Executive Search
When looking at a church from the outside, many people see the “who” and the “what,” but they don’t always know the “why.” People can see the building and the Pastor, but it’s harder to see the vision of the church - the unique mission that drives it.
For Park Cities Baptist Church, their “why” is their mission to rescue one another from mere cultural Christianity. At the foundation of all they do, this 77 year-old church focuses on Jesus’ words, “Follow me.” They want to be a church that rejects sideline Christianity and encourages their congregation to pursue a daily relationship with Christ.
This mission especially resonates in the Children’s Ministry at PCBC. Because of their location in Dallas, Texas, PCBC knows that its fastest growing demographic is young families. Rodney Schell, the Executive Pastor, said he knew that because “this demographic is growing the most, we needed to invest in it the most.”
They knew their investment into their Children’s Ministry needed to begin with their church staffing - putting high-capacity, committed leaders in place to champion their mission to each child and family, week in and week out.
Rodney is no stranger to making critical church staff hires like the one at hand, their Children’s Minister. But he knew going into this search that it would be more difficult. Their previous two Children’s Minister searches both took 18 months to hire someone. Another 18-month search was not an option for Rodney and the rest of the PCBC leadership.
Sitting down with a Search Consultant from Vanderbloemen Search Group, Rodney explained the requirements for the kind of person they needed to fill this role on their church staff. This person could not be just anyone with Children’s Pastor experience, this person needed to be a culture fit - someone who understood and fit in with the community of and around PCBC. They weren’t just looking for a teacher or a manager, they were looking for a leader of leaders who had a passion to lead and train the next generation.
From the launch of the search to when Vanderbloemen presented PCBC with a list of highly-qualified, vetted, interviewed candidates, the search took four months. And from that curated list of candidates, PCBC found the Children’s Pastor they were looking for, Jay Miller.
Jay has nearly 10 years of ministry experience with students and children, and to top it all off, he is a native Texan who deeply understands the culture of Park Cities Baptist.
Children’s Ministers are often undervalued, and there is a scarcity of qualified candidates, making this one of the most difficult church staff positions to fill. But PCBC took a different approach; they invested in the ministry and the search. The outcome of those investments is a thriving, healthy Children’s Ministry led by a passionate and highly-qualified leader.
Why does the Vanderbloemen Search Group help with Children's Pastor search?
