• Helping churches seeking pastors.
• Helping pastors seeking placement.
  

  For Churches Seeking a Pastor or additional Pastoral Staff

Notify the District Office

Our first recommendation is to contact our office (phone 515-432-9175) whenever a vacancy occurs or when a new position is added. Our experience has shown that healthy ministries have given much thought to theological, philosophy of ministry, and gift-mix compatibility of those in leadership. When a senior pastor position becomes vacant, we strongly recommend that the primary church leadership board meet as soon as possible with the District Superintendent. He will work with you on evaluating appropriate steps and processes to implement.

Go online at http://ministerconnection.net

We are pleased to introduce you to this new ministry tool which has been years in prayerful and diligent development. When you go online to create a position profile, you will be walked step by step through a very helpful exercise to identify the very characteristics of your church's ministry. This information is critical to making wise placement decisions. There will be a $100 charge for establishing an online position profile, but the benefits of this endeavor far outweigh this expense. We anticipate that in the very near future, most of the nearly 4,000 pastors currently serving in EFCA churches nationwide will have created personal profiles. Additionally, hundreds of new candidates who are seeking to join the EFCA family after seminary graduation or from other ministries are also entering the database. By creating a church profile, this entire resource pool becomes available for potential matchup with your position.

  For Pastors and Ministry Staff Open to or Seeking Placement

Go online! http://ministerconnection.net

We are delighted to announce that the new website for the Evangelical Free Church Pastoral Placement Services is up and running! This has been long awaited, and has tremendous and far-reaching implications for all of us. Among other things:

• Churches seeking candidates for any and all positions can now be put directly in touch with a much larger pool of prospective candidates.
• Candidates now have complete and continuous control of the file they want churches to see.
• A prospective candidate can now be instantly included in searches by any search committee or leadership team, provided they are utilizing the new system (see paragraph on Confidentiality).

Who should create a file?

All pastoral staff! Whether you are happily placed in a ministry, are inwardly open to change, or are actively seeking new placement (this includes potential church planters), we hope you will consider establishing a personal portfolio in our national placement database. Several of you have already established files in the placement office, but the expanded capability of the new web-based placement service requires that you personally create your new portfolio. The reason will be obvious when you visit the site.

Confidentiality

When a personal file is created, you will have the option of four levels of confidentiality:

• Unavailable for Placement (your name is completely blocked from matching, but your file can be accessed by your chosen gatekeeper with your permission to discuss your current position compatibility, leadership style, doctrinal position, or possible matches in other positions).
• Not Seeking Placement (your file can be accessed in potential position searches, but is not available to the church without your permission and that of your chosen gatekeeper).
• Open to considering placement (You can be matched and contacted by gatekeepers).
• Actively seeking placement (A church can directly access your file) A more thorough explanation about the graduated degrees of confidentiality is offered on the website.

  Cost

• EFCA Ministerial members can create a file at no cost.

• Those who have completed the $100 placement process (Counselaid, Ministry Match, Questionnaire, etc.) can create a file at no cost.

• All others will be invoiced a $100 fee to create a file, and additional charges will apply to complete the Ministry Match leadership assessment (required by most districts) and the Counselaid assessment (required by several districts).

(Note: Those paying the $100 fee will receive a $50 voucher to apply toward EFCA Ministerial Membership.)

  How to Get Started

1. Go online to http://ministerconnection.net.
2. Go to Candidate Login.
3. Go to Create New Account.
   

  Central District Requirements

Before a candidate can be endorsed and recommended to a local church by the Central District, the candidate must:

• Be a potential match using Minister Connection (http://ministerconnection.net). This is a consultatnt-assisted tool and there will obviously be circumstances where rare exceptions are made.
• Complete the Ministry Match. (Candidate only, spouse optional.) An order form for the Ministry Match can be obtained through:
  • Almost any district office
  • The national placement office (1-800-745-2202)
  • Our office (515-432-9175 or office@efcacentral.org).
    
  • Once completed, Ministry Match results will be returned to youto enter into your online file.