I had an interview last night for a possible call. For those of you unfamiliar with the Lutheran system on pastors getting jobs, the whole thing started with my name being put on a list for a congregation that needs a new pastor. Sometimes it's a member of the congregation who knows about you, sometimes it's a District President, at other times it's another local pastor. In my case, it was a woman from a coalition that's helping an urban church that's seen better days. From there, the folks in charge of finding a new pastor requested information that I'd submitted about myself, my family, and my thoughts on ministry, which is then used to decide who they want to interview, fly out for a visit, or call (offer a job).

The whole thing, from the beginning, is completely unlike trying to get a normal job. There is no board, online or otherwise, where you can find a list of openings and then apply as you're interested, and those who are looking for a call aren't out knocking on doors. Rather, you have a congregation that wants a pastor and pastors looking to serve a congregation, and trusting that somehow, someway, God will bring the two together. Moreover, a call isn't like a typical job in that the congregation can't just fire their pastor because they found a better or cheaper man for the job. Rather, once called, a pastor is there until he's proven a heretic, engages in gross immorality, accepts another call, retires, or walks away. The entire process is filled with this trust that the Holy Spirit is in control, guiding and directing Christ's Church, bringing the right man to the right place for the right season, and deciding when that season is over.

Now, what I've described above is the way the system typically works. Some congregations push it to the extreme in that they refuse to interview or bring a pastor out for a visit because it would be interfering with the Holy Spirit, while others, like the one I interviewed for, stretch things a bit in the other direction. Now, I shouldn't say that they were the only ones who stretched this process a bit, after all, before I left for Africa, I contacted a number of friends, including the woman who put me on this list, and let them know that I was looking for a call (you know, something to do after Africa). I sent them a snazzy resume that talked about places I'd been and things I'd done in each place, as well as laid out my strengths as a pastor. It was a move intended to plant a seed in people's minds so, when they saw something, they'd think of me ... which is exactly what happened with this particular call. So, how'd they stretch the process? Between the "get the information I'd submitted" phase and the "interview" phase, they had me take a test. Because this call involves, depending on your preferred nomenclature, replanting, revitalizing, or resurrecting a church, they wanted to make sure that whoever was called had the skills of a church planter, someone who, humanly speaking, has the abilities to start a church from scratch.

Now, let me be the first to say that I like most of the stretching because I think it still trusts God's hand to guide the process, but it also uses the reason that God has given us to use when making decisions, an idea most clearly framed by Martin Luther in his explanations of the first and third articles of the Apostles' Creed. When explaining the first article, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth." he writes:

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.

However, when he writes his explanation to the third article, the one on the Holy Spirit, he says:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

In these two quotes we see that, when it comes to reason, Luther operates in two realms, our relationship with God and everything else. When it comes to trusting the promises of Christ, our reason is, according to Luther, "the devil's whore," but, in everything else, reason is a gift from God to be used wisely. So, if a pastor is looking for a call, he contacts people who might know of something, and if a church needs a pastor with certain gifts, the test makes sure they're getting what they need. This is especially important today, given the reality that Lutheran congregations are no longer homogeneous bodies placed in homogenous neighborhoods. In years past, it took pastors cut from a different bolt of cloth to be capable of living in the foreign culture of the overseas mission field, however, today, the foreign culture is no longer overseas, but can be found in every urban environment and many suburban and even rural settings. Largely, the plug-and-play days where every pastor fit in every congregation are over.

Jumping back to the test they had me take, it was a personality assessment put together by Gallop that is titled for church planters, but really explores an individuals attitudes and skills in relationship to entrepreneurial leadership. In my case, the test recommended me for church planting and revealed that, among other things, I'm highly motivated, have good people skills, and do well thinking things through, which all seem valuable for an urban church planter. So at that level, I'm all for the test and how it stretches the traditional call process.

However, if we think about the classic entrepreneurial leader, we have someone who, through shear willpower, has the ability to overcome obstacles and make something succeed according to a pre-established set of standards. This might be good and necessary in the business world, but what about the church? I mean, our entire process is designed to contrast the world's way of hiring, so why would we use tests designed purely for what the world is looking for? This question is strengthened when we consider that the world tells us to look for leaders who brings about their vision, but if we repent of the world's ways and believe that Christ reigns over a new kingdom, suddenly we find ourselves not needing leaders who pursue their vision, but servants who are more concerned with being faithful to the Father's will. A few examples from Scripture:

• Isaiah it told by God to go and preach the Word until a tenth of a tenth of Israel remains. That's right, faithfully ministry for Isaiah meant 99% attrition.
• The Apostle Paul, in the book of Acts, repeatedly has places he wants to go but the Spirit blocks him and sends him in a different direction. Wouldn't a leader certain of his own vision drive his way through those obstacles?
• Jesus, when being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, is offered all kinds of worldly success, but bypasses it for a criminal's cross. Like the example with Isaiah, God's idea of success is often vastly different than ours.
• In the New Testament, pastors are referred to as under-shepherds of the Chief Shepherd, Christ, who laid down his life for his sheep, or, if you look to the Gospel of John, took on the lowliest of positions by washing his disciples' feet.

In other words, rather than looking for entrepreneurial leadership, a church planter assessment needs to be developed that tests for entrepreneurial servantship, where the pastor is a servant in the congregation, the community, and most importantly, before God. It would be a test that mines for things like creativity, motivation, and the abilities to relate with people and see what isn't there, but also identifies flexibility, humility, and a focus on faithfulness to God's call over the tangible results. Here's a few thoughts on how to test for these traits:

• Give the pastor a one page summary of the community (and the existing congregation, if there is one) and have him write a mission plan. Evaluate not only on the entrepreneurial elements, but also the theology behind the plan.
• Hand a pastor a completed mission plan that demonstrates strong entrepreneurial leadership and ask if he would change the plan and, if so, how.
• Ask the pastor to offer his metrics of success, along with reasons for each metric.
• Have the pastor write on how Christ's statement, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) applies to his life.

What am I missing on the characteristics list? How else would you test specifically for entrepreneurial servantship? Or is there something even better to look for in mission planters?