Selecting Church Leaders: A Practice in Spiritual Discernment

Ask people what church position they desire the least. The most likely answer is the nominating committee.

Choosing church leaders, whether for a small committee or for a group of congregations, tends to make people want to quit. Is there a better way than running a finger down a membership list to find someone who will not hang up the phone?

Chuck Olsen and Ellen Morseth offer a spiritually solid approach to selecting church leaders. They begin their approach with an easy-to-overlook sentence in the book of Acts concerning the Jerusalem Council. Acts 15:28 records ". . . it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. . . ." The authors note from this beginning the guidance of God's Spirit and the use of human faculties of reason and perception.

Olsen and Morseth believe that this spiritual guidance is often missing in the selection process of leaders. They urge you to participate in a prayerful process of seeking God's yearning, whether for local church, denominational, or personal. Their book offers the practices of spiritual discernment (with many encouraging examples) in the selection of leaders."

Chuck Olsen is founder and senior mentor for Worshipful-Work Center for Transforming Religious Leadership in Kansas City. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church, he served congregations in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and California.
Ellen Morseth is a member of the Sisters of Charity, BVM. She is staff mentor at Worshipful-Work Center for Transforming Religious Leadership in Kansas City.