Thank but no thanks

Got my first official rejection last Sunday. I've had a couple no comments and a couple "thanks but we've already found our person." This was "thank you but you did not make it past the first cut." While I'm not at all upset by the lack of an opportunity, I admit I didn't care for the way the information was phrased. A simple "thank you so much but we're currently pursuing another direction" or something would be a lot friendlier than "you didn't make the cut."

A word to the wise.

Overeager much?

Today I came into the office and found 2 messages waiting from me from the same person. This person happened to call my cell phone twice - once yesterday afternoon and once this morning before I got to work. So that makes 4 phone calls in less than 24 hours. Now, had this been a church member I would understand the many phone calls - at least if there was some serious emergency.

But it wasn't. It was someone from another church who had been matched to my resume by the denominations EHarmony machine and wanted to find out if I was still looking/interested. And this person called twice and left a message (indicating she wanted to talk to me about my ministry) at my church. Seriously. Poor form!

Thank goodness it was the church secretary who took the messages and not a phone volunteer and the secretary thought the woman was a telemarketer.

First Conversation

Monday night I had my first conversation with a church. Of course, when I say conversation I really mean listening experience. I listened to the chair of a PNC talk for about an hour, interjecting here and there when I could. It was nice - I'm going to talk to the whole pnc sometime next week I think.

I've also sent out 3 sermon cds and may send out another one - not sure about this church, got to do some background research before I fill out their consulting firm's form (yes, they are using a consulting firm to help call (or perhaps it is hire) a new pastor).

Nothing yet ubber exciting but there's still lots of time for God to kick me in the butt.

First Round

The first 12 PIFs have been sent off and already I've heard back from 4 churches. 2 are at the end of their process, thank you very much, and 2 just wanted to let me know they received my PIF.

I must say, I have heard that committees are terrible about getting back to you and while I still assume this will be true for many - if not most - and especially after the first contact, it was nice to know that things had been received.

By the way, the 2 churches I know I'm not being called to - one's in Texas (thank you God!!!) and one in Minnesota (brrrr).

She Did It!

Okay, so it's been brought to my attention that my attention has not been paid to this little blog. I warned that was a possbility! But huge things have happened so I probably better blog about them.

I have put my PIF out there into the wide world. A couple weeks ago I was live online and today I sent copies of my PIF (resume for you non-church types) to 12 different search committees. I'll be happy if I hear back from 1.

But yeah - it's out there. And I've become more and more comfortable with the thought of leaving my current call. Less excited about trying to sell my house in this awesome market, but I'll just have to trust and all that.

Not much else is going on - Man Who Makes Me Cry... no longer comes to church when I preach and leaves before I pray when OP preaches. That's pretty impressive. I've had no more encounters with silly former boyfriends and have enjoyed some wonderful friends lately. Oh, and of course, I basked in the glory that was Jan 20th, 2009 at the National Mall. Yep, it was pretty much one of the best things I've ever done.

I'm sure as this call process continues I'll have some fun stories. So, until then...