The 7 Cs – Chemistry

At Baptist Search Partners, we orient our partnership and search process around 7 Cs. They are:
1. Conversion
2. Calling
3. Character
4. Competence
5. Culture
6. Chemistry
7. Confirmation of the Holy Spirit

You just can’t afford to bring someone onto your team who can’t play well with others. You may be able to learn a few things about chemistry in the early stages of a search, but most likely you’ll need to do some relational work (sometimes creatively) in order to find it out.

I addressed chemistry toward the end of this series because your evaluation of it builds as the search transpires. You may do a ton of work to evaluate a candidate only to find that there’s not a spark between him and the people he will most closely work with.

This step is why I don’t recommend that searches get rushed. And they tend to get rushed toward the end when you just want to check off the “formalities” and call it a done deal so you can keep ministry moving. If you don’t spend enough time with a candidate, you miss some of the intangibles that help you to see if they will fit your team like a glove or stand out like a sore thumb.

It’s also why I recommend spending time over multiple visits with a candidate. Multiple visits, when planned correctly, allow you to see the candidate with a variety of groups of people in a variety of settings. Here are just a few:

• At a restaurant
• In someone’s home
• With staff
• In the reception area
• In a ministry setting
• With select volunteers
• Riding in a car
• In a worship service
• Around new people

It’s nearly impossible to cover all of these settings in just one day or even a weekend. But each of them (and more) are valuable in assessing how the candidate’s personality, tendencies, and habits impact those around them.

In each of these settings you have a chance to look for cues about how they will be received. What do they like? How do they talk to and treat people? What do they talk about? What is their sense of humor like? Are others comfortable around them? How do they relate to various stakeholders in the process? Is their sense of relational timing and emotional intelligence high?

After it’s said and done, you have the opportunity to seek feedback from all who interacted with him. And if it was positive, you get significant buy-in before making the offer and conducting a household move.

Don’t sleep on this stage. It may be the difference between a long-term employee who everyone is happy with and doing another search in two years.