Ministry Placement & Referral
The Ministry Referral and Placement Office helps Midwestern students and graduates seeking ministry positions to connect with local churches seeking ministers for open positions. We serve the Lord and Midwestern students by making churches aware of gifted men and women who are available to minister in various settings.
For students needing assistance in this area, we offer advice on how to prepare for ministry openings— including how to prepare a resume, what to expect from a “search committee” or a church seeking to fill a position, and questions to ask as you communicate with churches. So please contact us, and we will do our best to help you seek the ministry position God has prepared for you. Call the Placement office at (816) 414-3733.
The Midwestern Placement Office approaches this task with the following doctrinal principles in view:
- No human authority exists, either individual or institutional, that is higher than the local church. Midwestern Seminary has no authority to appoint pastors, or instruct any church as to which pastor to choose. Rather, we are accountable to the local churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, and we answer to them, not vice versa.
- God chooses pastors. It is the weighty task of the local church, and its leadership groups, to identify from among all candidates available the pastor God has chosen for them. In voting to “call” a pastor, the local church is merely confirming their conviction that he is God’s choice for them.
- God uses people in that process. Midwestern’s placement office sees itself merely as a tool which the Holy Spirit may use to bring ministerial candidates and churches together.
- Diligent prayer and diligent research for both is demanded if the search process is to work successfully. Committees and candidates must beseech God for His guidance. Likewise, both parties should study carefully every detail available regarding the prospective individual or position, realizing that full disclosure of all pertinent facts makes for long-lasting bonds between churches and their ministers.