Selection or audition, how are preachers hired today?

When a congregation, especially one that does not have elders, sets about hiring a new preacher, do they select a qualified man of God, or do they audition a man that is aesthetically acceptable? How many preachers have experienced the following just as I have many times since I first decided to become a Gospel preacher? The prospective preacher will have completed the interview process with the elders/ search committee, had their qualifications and experience reviewed, mailed their sermon CD, visited the congregation in person with their family, had the “face to face” meetings with the congregation outside of worship, taught and preached on Sunday, the beloved “potluck fellowship” dinner (I do love those, you learn so much about folks when you break bread together), and the follow up meetings with the elders/committee. During this process, all of the preacher’s doctrinal views and core beliefs are discussed in depth with the elders or members of the committee, and questions are asked by both the elders/committee members and the preacher. At the conclusion, the preacher is told that dependant on the “congregational questionnaires”, the elders/committee would be contacting the preacher regarding this position. Usually after these discussions with the elders/committee and congregation members, the overall feeling is that the preacher is their choice for their new pulpit man. This happens more often in the congregations that don’t have elders than those that do.

Now let us fast forward. The preacher receives what I now refer to as “the call” or "the letter”. It is the dear brother who had to call or write the candidate and let him know that because only __% of the congregation returned “favorable” questionnaires that the preacher would not be hired. When he asks what the negative comments are, usually none regard doctrine, or his ability to convey the Scriptures or preach God’s Word. Some criticisms may be relating to his personality and the extremely brief conversations he may have had with some of the congregation. Often none of the reasons given is based on the lesson content or sermon, and is more likely to be based on emotions or feelings.

The Apostle Paul gives Timothy the desired qualifications of a preacher in:

2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Many have held the belief that this passage is in reference to apostasy and teaching of false doctrine. But if we examine the passage in the context, can it not also be describing aesthetics and not content? Should not a preacher be first evaluated on his ability to proclaim God’s Word? Many times, we want to focus on personality and emotions. And from personal experience, one man cannot be as warm and friendly as he might like to be in the time constraints of a single 2-3 minute conversation with a member of a congregation.

Now let us look at what Paul writes in:

Romans 10:14-15 ESV: How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

In the passage above, we see the word sent. When Paul sent young Timothy to Ephesus, we don’t read that Paul sent a letter with Timothy telling the Ephesian brothers if they did not like Timothy to send him back and Paul would send someone else. Paul also did not schedule Timothy and 3 or 4 others to preach, and then tell the church to pick out whichever one they wanted and send the rest back.

Let’s put this in a different perspective. Imagine you are applying for a position with a company. You meet with the owner of the company and he tells you that “you are just the man he’s looking for” to fill his position and sends you to his managers to be interviewed. The managers interview you, examine your qualifications, and agree with the owner that you are the “man for the job”. They then tell you based on your interview and qualifications you are hired…but first you must be approved by all the other employees and you only have a few hours to show all of them that you are qualified and will be able to “do the job”.


In the Lord’s church, God is the owner, and He is the one who gives the preacher the burning desire to preach His Word for His Glory. The managers are the elders or selection committee members. And the other employees are the members of the congregation. The congregation does not always have all the information the elders/ committee members have. The congregation may also have not spent as much time in conversation with the preacher as the elders/committee members have. I can relate from personal experience that by the time I preach for a congregation, I may have had many, many hours of conversations and exchanged many emails with the men responsible for hiring the preacher. In perspective, I will be lucky to have been able to have a 2-3 minute personal conversation with some of the membership. Sometimes it is just a personal introduction and a “We are glad to be here today”. Is it fair to the preacher to be hired on the basis of a single lesson, a single sermon, and a 2-3 minute conversation?

I know that people want to like their preacher. And I know that preachers want the congregation to like their family and them as well. But if the preacher’s job is first and foremost to preach the Word; and if he is competent in doing just that; then is not the rest secondary to that? Can you decide if you are going to like someone after a few moments together? Relationships are built over time. And that is why God in His Infinite Wisdom set up the system of appointing/sending preachers. I would suggest to any congregation that for whatever reason does not have elders, that a selection committee be appointed to find and evaluate a man to fill the vacant pulpit. And once they have found such a man, support their choice unless a Scriptural basis can be found for not hiring him. Let us fill pulpits by interview and examination, not auditions and popularity. May all we do be for the Honor and Glory of God!


1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV: And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.