The CBF has a new, but still secret, leader?

[William Thornton]

...and he or she will stay under wraps until sometime around MLK Day. Or, they have some stunningly high quality finalists who will be undergoing intense scrutiny, also known in clergy circles as a beauty contest, and one is sure to be picked; hence, the announcement of a firm date.

Would someone please explain the strategy here?

[Tim Bonney]

Huh William? I don't get your complaint. They obviously have an interview process in which they are interviewing candidates in which they've already made a decision as to the dates for steps in the process. I don't see anything mystifying about that.

Remember this is a job interview. It isn't a pastoral call process so they should be able to put deadlines on interviews etc.

[Tom Parker]

Tim:

I do not get William's concerns about anything CBF. What am I missing.

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

I suppose it wasn't my best comparison William to compare it to a pastor search because it isn't. I was just comparing the kind of questions you get from outside the search committee in a pastor search to this kind of questioning.

Voting on a denominational head (or the equivalent for a fellowship) isn't like calling a pastor. When I've seen the ABC choose a new General Secretary (the ABCs denominational head) the committee worked with a schedule and followed a process in which the Board knew a long time in advance that a vote would be coming at a certain board meeting on a certain date.

Denominational governing boards meet on a schedule as do their committees for filling positions. So it would pretty easy to know months in advance at what board meeting you'd be voting on candidate.

This is just the way denominational leadership offices are filled William. Again, I don't get the consternation. But hey, when you are looking for a problem you can almost always find one.

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

Yeah, it sounds pretty normal to me, but then I'm ABC. I am interested to know how the SBC system does it. All just by voting at the annual convention, with nominations from the floor and x number of minutes to plug yourself to God and everybody?

[Tom Parker]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Of course William has attended almost as much of a few CBF activities as some of you others talking here. And Tom, I think William really does like most of us, but I started picking on him in his first week on these boards. But it is useless for any one to compare CBF with any other organization and expect a perfect fit because we where not cut out on the same Pattern as any other organization.

But It is true that in big business this pattern for hiring is not real unusual. The search committee could still be vetting 2 or more candidates and have given them a specific time that they may expect a reply and then they could make another move or two prio to Jan. 18th.

Or it could be they have the person they want but that person has asked them not to announce it until that time because he or she have other events scheduled in the interim that they do not care to over shadow with such an announcement.

At that is only fair to the present Executive Coordinator as he continues the work of the fellowship, such as his scheduled visit to Boston and the Walker Center next week for our BFNE fall meeting. Or there could be some other reason. I will make my judgement of the decision when it comes down. But probally not on the 19th as that is my 79th Birthday. I am pretty sure that it is not William Or I could give you my judgement now.

[William Thornton]

Tom, I have a long and friendly history with the CBFers here and admit to being an affable troublemaker on CBF stuff.

The SBC's way of handling this stuff may be observed in the recent election of a CEO for one of our seminaries.

[Dave Roberts]

At least this is not an announcement right after the January Bible Study Cruise by the SBC College of Cardinals as were the presidential candidate announcements of a few years ago. Since I gave the search committee two names, I will be interested to hear when the announcement is made.

[Neil Heath]

I see no reason to delete this Wm. Good topic, since folks love to speculate on people and processes in Baptist life.

I have personal contacts with people on the state and national levels, including a member of the search committee, but have heard nothing from any source as to the name. Sounds like they are working toward deadlines created by the scheduled meetings of the advisory council and the full Council. I would expect it to be kept confidential for the reasons suggested until those meetings take place.

I did know of Rob Nash's selection before it was public, but he was a former student of mine and I was pleased to hear it. I don't expect to hear any sooner than the rest of us this time.

PS: William, I also knew that Bob White was coming before it was public, but only because someone left the original of his resume in a copy machine at the GBC, where it was found by a fellow staffer who brought it to a student conf. the next weekend. Sometimes the best laid plans are fouled by a simple slip-up.

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

OK Ed. I agree there is nothing wrong with the CBF process. I don't agree that it can't be compared to anything else, at least in a favorable way. I see nothing wrong with deadlines or scheduled decisions.

What I was concerned in what you were saying was that only people who actually are CBF would know if the system was fair or not. No one ever benefits from avoiding outside scrutiny.

[Jerry_B]

Lots of good HR reasons for keeping things hush-hush, I get it. So do me a favor CBF Search Committee, shut the hell up about the whole process until you have "next" ready to go. This whole secret searching, don't tell anyone thing makes it look like you have something or someone to hide and sends people beating the bushes to see if they can find out who it is. It's the equivalent of hanging a giant "Wet Paint" sign out, everyone just has to check and see for themselves.

[Tim Bonney]

[Jerry_B]

"Should" is powerful concept that is more often then not missing in church life, especially in denominational leadership searches. Throw on top of that the political, insider connectedness CBF is known for and you "should" a long and distant memory. It's not an actual update if the only thing that has changed is the clock.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

CBF is a relatively small organization that is losing a leader who was involved in the organization's founding. That leader is departing at a time when the organization is facing a major financial crisis and when several other key leaders have also announced their departure. I'm sure there's been some restlessness over the decision regarding who is going to lead CBF, since the committee has been working for quite a while, and some pressure to at least indicate where they are in the process.

I used to wonder why it sometimes took so long in a Baptist church to call a pastor, and why there didn't seem to be a sense of urgency, when attendance began falling and finances began dropping off. After working with a search committee that took two years to complete its work, I can now see why it took so long. It was over a year before the committee "shook itself out" and got away from their individual, personal preferences for qualifications and to the point where they could begin to work on behalf of the church as a whole. I'm sure, with a search committee looking for someone to head a denominational group or organization like CBF, there were a lot of people who brought the attitude of "This is what I think is best for CBF", or "I've got a friend over here," and had to get to the point of collective thinking about who would be best for the organization.

CBF claims a reputation as a transparent, completely open, opposed to doing anything behind closed doors type of organzation, reacting to their perception of the conservative-led SBC. So they are announcing a timetable for their search process. I understand the respect for confidentiality. If something goes wrong in the process, and word leaked out about his identity, the church or organization where he now works could become hostile territory.

[Tim Bonney]

Sandy, I could write a book, or a least a few chapters of a book, on what I think is wrong with much of the Search Committee process used by many churches. Just a few thoughts here come to mind:

. Often the committee is not actually representative of the congregation, depending on how the committee is selected. So if they are representative what the committee wants in a pastor may not mirror what the church wants.

. Often Search Committees swing from one extreme to another in pastor selection. If the last pastor was great in the pulpit but not a people person then they get someone who is a great people person and not good in the pulpit. Then they are disappointed that the pastor they picked doesn't/can't do what the last pastor did expecting them to be good at everything.

. The level of skills/training of a search committee vary greatly by church. Some do a super job of conducting interviews etc. and others have to real skills in these areas.

. Some search committees refuse to follow a good process. The ABC has an established process. But even where there is no established process, some churches do searches in a way that either rushes things to get a pastor as quickly as possible or they drag their feet for ever windging between on candidate and another.

. Search Committees are often not honest with candidates either about expectations for the actually needs of the church. They are trying to "sell" themselves and don't want to tell you about real issues.