5 Essential Components to a Ministry Resume
Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash
How did you get your ministry job? Were you a faithful volunteer that worked your way into a job? Were you an outside hire that found your way through relationship? Or did you find a lead on a job board somewhere and landed where God wanted you to be?
In any case, there is one document that you need to at least get your foot in the door.
Your Resume.
You may have written one for another job, but writing one for ministry can be daunting. What are lead pastors looking for? Do you have to win over the board too? What format do you need to use?
These are all great questions. And while I’m no expert on resume writing, I’ve created many while looking for ministry jobs. If you need more help than what I’m offering, I suggest you look at the tools at churchstaffing.com. They greatly helped me refine my resume, so I could land the job I was looking for.
You can put a lot of things in a quality resume. In this post, I’m going to cover the essentials every ministry resume should have. If you need more help, you can get my Ministry Resume Template here.
1. Cover Letter
When talking about the ministry, we often get caught up in calling and doing the Lord’s work. And we are. However, there are practicalities to the hiring process you need to consider.
The Lead Pastor is the CEO of a small business. They are looking for someone who is called to a particular area of ministry. But they are also looking for an employee who can accomplish a task they don’t have the time or skills to complete.
Your cover letter introduces you to the pastor and sets expectations. Because church work is highly relational, start by introducing yourself and how long you’ve been in vocational (or volunteer) ministry. But don’t stop there. Talk about your family as well. The Church wants to know if you’re married and for how long. They want to know if you have kids and their ages.
Other businesses don’t really care about these details, but a church does. Working for a church isn’t just another job. It’s a marriage that affects your whole family. We all want to know what we’re getting into.
After you introduce yourself, talk about your prior ministry experience that qualifies you for this position. Even if you’ve never held the position before, you need to show how you have the skills and passion to do the work.
Next, talk about your ministry philosophy. What are you goals for ministry? What are you values and priorities? What do you hope to see God do through you? Share a brief success story demonstrating your effectiveness in living out your philosophy.
Finally, talk about how your combined experience and ministry philosophy can help the church and the pastor reach their goals. Do a little research on the church and community. Check out their website, talk to friends who are familiar with their church. Stalk their social media accounts. You need to show that you care about their work, and you can help them.
It can be tough, but your cover letter cannot be longer than one page. More than that and the pastor won’t read it. Be sure to sign it with your name and contact information. The rest of the resume is important, but the cover letter is the first impression. It needs to be excellent.
2. Purpose, Education, and Certifications
Now that your cover letter is ready, it’s time to dive into the actual resume. When I create my resumes, I use the bulleted format. However, I have had a a few headhunters ask me to use an essay format.
Personally, I think the bulleted format is better. It’s a quick read, and you can easily draw focus to the most important things.
Right at the top of your resume, put the purpose. Answer the question, what position are you applying for? While this has been covered in your cover letter, the purpose sets the tone for the rest of the document.
Next. list your education and certifications. Some churches want seminary degrees, while others don’t care. It’ll be listed in their job description for the role. If you have these, you want to list them along with when and where you earned them.
The same goes for certifications and credentials. Are you licensed or ordained? With whom? For how long? Did you go through special training or ministry cohort for the role? Again, list where and when you completed the training.
Pastors want to know if you’re qualified. And while past experience is the best predictor of future success, your education shows you have the necessary knowledge to do the work.
3. Previous Work Experience
Next, list all the previous churches/ministries you’ve served paid or otherwise over your career. If you’ve held secular jobs in the past and the skills you used there are relevant, list those too. But only after the ministry work.
For my resume, even though I’ve worked at Sam’s Club and Education, I didn’t list these until much later in the resume. The work I did at Sam’s as a cashier is irrelevant. Education is relevant to kidmin and youth ministry, but not much else.
As you list when and where you worked, add bullets under each title listing what you did for these companies, using action verbs and numbers.
For instance, don’t say, I lead the children’s ministry at City Church. Rather under the City Church heading, list:
Lead hundreds of kids to Christ
Baptized 50 kids
Organized and directed VBS for 5 years growing from 50 to 200 kids in attendance
These statements are dynamic and show you know how to get results. Like I said before, past performance is the best predictor of future success. This section shows what they can expect if they hire you.
Don’t pad your numbers either. A Christian is honest. So be honest about what you did and didn’t do. Don’t get trapped in trying to impress. Tell the truth and let God take care of the rest.
4. Other Connections
The resume was formed long before someone could find you on the internet. However, those days are long gone. As much as you’re judging the Church based on their website and social media presence, the Church is doing the same.
So, in this section list all the ways they can find you on social media. If you have any videos of you leading or preaching, point them to it. It can be as easy as a YouTube or Vimeo playlist. Additionally, if you have a website, point them there too.
Make sure all of these are hyperlinked to the right place. Pastors are not going to want to type or copy/paste these URLs. And they aren’t going to keep looking if they end up in the wrong place. A hyperlink makes it easier to find you and shows you’re technically competent.
5. References
For your references, you want to list people who know how you work. If you can, list your previous and/or current employer. They will know how you work best now. Additionally, list pastors or leaders that have invested in your ministry. Even better if they are well known.
Don’t list more than 4 in this section. I made the mistake of listing up to 7, but no pastor is going to call that many. It just makes your resume longer. Four is more than enough.
Other Considerations
Now that your resume is complete, don’t send it yet. There are a few other things you need to check.
First, the entire resume, including the cover letter, needs to be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Nothing looks less professional than a misspelled word or using the wrong there/they’re/their. Go over your resume with a fine-tooth comb. Have other people who are good at English look at it too. You may miss things the first or third time around.
Second, follow the same format. It’s easy to get carried away making bullets and forget formatting. Decide if you want to end your bullets with periods or not and stick to it. If you bold your previous work experiences, make sure they’re all bolded.
You can play with font sizes a little but don’t go crazy, making it hard to read. Keep font sizes between 11 and 14.
Finally, don’t get cute. You don’t need a resume like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde printed on pink paper and perfumed. Keep it clean. Use an easy-to-read font like Aptos, Arial, or Calibri. Use the default font colors. Keep things left-aligned or justified.
Your resume is here to show you’re professional and can do the work. Not that you’re creative and stylish. That’s what your other connection section is for.
Having a resume is essential to finding the right job. Even the jobs where I was hired based on my relationships, I still shared a resume. This way they would know what I’ve done and what to expect.
If you’re thinking about leaving, getting this one document right is an essential part of finding your next place. Don’t take it for granted.
If you need help writing your own resume, you can get my Ministry Resume Template here.
