Keeping the Main Thing: When The Word Leads Your Pastoral Search by Chris Brauns

Ever wondered what would happened if a Pastor Search Committee uses the Bible to guide them as they seek a new Pastor for their church? Chris Brauns answers that question in his book, When The Word Leads Your Pastoral Search. Brauns uses the Bereans from Acts 17, who were very Word-centered, as an illustration to show his readers that being searching the scriptures is a great way to search for a new Pastor. A lot of times Pastors are searched based on what the church wants without giving any thought to the Bible.

Brauns even went into the difference between expository and topical preaching, which a lot of people in the church still do not know the difference, using a topical sermon called "The Miracle of Moms". He talked about what to look for in a Pastor based on 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The last couple of chapters in the book is on how to do the interview with candidates and suggested interview questions.

This book was unique because not many people want to read a book on conducting a Pastoral search unless you are actually in the middle of a search. This was a great read and recommend it to pastors to read it themselves and give their church a copy when or if he leaves that church.

I received this book from Moody Publishers for the purposes of reviewing it.

Below is a collection of videos from this year's Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago, where Chris Brauns talks with Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, and Rick Thompson on Pastoral transitions and searches:

Pastoral Searches & Transitions Video 1 TGC Conference '11 from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.