Idiotic Pastoral Search Committee Questions

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, ìBut we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour ,î so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isnít for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Studio Update and Encouragement at Shepherds’ Conference

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is good to be back in the studio. I have some sniffles. I donít know what the sniffle thing is, but maybe it makes my voice more Vader-ish.

Who knows? Anyway, you can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I read all those. If you just have general information, you can write info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Thereís the YouTube channel, No Compromise Radio.

We are on the air in Wyoming and Alaska, thanks to my friends. And I just get on the show and try to pontificate a little bit. I was at the Shepherdsí Conference last week and talked to many friends, met lots of people.

Several came up to me Iíd never met, and they said, ìThanks for No Compromise Radio ministry. Weíre encouraged by it .î Thatís one of the things we want to do. We want to encourage a little-known fact in the book of Hebrews.

We sometimes forget the ending because the beginning and the middle is so great. Hereís the ending of the book of Ephesians. ÌSo that you may know how I am ,î Paul says, ìand what Iím doing, Tychicus, lucky or chance ,î thatís his name, ìthe beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything.

Iíve sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are .î Thatís the first part of the sentence. Iím just going to give you an update. I know you want to know how we are. Weíre in ministry together.

ÌThat they may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts .î Hereís the message, circular letter, and to the church at Ephesus, and how do we encourage them? So anyway, thatís what we want to do because we talk about the Lord Jesus here.

In the old days there was no compromise because we donít want to compromise, and we still donít. But we want to talk about the one who doesnít compromise more than how we donít compromise. Get that? See the whole duplex gratia?

Christ for us, Christ in us. We have to say that every single show. Itís the duplex gratia show. Welcome to duplex gratia radio. If I was going to start a new podcast, that probably DP would be it, a DG.

Thatíd be Desiring God though. Thatíd be different, wouldnít it? Saw lots of friends. I didnít go to one session. My sessions were the people behind the scenes. I said, ìLord, I would like to encourage people, and if I need any encouragement, could you please use these men to encourage me ?î So both happened.

I had a good meeting with Peter Sammons, and Richard Barcelos, and Steve Meister, and Steve Cooley, and Luke Avendroth, and Jason, I forgot his last name. That was good. I saw people like Mike Riccardi, and I told him I was glad he was hired at the seminary.

He told me he now, per my suggestion, is using Fescoís book on justification. I was happy about that. What else was I happy about? All kinds of things. Anyway, Mike Avendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

Lots of people said, ìWeíve been praying for you. Weíre glad youíre alive .î I had this shirt on. I tried to go wild with the shirts, and I had one shirt on that was very blue, long-sleeved, and it had white splotches like clouds.

When people said, ìHow are you ?î I said, ìIím on cloud nine .î To be alive, Iím on cloud nine. My German friend was there, a Christian, and I said, ìIs there an equivalent? There has to be an equivalent to cloud nine.

Iím on cloud nine in German, and Iím on cloud seven .î He said, ìWell, thatís an American .î Probably the Brits are cloud eight. Weíre cloud nine. Deutsch, cloud seven. In front of me today, I have Tom Rainerís, Iím not supporting Tom Rainer, but I do think this makes good church discussion on No Compromise Radio, churchanswers .com.

And he has 25 shocking questions or comments in no particular order that church search committees ask the pastor to be. This is a church. These are churches trying to find a pastor, and you want to ask the pastor some questions.

Questions Search Committees Should Ask a Pastor

And so, what would you ask a pastor if you were on a search committee? Hopefully, it would be elders who were on the search committee, unless the elders have delegated, ìFind these kind of resumes from these students, these graduates, these people with X amount of ministry, then give us the rest .î And I hope the elders donít say, ìWell, you guys choose, and we just ratify .î I hope itís the other way around.

Nonetheless, search committee stuff. Would you ask things like, ìDo you believe in covenant theology or dispensationalism ?î What is your view of types in the Old Testament, types, anti-types? Whoís the main author of the Bible when you interpret?

