The vote to call a minister is one of the greatest responsibilities and privileges of the congregation’s membership. Bylaws provide the rules of who is allowed to vote, how much notice is needed, what constitutes a quorum, and what percentage of votes “in favor” is required for a call. But it’s the week’s experiences of interactions and trust-building between search team, minister, and congregation that ultimately shape the outcome.

• Candidating week culminates on the final Sunday with a congregational vote after the worship service.
• The vote to call should be the only item on the agenda.
• Most ministers want more than 95% of votes “in favor” to joyfully accept a call, and are unlikely to move forward with less than 90% of the vote.

Markers That Signal a Positive Result

• The congregation understands and appreciates the search team’s comprehensive, inclusive, collaborative, transparent process to find the candidate.
• The congregation felt heard about qualities they wanted in a minister (from the assessment and small groups) and see most of those qualities in the candidate.
• The congregation understands that they need a minister with qualities that meet the needs of the whole congregation.
• The search team accurately represented the congregation to the candidate.
• The congregation can imagine a shared ministry partnership with the candidate.

Symptoms of Potential Trouble

• Some members of congregation have strong opinions about ministers that the candidate doesn’t fulfill. They imagine there are lots of other options available if they don’t vote for the presented candidate.
• Some members are hoping for the “perfect minister” who can do everything well, and are judgmental if a candidate doesn’t have strengths in any areas of ministry.
• Some members are only interested in the needs of part of the congregation, instead of the whole.