Matching Passion with Position

7 questions to give you insight in interviews.
by Vernon Armitage

You may write an award-winning job description based on your church’s needs, but people will always gravitate to their passions. Squeeze a person into a job for which he feels no passion, and you’ll see a low productivity and short tenure.

When interviewing prospective team members, I ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening. Of course, I must be candid and forthcoming about my philosophy, but I need to discover what the candidate really thinks. If I am forceful about what I believe and how I think things should be done, the candidate may readily agree out of courtesy.

To find out about a person’s passions and values, I ask:
1. What are the most important things you have done in ministry?
2. Which programs or areas of ministry are non-negotiable to you?
3. What irritates you the most?
4. What were your three most important responsibilities in your last position?
5. In which areas do you think our church needs to improve?
6. What is your daily schedule?
7. What action or attitude would be intolerable from another leader?

It is important that my team members share similar values. Values govern actions. Actions affect relationships. One of our values, for instance, is that we spend money within budget limits. Anyone who ignores our financial structure finds himself in great conflict with others.

We once had a worship leader who was skilled musically and led with a lot of feeling, but no one knew where he was headed next. I’m a planner, and our differences at this point were a challenge. A gospel quartet came to our church for a concert, and he played the piano for them. They were so impressed they invited him to join the group. He got on their bus that evening, and I haven’t seen him since! Evidently, planning ahead was not one of that quartet’s core values either. I hope it was a good match.

—Vernon Armitage is a pastor at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri.
“Matching Passion with Position,” LEADERSHIP, Fall 2001.