Do you use the human author more? You think about the human author more, or divine author? Do you believe in theological covenants? Do you believe in the duplex gratia? What is the duplex gratia? What is sanctification?

Is it monergistic, synergistic? How do you encourage people to obey? Do you believe in the literal resurrection? Is Jesus Christ truly God and truly man? What is the gospel? Whatís your view of end times?

Are you a complementarian, egalitarian, or something else? The list could go on and on and on. Those would be good questions, donít you think? Limited atonement? I mean, whatever it might be. And then you could ask, ìDo you look at pornography?

Do you love your wife? How does that work? Howís your relationship with your children? Howís your relationship with your wife? Could we call the church youíre currently working for and ask them about your morality and your finances?

Would you mind if I checked your credit score ?î I mean, I donít know. You could ask anything. So, I havenít read Raynerís deal, Iím not looking at it, because I wanted to give you kind of one of the things that we would do.

Letís talk about qualifications, are you qualified by the grace of God, and the list goes on and on. Well, here, Rayner does a lot of research, Southern Baptist, and it says heís had a conversation at Church Answers, weíve taken 2 ,000 church leaders, interacting 24 hours a day, thatís how it all started, talking.

And then, he began to collate comments or questions that people give to a potential pastor. Iím not going to do all of them, but theyíre going to be fun. ÌLast pastor preached for 18 minutes, can you keep it under 20 minutes ?î Now, I do think most preachers in my realm, my orbit, they preach too long.

Theyíre younger, they arenít very articulate, they havenít honed their skills, how could they? Theyíve only been preaching five years, and therefore, they go a little too long, itís a little too clunky, not enough information on the cutting room floor.

It is good to know if things are genitives or, you know, objective genitives or subjective genitives, or is this, what kind of heiress is this, what does that make the text mean? Thatís all fine and dandy, but some things you just donít really need to say.

Can you keep it under 20 minutes, though? Only time I do that is if Iím in a super liberal church, Iím overseas, and itís an unbelieving church, essentially, mainline church, they say, ìCan the sermon be 20 minutes ?î And I say, ìIf I can keep their attention, can I go a little longer ?î And they always say yes, and I always think I can.

Because I donít want to overstep my bounds, I am under their authority, therefore. Number two, the salary is low, but we can pay you a commission for each new tithing family that joins the church. Thatís not a question, but that actually happened in Florida, if I remember rightly, and the pastor who went there, I think was disqualified in gospel ministry, but went anyway, because some churches hire people like that, itís not much different than the NFL, somebody can be a total sleazebag, but they need the person.

Anyway, the pastor said, ìIf you give me a percentage of the giving, no matter how high the giving gets, Iíll come .î And now heís making millions. What is your political party affiliation? I donít even mind that question, because sometimes I just want to see how people answer.

Itís like when the policeman pulls you over, police person, police lady, and they begin to ask you a question, ìWhere are you going ?î I just want to see how youíre going to act, if youíre slurring words, I just want to see how theyíre going to, what are they going to say?

If they say, ìIím a Republican, but I donít agree with all the things, I like President Trump, but heís not qualified to be an elder ,î I donít know, wouldnít that be interesting to you to find out? I do think it is, itís not impossible, because people do it, and we have the Gospel Coalition pushing it, the Russell Moore at Southern Baptist pushing it, all kinds of pushing people to say, ìVote Democrat ,î for whatever reason, right, itís a life issue, not just in the womb, but outside of the womb, and they have all their rationale to try to get people to vote for the party of death, the Democrats, I think thatíd probably be important to know.

Would you want your pastor being the kind of guy who would vote for Joe Biden? What is the least amount we can pay you to come? Then the pastor, Toby, should have said, ìWhatís the most you can pay me to come ?î I have been very blessed at this church, the church takes care of me, my health, Iím very thankful for that, and when I got to the church, I think basically they said, ìThis is how much we can pay you ,î and I said, ìIíll trust you that I can live on that ,î and I think it was a mistake on my part.

