Should churches hire pastors from within or outside the congregation?

The process a church uses for appointing and/or hiring its pastor(s) is a very sensitive issue for many people.  Basically, the way a church chooses a pastor often serves as an indicator of the church’s short and long-term goals.  Likewise, this same selection/hiring process tends to reflect the churches position on leadership, whether its leaders must be groomed by a higher affiliation or denominational structure or if the possibility exists that the Holy Spirit may raise up leaders from within the congregation.  As a result, people often ask the question – are local churches watching out for welfare of their religious affiliations or denominational institutions, instead of the spiritual welfare of the people in their surrounding communities?

As for short-term and long-term goals, such as starting a church, a religious affiliation or denomination may decide to select/hire a “church-plant” pastor whose primary purpose is to move into a community and start a church.  During this initial process or short-term goal, many of these “church-plant” pastors will utilize the individual talents and spiritual gifts of believers from within the community for establishing the church.  In a sense, people are often drawn to the newly “planted” churches because of the opportunity to get involved and share their individual talents and gifts.  However, as these new churches grow, the true intentions and long-term goals of the parent affiliations and/or organizations that helped finance the churches tend to be exposed.  Unfortunately, when the need for hiring a full-time pastor and/or additional pastors arises, too many of these newly “planted” churches feel compelled to look beyond the community members who helped establish their churches and only hire pastors from outside the congregation who have been groomed by of the respective parent religious affiliations and/or organizations. 

As for a contrasting scenario, an individual or group of individuals who have a passion for reaching others with the message of Christianity may also decide to start a church in a community-- - without the financial support of a religious affiliation or denomination.  During the start-up process, the church is funded solely by the founding individual(s) as well as anybody who contributes to the cause.  In similar manner to the religious affiliation/denominational church plant, this “church-plant” will also utilize the individual talents and spiritual gifts of believers from within the community for establishing the church.  As these churches grow, many of these founding church leaders will decide to trust in the work of the Holy Spirit and appoint/hire people as pastors from within their congregations, while others may consider appointing/hiring people from inside and/or outside the congregation.

Of course, there are many pros and cons to the two aforementioned “church-plant” scenarios.  The most obvious is the availability of funds, or lack thereof, to start a church.  Having the financial support of a religious affiliation or religious denomination is a definite positive when starting up a church.  However, the same scenario may prove to be a negative as the church grows and the pastor finds him or herself limited by the institutional bureaucracy.  On the contrary, starting a church without the financial backing of a religious institution could be perceived as a huge negative.  Conversely, if a pastor manages to start a church in this scenario, he or she will have the potential to experience the unlimited freedom of following the guidance of the Holy Spirit…especially in the appointment and/or hiring of pastors and other church leaders.

In summary, we need to ensure that the criteria for hiring pastors, whether from within or outside the congregation, falls in line with the overall purpose of the church – reaching everybody with the message of Christianity. (Matthew 28:18-10)  In similar fashion, churches must never lose sense that the spiritual welfare of the people in their surrounding communities takes precedence over religious affiliations or denominational institutions.  Otherwise, what message are we sending to our communities?  As for a closing thought, Jesus Christ was not limited by any religious bureaucracy --- rather Jesus Christ chose his disciples to follow Him at where they were in their normal lives, not necessarily their religious vocations.  (Matthew 4:18-22)