How to Make Great Appointments in the Church: Calling, Competence and Chemistry
Library of Ministry
by Claire Pedrick and Su Blanch
Paperback
Price: £10.99
Publisher:SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
Published:July 2011
ISBN:978-0-281-06419-9
GoodBookStall Review:
This book is a manual for those who are involved in making appointments in the Church. The ‘great’, however, refers not to appointments to high office but, hopefully, to the successful outcome of appointing to the more lowly ministries of parish priest, minister or presbyter.
The authors are very experienced people. Claire Pedrick has been a ‘selector for the Methodist World Council Office and CMS, and has trained people in vocational selection for the past 25 years’. Su Blanch is a consultant in Human Resources. The book comes wrapped in recommendations from several high profile figures in the churches – on the cover and over four pages at the beginning. If you need to know how to set about considering, advertising, interviewing and recommending candidates for appointments this book leaves no pebble unturned. Essentially it is about process, and so its appeal will be to those for whom process is very important.
Much will be familiar – how to draw up a parish profile and candidate specification; how to design a time of ‘robust discernment’ and interview; how to frame a list of relevant questions; and so on. If a church is incapable of thinking this out for itself, then the book provides a handy checklist.
But, if you don’t care for management-speak – ‘stakeholders’, ‘interview script’, ‘candidate audit’, ‘added value’ – or the assumption that process is so critical, then it may serve only to irritate - especially if you are uncomfortable with the idea of ‘prayer events’ or building a labyrinth for Holy Week.
Reviewer: Alan Billings (19/11/11)
This book is a manual for those who are involved in making appointments in the Church. The ‘great’, however, refers not to appointments to high office but, hopefully, to the successful outcome of appointing to the more lowly ministries of parish priest, minister or presbyter.
The authors are very experienced people. Claire Pedrick has been a ‘selector for the Methodist World Council Office and CMS, and has trained people in vocational selection for the past 25 years’. Su Blanch is a consultant in Human Resources. The book comes wrapped in recommendations from several high profile figures in the churches – on the cover and over four pages at the beginning. If you need to know how to set about considering, advertising, interviewing and recommending candidates for appointments this book leaves no pebble unturned. Essentially it is about process, and so its appeal will be to those for whom process is very important.
Much will be familiar – how to draw up a parish profile and candidate specification; how to design a time of ‘robust discernment’ and interview; how to frame a list of relevant questions; and so on. If a church is incapable of thinking this out for itself, then the book provides a handy checklist.
But, if you don’t care for management-speak – ‘stakeholders’, ‘interview script’, ‘candidate audit’, ‘added value’ – or the assumption that process is so critical, then it may serve only to irritate - especially if you are uncomfortable with the idea of ‘prayer events’ or building a labyrinth for Holy Week.
Reviewer: Alan Billings (19/11/11)
