07 Feb Our Process in Finding a New Director

Yesterday we announced through the denominational email list the appointment of Jeff Bleijerveld (right, with his wife, Charlene) as the new Director of Global Ministries. Starting March 3, he’ll head up our missions work, joining a staff which already includes Donna Hollopeter and Darlene Burkett.

Jeff is currently Assistant Director of World Partners USA, the mission arm of the Missionary Church USA, with headquarters just up the road in Fort Wayne, Ind. He is an ordained minister in the Missionary Church, served eight years as a missionary in Spain, has served as a pastor at two churches, and has worked with World Partners USA since 2001. His responsibilities at World Partners include managing the daily operations and all human resource functions for the 130 staff (missionaries mostly) scattered around the world. He is fluent in Spanish, which will be a big plus for us, since we have so much work in Central America.

I feel confident that Jeff is the right person for the job, and believe God will use him to take our missions efforts to the next level. I’m excited that God provided someone of Jeff’s caliber.

The Director of Global Ministries is a staff position, and as bishop, I am responsible for appointing all staff. Until 2005 we elected the Director of Global Ministries; Gary Dilley, who served in that role until January of this year (when he became senior pastor of College Park UB church in Huntington, Ind.), was originally elected in 2001, but then appointed by me in 2005. So it was my responsibility to appoint a replacement for Gary.
Let me tell you a little about the process we used in filling the position.

I am not a fan of the “beauty pageant” approach to hiring staff, where you interview a half-dozen people and pick the one you like best. Churches often do that, inviting a selection of applicants to come for an interview and preach a trial sermon, and then they pick the one who impressed them the most.

I don’t like that approach. My preference is to collect resumes and recommendations from far and wide, but then to prioritize them. I start with the resume on top, and don’t move on until that person turns me down. If you believe God has someone picked out for you, why interview five people? Why ask God to send you the one he wants if you’re going to interview a half-dozen? I am a firm believer in starting with the person who seems to you to be the best fit, and working from there. In that way, you ultimately get to the person God wants for us. We followed this approach, and I believe it worked superbly. Jeff Bleijerveld is the person God was already preparing for us.

However, I didn’t work alone. The Global Ministries director works closely with the Global Ministries Leadership Team, and I wanted their input. We called a special meeting of the GMLT to discuss what exactly we wanted in a new director. We listed a number of qualities. We also discussed who some of the “stake-holders” are in Global Ministries. For instance, the Canada national conference is a partner with us in Global Ministries, and we wanted to make sure their interests were represented.

We then considered potential candidates. That produced a list of 12-15 people. We prioritized them, and three members of the GMLT were named to join me as a search committee (right, l-r): Luke Fetters, Jeff Sherlock, and Brian Magnus (bishop of the UB Church in Canada). And we began making contacts.

When I contacted Jeff Bleijerveld, I didn’t know that he was sensing that God had something different in store for him, something beyond World Partners. Luke Fetters and I, along with our wives, had dinner one night in early January with Jeff and his wife, Charlene. We talked informally about the position, and afterwards, Jeff told me that he was very interested in being considered. On January 28, the entire search team met one night in my office for a formal interview with Jeff. Luke, Jeff, and Brian grilled him pretty hard for a couple of hours, and Jeff had a number of questions for us.

After Jeff left, the search committee stayed for another 90 minutes. We were convinced that Jeff was the person. We still checked out some references during the next couple of days. But then I offered the position to Jeff, and he accepted.

So that’s the process we followed. And I’m happy with where it led us.