They probably wouldnít have taken me if I would have tried to get more, because they didnít have more at the time. I think giving at the time was 1 ,200 a week, 1 ,500 a week, something like that. We do monthly cleaning inspections of the parsonage, you will need to make sure your wife keeps it clean.

Now, you know what, the new tithing familyís idiotic, you know, making money for that. Least amount we can pay you just sounds dumb, but maybe itís innocent. This one here, itís over the top. This is what Iíd say, ìUh, sorry, this is not the way weíre working it, unless I can do a monthly cleaning inspection in your house or something .î Thatís just so dead, that is bad.

ÌWould you mind if we have a Christmas tree in the pulpit ?î Well, I guess today is comedy show day today, Christmas tree. Iím not going to call them Jeremiah trees or something like that. I donít know why it would be in the pulpit.

Maybe itís behind the pulpit, right? Can we have a flag in the sanctuary? You know, thatís a discussion that would be good to have. Your wife canít take a job outside the home because sheíll be too busy at the church.

The Pastor’s Wife, Work, and Ministry Expectations

Now see, thatís a big one. I think that pastorís wives, of course Iím biased, but Iíve seen behind the scenes in my life and then in other peopleís lives, that thereís a heavy toll to be a pastorís wife.

Thereís a heavy toll in marriages to be in ministry. You have your own problems and then youíve got everybody elseís problems and itís just difficult. And I have a wonderful wife, Kim, and I said Iíd bring her on the show someday.

I still havenít kept that promise, but maybe one of these days. And Iíve been telling her, you know, the way into young peopleís lives, young ladiesí lives is podcasts, so maybe sheíll do one someday.

Not daily, though. Maybe ramblings with Kim. Duplex scrotchie with Kim Avendroth. But she canít take a job. Now, okay, legitimately, if you say, work her at home, the Bible teaches that, and we donít want you to have to put your kids in daycare, and so weíre going to take care of her and you by paying you a little bit extra so she could be at home.

We think thatís the best model for our pastor. This is a big issue in certain fundamentalistic churches, and I think itís important for us, for me in my house. My wife did work. She woke up at work, and I went to work.

Thatís the best way I could say it, because itís true. And she worked faithfully with those children, raising them, and now the children are gone and she picked up a part-time job. Maybe thereís opportunities for a woman to work a night shift as a nurse or something like that.

Thereís all kinds of ways that we could do this. But to say sheíll be too busy at church, I said to the elders, and I would even say it now, ìMy wife will use her gifts at the church .î Thatís what sheíll do.

She doesnít work for the church. When my wife goes out of town for the summer for an extended time period, I know people in the past have said, some people, not many, but itís not good that your wifeís gone for so long, and I think she doesnít work for the church.

Now short of the secretary and Steve and I, she probably works harder than anybody else. Maybe there are other people, I donít know because I donít see it, but sheíll serve, but sheís not going to be too busy to do something else, because thatís just not the way itís going to work.

Calvinism, Bible Versions, and Racist Questions

Number eight. Finally we get something that I think would be a good question. Are you a Calvinist? What does it mean to be a Calvinist? It just means that youíre more Calvinistic than I am, then youíre a hyper-Calvinist.

What is hyper-Calvinism? Could the man articulate? Hyper-Calvinism is a real thing. Itís not five points of Calvinism. It means things like, historically, thereís no love of God for the non-elect. It means that you donít pray.

It means that you donít evangelize. There are certain things to talk about in a historical context. Will you preach out of the King James Version? Okay, thatís a legitimate thing. Whatís your translation preference, and why?

Right? If itís, I have this preference, I love the elegance of King James language, and it is lofty, and it is God-centered, and whatever the reasons why you like it, it stood the test of time. There are more manuscripts with its, I canít really think now, but itís based on more manuscripts than, I was thinking about the word Byzantine now, versus the Alexandrian text types.

