it” from a man who clearly has not read it closely. Follow up on two or three specific articles and ask him to explain them in his own words.

Why: you need to know he has read it, understood it, and will teach it.

What is your view of the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, and how does that show up in how you preach and counsel?

Good: inerrancy affirmed without hedging; sufficiency described in practice: preaching that starts from the text, counseling that goes to Scripture before it goes anywhere else.

Concern: “inspired,” “trustworthy,” or “authoritative” used carefully in place of “inerrant”; a view of Scripture that is high in the abstract but absent from how he actually ministers.

Why: the drift in most churches began with a pastor who said all the right words about the Bible and did not preach it.

Where have your theological views changed in the last ten years, and why?

Good: growth with reasons, from Scripture and from pastoring real people. “I used to think X; I was wrong because of this passage and this experience.”

Concern: no change at all, which usually means no study; or drift on a core doctrine described as “maturing” or “nuance.”

Why: the direction a man is moving matters more than where he stands today.

How do you understand the roles of elders, deacons, the pastor, and the congregation in church government? Does our structure fit your convictions?

Good: a clear conviction that matches your polity, or an honest statement that he can serve faithfully within it even if he would have built it differently.

Concern: a man who wants to change your polity in year one and has not said so; or a man who has no convictions about it, which means he will adopt whatever the strongest personality in the church wants.

Why: more pastorates end over polity than over doctrine.

Pick two of the issues where faithful churches differ: the gifts, the end times, the role of women, baptism. Where do you land, and how would you handle a member who disagrees with you?

Good: clear convictions, held with charity, and a thought-out way to shepherd people who differ without making every disagreement a battle.

Concern: he cannot say where he lands; or he can, and every disagreement is a hill to die on.

Why: how he handles the open questions tells you how he will handle your church.

What do you believe about the sanctity of human life, marriage, sexuality, and gender, and how do you handle those subjects from the pulpit and in counseling?

Good: biblical convictions stated plainly, with a shepherd’s heart for the people in the pews who are struggling.

Concern: hedging; “I try to stay out of politics”; or convictions stated with contempt rather than compassion.

Why: these are the questions every church will face in the next decade, and the man in the pulpit will have to answer them.

Describe your week of sermon preparation. Hour by hour, if you can.

Good: significant time in the text itself, in the original languages if he has them, before commentaries; a repeatable process; time to pray over the people who will hear it.

Concern: Saturday night; a process built mostly on other men’s sermons; preparation that never gets past the commentaries to the text.

Why: the sermon is the main thing he will do for your church every week for a decade.

What have you preached through in the last three years? Books, series, texts.

Good: whole books of the Bible, Old and New Testament, with the hard passages included; some topical teaching where it served the church.

Concern: topical series only; no Old Testament in three years; the same book twice because it is comfortable.

Why: a congregation is formed by what it is fed. You want to know the diet.

Tell us about a sermon that went badly. What happened?

Good: a specific example, humility about it, and what he learned.

Concern: he cannot think of one.

Why: every preacher has preached badly. You are checking for self-awareness.

How would you preach a passage your congregation did not want to hear? Give us an example of when you have.

Good: a real example, done with care and without apology, and what came of it.

Concern: “I’d find a way to make it positive”; or no example, which means he has avoided those passages.

Why: a preacher who will not say hard things is not a preacher.

How do you decide what to apply, and to whom? How do you keep application from becoming moralism?

Good: application that flows from the text and lands on real people, always in the light of the gospel.

Concern: application that is only “try harder”; or no application at all, a lecture.

Why: the difference between a sermon and a Bible lecture is that a sermon changes someone.

Tell us about a church discipline situation you led. Walk us through it.

Good: Matthew 18 followed, patience, restoration sought first, confidentiality kept, elders involved, and grief rather than satisfaction in the telling.

Concern: never done it (ask why not); or a story that is mostly about winning.

Why: a pastor who will not practice discipline cannot protect the flock. A pastor who enjoys it will devour it.

Describe a serious conflict you had with an elder, deacon, or staff member. How did it end?

Good: direct conversation, humility, a resolution that cost him something, a relationship that survived or was honestly grieved.

Concern: the other person always left; he was always right; or a pattern of conflict across churches.

Why: conflict is certain. The question is how he carries it.

Name two men you have personally raised up as leaders. Where are they now?

Good: specific names, a repeatable pattern, men who are now elders, pastors, or church planters.

Concern: he cannot name anyone; or the men he developed all left his church in frustration.

Why: “What you have heard from me, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). A pastor who does not multiply himself leaves a church with nothing when he goes.

How do you lead a staff? What do the people who have reported to you say about working for you?

Good: clear expectations, regular meetings, honest evaluation, protection of his people, and a willingness for you to call them.

Concern: vagueness; “I let them do their thing”; high turnover he explains away.

Why: in a multi-staff church, this is half the job.

What do you believe about church growth? What would you do in your first year here?

Good: faithfulness first, patience, a commitment to learn the church before changing it, and a healthy suspicion of methods that produce crowds without disciples.

Concern: a program he brought from his last church that he intends to install here; a numbers-first answer; or a plan for change he has not shared with you.

Why: the first year is for listening. A man who arrives with a plan did not come to shepherd you.

How do you handle pastoral care in a church of our size? Hospital visits, funerals, counseling, the member who calls at 11 p.m.?

Good: realistic, personal involvement with a plan to share the load through elders and deacons, and clear boundaries he keeps.

Concern: he will do all of it himself (he will burn out); or he will do none of it (your people will feel abandoned).

Why: your congregation will judge him on this before it judges him on anything else.

Why are you considering leaving where you are?

Good: an honest reason with evident love for his current church, and no one being thrown under the bus.

Concern: criticism of his current church or elders; a pattern of three-year stays; “God told me” with no further explanation.

Why: how he leaves them is how he will one day leave you.

What have you learned about us so far, and what concerns you?

Good: he has read the profile closely, done his own homework, and names a real concern.

Concern: nothing concerns him. He is either not paying attention or not being honest.

Why: a man with no concerns about your church does not yet know your church.

What would make you say no to this call?

Good: specific things: his wife’s sense of it, a doctrinal mismatch, a leadership structure he could not serve under, his children.

Concern: nothing would. That is not faith; it is a man who needs a job.

Why: you want a man who is discerning a call, not pursuing a position.

What questions do you have for us?

Good: pointed questions about why the last pastor left, the finances, the elders, the real expectations in year one, how decisions get made, what happened the last time the church had a conflict.

Concern: only questions about compensation; or none at all.

Why: the quality of his questions tells you the quality of his thinking.