1;Each year the staff at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com sees hundreds of resumes for church jobs (senior pastor, associate pastor, youth pastor, campus pastor, worship leader, etc.) and jobs with ministries (web designer, social media manager, house parent, teacher, copywriter, pilot, accountant, human resources manager, etc.) An estimated 80% of those resumes do not effectively showcase the candidate’s skills and experience and are not targeted for the job that the applicant is pursuing. This is unfortunate, as good candidates may never get to the interview stage for church and ministry jobs that are of interest.
2-Your resume for church and ministry jobs is a summary of your qualifications. Think of it as an expanded business card. You use a business card to introduce yourself, or to leave behind as a reminder of who you are, and what and whom you represent. In this case, the product/service you represent is you!
3-Just as you would never rely on a business card to sell your product or service, you should never rely on your resume alone to get you the job. The resume is your introduction to prospective employers, telling them about your education, work experience, abilities, and accomplishments. Ultimately, its job is to prove to a church staffing committee or a ministry recruiter that they should take the time to interview you. To accomplish this, your resume needs to clearly showcase that you can meet their needs and expectations.
4-Many churches and ministries have reported receiving hundreds of resumes when they advertise church openings; therefore, most churches and recruiters spend only 6-30 seconds skimming over the average resume. In that brief time, your resume will make either a positive or a negative impression on the employer. These days, larger and even medium-sized churches also analyze resumes using automatic tracking systems (ATS) that scans for the needed skills or experiences. For your resume to be considered, it must “hit home” immediately by including the keywords for which the software has been programmed to search.
5-An excellent resume when applying for church jobs and ministry openings clearly states your qualifications (in descending order of importance) for the position for which you are applying. You will need to spend several hours thinking, writing and rewriting. There are no shortcuts to writing an excellent resume. Since at times it will form an employer’s first impression of you, it must be an example of your best thought and effort.
6-Here are 14 Steps to Writing a Successful Resume for Church/Ministry Jobs:Define your objective or branding statement. A resume for church and ministry jobs will be most effective when it is focused. If you have determined a specific objective, include the job title or a brief statement describing the position desired. It is best to state your objective at the top of your resume. Here are some examples of objectives:
-A position as a senior pastor
78-A position as a youth pastor where I can disciple youth in their relationship with Christ
-Associate Pastor
8-There are some resume writing experts who recommend not having an objective on your resume. If you choose to not have an objective, then we recommend that you use a branding statement that can be centered at the top of your resume under your contact information. Here is an example of a resume with a branding statement. And here are some examples of branding statements:
-Experienced Senior Pastor
-Experienced Senior Pastor with 11 years of increasing responsibility in congregational leadership
-Experienced Human Resources Director
-Experienced, Capable Human Resources Professional Focused on Employee Job Fit, Workforce Optimization, Management Training Strategies and Cost Saving Solutions
-Proven Operations Manager
-A highly motivated, experienced professional with skills in marketing, e-commerce, relationship-building, promotion, and management.
Choose the most appropriate format. Depending on the church or ministry job for which you’re applying, you will need to choose either a chronological or a functional format. A chronological resume is an arrangement of your qualifying experiences and training listed in reverse chronological order. A chronological format is most effective when you are applying for a position that is similar or directly related to work you have done previously.
A functional resume highlights your skills and lists your qualifications in their order of importance regardless of the time of occurrence. In a functional resume, you make use of the skills and duties from all of your work history (paid and/or volunteer), education and leisure activities which relate to and qualify you for the job objective. Use the functional format if you plan a career transition, or if you do not have specific work experience related to the job you want.
While there is no perfect style or format for a resume, most people find having a template to start with makes resume writing much easier. Here are templates that you can use to produce a Word doc resume:
Chronological resume template for recent college graduate.
Chronological resume template for experienced worker.
Functional resume template.