Okay, fair question. This next one, I donít even really want to say on the air, but I will, because itís on this thing. What do you think about coloreds in the church? Then Rainer said, ìSadly, several racist questions were asked, including one church that used extremely inappropriate racial language .î I mean, I donít even want to give this thing the time of day.

If somebody asked me that question, I would flip it around, probably, and be aggressive to challenge them. If they want to know something that popular people want to know, Gospel Coalition people, you know, will I be driving the ministry for multi, and one of the purposes that I would have would be to have it to be multi-ethnic.

I would say to myself, ìWell, since Iím in Madagascar, probably most of the people there will look like Madagascarians .î Iím in West Boylston, Mass., and 97 of the people here are white by the census.

If somebody comes here and they donít look like us, will they feel comfortable? Will they be welcome? I think at our church, itís 60 -70 white, so weíre 10 times more diverse than the city. How does that happen?

Well, the answer is you preach the Jew, the risen Savior, the Lord Jesus, God-man, and whoever the Lord brings, He does. Itís just the stupidest thing youíd ever get asked. What do I think? I think weíre all Gentiles, and if youíre, especially what we call black or white, youíre probably a Gentile, so what is it different, you know, if youíre in Africa and your ancestors are worshipping their ancestors, or if youíre in England, like me or Germany, with my ancestors and weíre worshipping trees or something, whatís the difference?

I mean, itís just ridiculous. Will you play at least two hymns a week? The old hymns. Now, some hymns arenít any good, even old hymns, but thereís something to be said for hymns. I go to churches that sing no hymns, and I think, ìI miss those hymns .î Here at our church, we sing two hymns to start, two praise songs in the middle, and one hymn to end.

Would it be okay if we parked another single wide by the existing one as a parsonage for your whole family? Oh, okay, Iíll take this one, number 13, Tom Rainer. What do you ask a pastor, a potential pastor, as a search committee?

I mean, who has this list? Donít you have a list that youíre going to ask people? Do you own a weapon? Yeah, I carry my two sidearms with me, my forearms and my fist. Do you own a weapon? Okay, I guess if you want to know, itís fine by me.

Ask a question. We want you to preach for a month and see how it works out. It said the candidate lived out of state. Now, in the old days, we would be asked to send a sermon on cassette so the committee could listen.

And even then, I would tell people, ìSearch committees need to ask for 10 sermons .î So by the way, if youíre on a search committee and you want to pull up sermons, of course you can go to websites now, unless itís a student thatís never really preached much.

But even then, they should have preached some. And pull up the last 10 sermons. If you pull up my last 10 sermons, I think you will find an averaging. There will be one or two that kind of bombed, biblical but bombed my delivery.

Find a couple that maybe were extraordinarily wonderful homiletically, and thatís to the grace and praise of God, because of the grace and praise to the Lord. And then youíll see the rest. The eight are kind of like, ìHmm .î You know, and that ìHmm .î You have to ask yourself a question.

If youíre on a search committee, could I listen to those average ones every day? Because for me, Iím coming up on 25 years here, thatís a lot of sermons. ÌWhatís your position on interracial marriage ?î Itís another really idiotic, stupid question.

Whatís my position? I have a position paper on that. Sorry, how about gay marriage? How about homosexual marriage? How about something like that? Okay. What about revoice? And what about side A, side B?

You know, Christians andÖ But interracial marriage? Are you kidding me? Iím all for two image-bearers of the opposite sex to be married in holy wedlock. Whether theyíre two unbelievers, itís still a holy ordination covenant, or ordained covenant, or if itís two believers.

Unbeliever and a believer? No. But anything else? Okay. ÌIf you came here, we would want to fire the youth minister .î Would you be willing to do that? Well, maybe he denies the resurrection or something.

ÌDo you let singers hold the microphones themselves ?î Yeah, I just donít let them talk before the songs or after. ÌHave you ever held a rattlesnake ?î Ooh, itís a Mark 16 church. No, I havenít. Not a live one.

