- A church may seek to appeal to younger people. Or it may preserve its traditions. It cannot do both. Stop asking your prospective pastors to do the impossible.
- Do not claim to “welcome everyone” unless you really do welcome everyone.
- Forget about “young families” if by that you mean cis-hetero married couples under 35 with biological offspring. They mostly don’t exist.
- Forget about bringing back people who have left the church. It is extremely unlikely that they are coming back.
- Do not include the date of your church’s founding in your MIF. Nobody cares except that it measures how out of touch you are.
- Stop expecting your pastor to have “office hours.”
- Stop expecting your pastor to visit people in their homes except in emergencies.
- Giving small amounts of money to a wide variety of local social service agencies is not “mission.”
- Do not ask that your pastor be a “change agent” unless you can say with great specificity what that means.
- When you are contacting a candidate, clearly identify your town and State. Just saying you're from "First Church" is not helpful.
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