Filling a teaching position is one of the most critical activities to which I commit time and energy. This past summer I had an opening that appeared in early June, and while we prefer to utilize the Call process to seek out qualified teaching ministers of our school system (the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod), you can't exactly expect someone to drop and come to Alaska with last minute notice. Nor would I prefer to bring on board a teacher who'd be willing to leave their current school in such a last minute lurch. Thus, I found myself advertising locally and praying God would send the candidate He had prepared in advance for our need.
We were blessed to have multiple excellently qualified individuals come forward to apply. These interviews were probably unlike any interviews those people had experienced before. Yes, there are some typical questions common to interviews, but much more than that. You see, I understood that I was spending time with six people, but only hiring one of them. And the position for which I was hiring, a classroom elementary teacher, is a position that has a profound influence on our mission as a school ministry. Therefore, these interviews became an opportunity for me to passionately share our brand with these candidates, helping them to understand who we are, why we exist, and what we are driven by faith to be and do.
I'm rather invested in this ministry, and believe in it with all my heart. Our teacher applicants each got to see that clearly, and to discover how true that rings for each of them.
Through conversation and sharing from both directions, the interviews easily ran over an hour each. One went a full 90 minutes! Yet the time flew by as we spoke of the ministry of serving the academic and spiritual needs of children and their families.
The result was that I hired one very eager and excited new teacher for our staff who fully understood what he was jumping into, not for the paycheck (though that is gladly accepted, of course), but because of the caring family he was joining in such a vital and joyful mission. At the same time, the five other teacher applicants were disappointed to not receive the position, but because they got a true taste of our mission and our brand I created five more people in this community who understand in a deeper way what Anchor Lutheran is all about, who hopefully will speak positively of their interaction with us in the future. Every opportunity to build positive relationships with new people is a key part of our success as a school ministry.
As it turned out, the teacher I hired left us at the end of the First Quarter, feeling he wasn't quite able to meet the needs and challenges of the position. I gave thanks to God for the interview process, as one of our other candidates had chosen to enroll her children at Anchor despite not being hired, and in the interim had accepted a position as a teacher aide. She is now part of the solution, joyfully teaching for us as she had hoped to do in the first place. Indeed, God works in mysterious ways! And yet, as we hold true to our brand, sometimes the results aren't so mysterious, but rather the reasonable and logical results of being true to our brand promises (still under the blessing of our God, of course).
We were blessed to have multiple excellently qualified individuals come forward to apply. These interviews were probably unlike any interviews those people had experienced before. Yes, there are some typical questions common to interviews, but much more than that. You see, I understood that I was spending time with six people, but only hiring one of them. And the position for which I was hiring, a classroom elementary teacher, is a position that has a profound influence on our mission as a school ministry. Therefore, these interviews became an opportunity for me to passionately share our brand with these candidates, helping them to understand who we are, why we exist, and what we are driven by faith to be and do.
I'm rather invested in this ministry, and believe in it with all my heart. Our teacher applicants each got to see that clearly, and to discover how true that rings for each of them.
Through conversation and sharing from both directions, the interviews easily ran over an hour each. One went a full 90 minutes! Yet the time flew by as we spoke of the ministry of serving the academic and spiritual needs of children and their families.
The result was that I hired one very eager and excited new teacher for our staff who fully understood what he was jumping into, not for the paycheck (though that is gladly accepted, of course), but because of the caring family he was joining in such a vital and joyful mission. At the same time, the five other teacher applicants were disappointed to not receive the position, but because they got a true taste of our mission and our brand I created five more people in this community who understand in a deeper way what Anchor Lutheran is all about, who hopefully will speak positively of their interaction with us in the future. Every opportunity to build positive relationships with new people is a key part of our success as a school ministry.
As it turned out, the teacher I hired left us at the end of the First Quarter, feeling he wasn't quite able to meet the needs and challenges of the position. I gave thanks to God for the interview process, as one of our other candidates had chosen to enroll her children at Anchor despite not being hired, and in the interim had accepted a position as a teacher aide. She is now part of the solution, joyfully teaching for us as she had hoped to do in the first place. Indeed, God works in mysterious ways! And yet, as we hold true to our brand, sometimes the results aren't so mysterious, but rather the reasonable and logical results of being true to our brand promises (still under the blessing of our God, of course).