Thatís a scary thought. Boy, we could talk about that one a long time. But it would be good. I would like it if someone said to me, ìWhatís your view of Mark 16, 10 and following ?î 10 to 20, 10 to 21, 10 to 22, depending on whatever the ending is at the end of Mark.

ÌWhy do you think Mark 16, 8 is the end of the Gospel of Jesus according to Mark ?î That would be a good question. Or, ìDo you think that ?î. ÌWhy donít you think that ?î. ÌWhatís about baptismal regeneration there, and snakes, and drinking poison ?î.

What about that? Do you think thatís for today? And that would be a very good question. ÌThe woman caught committing adultery in John 8, 1 and following .î. Well, I think itís 7 .53 and following to 8 .10-ish.

What do you think of that? ÌIs it in the best manuscripts ?î. ÌWould you preach it ?î. Thatís a good question. ÌDo you think those are in the original ?î. No and no. John 8, John and Mark 16. The ending there.

ÌOkay, well then, would you do whole Sunday sermons on them ?î. Iíd like to ask that question and like to have an answer to that. That would be pretty good. Those are the kind of questions I would like.

ÌWould you be willing to shave your facial hair ?î. Well, what if I took a Nasride vow? As we say here, my Indian friends, ìWow, thatís a wow .î Maybe theyíll ask me, ìDo you have any Indians at the church ?î Iíll say, ìRed or from India .î How dumb can we be?

ÌYou have to mow the parsonage lawns at the same time they mow the church yard .î. Well, how about when they mow the church yard, they just mow my yard? Actually, true story, I moved to Massachusetts and I had a pretty big yard when I first moved into this rental house by a lake.

And we havenít lived there for a long time. Somebody said I had an extra riding lawn mower, a rider, and they said, ìHis name is Dan. Iíd like to give it to you, Mike, because then you donít have to mow walking and you can spend more time in your sermon .î.

Wonderful. That was such a blessing. ÌThe pastorís office hours are 9 to 5 Monday to Friday .î What day do you take off? Thatís my question. ÌWhen discovering the pastoral candidate had a physical disability, the person on the search committee said, ìOh, we donít want a pastor thatís disabled.

You have to stand while you are preaching .î I mean, doesnít that make you want to throw up? It makes me want to throw up. It motivates me to say words like, ìThatís asinine .î And whoeverís on the search committee is disqualified.

ÌOh, there have been times I havenít stood up in the pulpit. I prefer to stand up .î But somebodyís in a wheelchair and youíre going to go, ìNo, you have to stand .î What are people thinking? I think about Ephesians and kind and gentle and forgiving.

This has nothing to do with forgiving, but kind and gentle, certainly. I get convicted every time Iím going through those verses and thinking, ìAm I kind and am I gentle ?î I hope to be that in person, but even online, convicted, kind and gentle.

ÌWhat are your views on mixed bathing ?î I should have done this show with Steve. We could have had a real laugh, mixed bathing. I mean, my first gut reaction is, ìAre they married ?î Mixed bathing. ÌBoxers or briefs ?î Idiotic.

This last one, too, Iím sorry I have to read it, but Iím just going to read it to show you how dumb it is. ÌHowís your sex life ?î If you want to ask, ìHowís your marriage ?î Okay. If you want to ask, ìDo you look at pornography ?î If you want to ask, ìHow would you consider someone that has a bad sex life ?î How would you counsel an ogre husband whoís demanding or a wife whoís saying no to manipulate her husband?

Are those legitimate questions? Well, those are certainly legitimate questions, but a pastoral search committee is going to ask a question like that? I would say, ìExcuse me, sir or maíam, that is an inappropriate question .î What if I were to ask you about your sex life?

Thereís a time and place for everything, and this is not the time nor the place for that. Iím sure I wouldnít get the job, but I mean, come on. Anyway, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise.

I am No Compromise. You are listening to No Compromise Radio. You know what? If you keep that attitude up with some of these questions, I might have to change the show to duplex gratia radio, DG Radio.

How would that work for you? You can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

Closing Remarks and Ministry Information

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of Godís Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. Weíre right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.