When it comes to church roles, it can be easy to write off an associate pastor as one of the “lesser roles”, however this simply is not the truth. Associate pastors are an important part of keep the church “machine” well-oiled and functioning. An associate pastor is not one of the specific pastors like the youth pastor, family pastor, or worship pastor, who all have specific roles and duties in different areas of the church. Associate pastors are more so involved in all the areas of the church, much like the senior pastor, but on a lower scale. They assist the senior pastor in helping to oversee all areas of the church and may be involved in the planning of all church events.
We at JustChurchJobs are here to help you find the right candidate for any church role that you’re trying to fill in any way that we can! We hope that this list of interview questions made especially for your search in finding the right associate pastor candidate will help give you an idea of what to ask and what to look for in your candidates! Let’s get started!
What is your testimony?
As we have mentioned in previous articles, this question should always be your first and foremost question to ask every candidate no matter what role you are trying to fill. A testimony is the Christ follower’s story about their life before they met Christ, when they met Christ, and their transformed life after they met Christ. The sharing of a testimony requires vulnerability which is an essential quality to have in ministry and in sharing the gospel.
How do you organize and plan out tasks/events?
The role of associate pastor requires a lot of organization and planning skills. Since they are involved in every area of the church they must have good organization, otherwise things will fall through the cracks and that may create issue within the church. The candidate should be able to convey a solid organizational strategy that works and examples of how it has worked in the past.
How do you manage your stress?
Again, the associate pastor is involved in every area of the church to some degree. With this responsibility can come a lot of stress or at least a lot more stress than having a specific area to work for. The candidate should be able to manage their stress healthily and in a way that does not take away from their relationship with God and their work.
How do you manage your time?
An associate pastor must be good at managing their time. They cannot be in multiple places at once and must prioritize their time to make sure they are efficient in getting tasks done and events planned in multiple areas of the ministry. They need to be able to get the most done that they can for each area of the church without ignoring of putting any other areas to the side.
What are some ways that you can develop and improve the staff?
Since the associate pastor deals with every area of the church, they are heavily involved with every staff member and as such should be coming up with ideas on how they can develop the church team to run smoother and more efficiently while also accomplishing more for the glory of God.
Can you recall a time where you came up with an idea that was creative, unique, and innovative to solve a problem?
An associate pastor must be able to find out of the box ways to solve a problem that cannot be solved using normal ways. You never know what issue may pop up in any given area of the church and conventional ways may not be able to solve them. Candidates must be able to be creative and innovative in how they approach problems and in solving them.
We at JustChurchJobs hope that this guide helps you to find the best candidate that fits your church, and we hope that we have helped to give you a general idea of what to ask your potential candidates! We want to help you in any way that we can and if you are having trouble finding good quality candidates to fill your associate pastor role, JustChurchJobs can help with that too!
