As this, my eleventh summer, dawned in Montreat, a friend remarked: “Ten summers…so that means you have picked 100 preachers for Sunday morning worship, right?”
His math was correct, more or less – ten years times ten preachers – but the follow-up question was harder. “How’d you pick all those preachers?” The short answer is that I didn’t pick them, and below, I’ll try to give the longer answer.
Pastors are invited to preach for our Summer Worship Series in Anderson Auditorium by a committee composed of staff members and members of the community. I serve on the committee, but another staff member, Carol Steele, serves as chair. There are three basic steps to each invitation cycle.
- Around eighteen months or so before the summer in question, the committee convenes to construct a list of nominees. Names are introduced by committee members while Carol and I bring forward any recommendations we’ve received from the larger community. After some initial sorting, we have a whiteboard filled with a healthy list.
- Back in her office, Carol organizes the list of nominees and surfs for recorded samples of their preaching (usually plentiful). She then 1) breaks the list of nominees into three or four smaller lists, 2) divides the committee into three or four “listening groups,” and 3) assigns a list of listening assignments to each group. Over the next few weeks, committee members listen to sermons, take notes, establish preferences, and otherwise prepare to “show their work” at the next meeting.
- When the committee reconvenes, members share impressions, from which a consensus is identified in each listening group and a list of invitees merged and selected.
After invitations are sent and acceptances are received, we fill out the schedule as necessary, the order of preaching based purely on invitees’ availability for that summer.
When I describe the process for folks, I usually receive the following questions:
How are committee members selected? We generally select from a pool of Montreaters who attend summer worship regularly. In particular, we sometimes but not always preference representation from the two local congregations – Montreat Presbyterian Church and Black Mountain Presbyterian Church – that help host our worship services.
What are the criteria used for ranking sermons and nominees? Based on the terms of the endowment that supports the series, members are given the charge to “find the best preaching possible.” From member to member – based on a few sermons – I acknowledge that this charge will be applied subjectively. Invitations are not a reflection or ranking of nominees’ overall preaching skill or ability. Each committee simply seeks a list of preachers that they believe would provide the best preaching for our congregation in Montreat. Those not invited and those who must decline stay in the pool and are sometimes invited by a subsequent committee. Our batting average for acceptances is high, but if we are never turned down, we aren’t looking hard enough.
That’s it? No other biases? Of course there are biases, and I will readily confess one: Presbyterians. Montreat Conference Center is rooted in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and Sunday preaching is one of those areas of our programming where that relationship is expressed. The process, however, does control for bias in one way. Remember those listening groups? When Carol assigns homework to each group, she intentionally separates nominees from those committee members who have nominated them. If that’s too complicated to follow, think of it this way: tracked properly, a committee member can nominate a preacher OR help select a preacher but doesn’t do both.
So, essentially, selections are made by listening groups within the committee rather than by the whole committee itself? It works out that way for the most part. The homework in total can require twenty-to-thirty hours of listening; dividing the committee into listening groups simply lightens the load. Even so, many committee members go above and beyond their assignments; we don’t place boundaries on their work ethic or enthusiasm for the task, which are dependably remarkable.
You want me to believe that you don’t put your thumb on the scale at ALL? I definitely want you to believe that… okay, okay, sometimes I put my thumb on the scale. It’s important that Montreat give a platform to new seminary presidents, for example. Also, if we have a late cancellation, Carol and I have to make a call outside the process. (Then there’s this: If I haven’t heard Brian Blount preach in several years, I invite him. Bias? Guilty as charged.) I try to follow the process, however; I’m the first to acknowledge that I’m not a preaching or sermon expert.
On the other hand, after ten years I probably could teach a master class on sermon reactions. Next week, I’m going to address the topic that reliably produces the spiciest of commentary and opinion: politics and preaching in Montreat…just in time for the Fourth of July. 😊
With gratitude,
Richard DuBose
President, Montreat Conference Center