Getting a job as a protestant pastor

I have a friend who is a seminary grad and has been on the pastoral staff of several churches but always as a part-timer. He wants to be full-time but is having trouble landing a full time position. This is the advice I gave him. I'm interested in reading your comments, especially the comments of any protestant readers.

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Dear X,

I want to help you market yourself to churches. Let me ask you some questions:

What kind of marketing materials do you have?
- A pator's resume should be like a small book that includes an essay explaining how you were converted and what you believe (this is especially important for independent churches who don't have the denomination acting as a screen to filter out the riff raff), what your style of ministry is (a story about how you actually impacted someones life is a must in this section), a brief explanation of what you studied in seminary and how it helps you be an effective minister, and should include a CD of a recent sermon. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: Churches hate it when a pastor only stays for a couple of years, so you need to say somewhere in there that you plan on staying at the church that calls you for the rest of your life and becoming an integral part of the comunity, that you look forward to marrying the babies you dedicate there.

- Have you sat down with AT&T to build a simple 3 or 4 page website? This is important and you should make sure it is found by all the major search engines. The website should have pictures of you in the pulpit, working on a car with a young man, sitting and talking with an old man, doing a wedding, carrying something for a woman and playing football with a group of kids. Of course, all the stuff that is in your resume should be on the website, but in different words. This should be a single purpose website. The Purpose: Provide more information about you to churches looking for a pastor.
- Have you placed a classified ad in Crhristianity Today and its sister publications?

Are you contacting the denominational overseers? Do they have your resume?

Is your seminary's alumni association a resource for you?

Have you considered being Baptst? There are more baptist churches in the USA than any other kind, and they run the gammut in size and style.

Are you applying to small churches (which most churches are)? You need to remember that most pastors are way overqualified for the work they are doing and are looking for a move up into larger churches. The competition for those large (100 families and up) churches is tremendous. When my Dad was the overseer for Florida he had 30 churches. 2 of them had about 500 people. The rest between 5 and 100 people. Almost no one wanted the pulpits in the smaller churches when they opened up, but when one of the 500 + churches opened up telephone calls and resumes started coming in from all over the country. Are you keeping in mind that you only need 10 tithers to have an income?

Are you willing to accept a full-time position as an assistant pastor in a large church? If so, are you contacting the senior pastors in those large churches? Here are two lists. The 100 fastest growing churches in the US and the 100 largest churches in the US.

Matt