Interview Questions

“Hire slow and fire fast” Dave Ramsey

Bringing the right people onto the bus is key to the success of your organization.

A Christian organization I know uses the following interview questions. You may adapt them to fit your organizational setting and your own philosophy and ideology.

Questions on Faith/Religion

Do you practice any religion or faith?
Church affiliation? Church involvement?
Evangelicals believe that the Bible is inspired, inerrant (in the original form), and authoritative. What do you think?
What do you think the Bible says about abortion? What do you think about abortion? Sin or Not sin?
What do you think the Bible says about practicing homosexuality? Does the bible say it is an acceptable lifestyle or does it call it a sin? What are your personal views?
What do you think the Bible says about women in leadership? According to the Bible, can a woman be a Pastor?
In the last five years, how many churches have you attended that you would be considered members?
Would you permit me to call leaders in that church and use them as a reference?
If I contacted leaders in that church and asked them for a recommendation that I wanted to hire you for ministry, what would they say?
Christians come from many denominations (>40k) and hold different beliefs, which denomination most closely describes your beliefs?
What believes can someone have that will make you not want to work in ministry under them?
Tell me about your worship life. What kinds of music do you use for worship? How Frequently?
Tell me about your prayer life. Frequency, Testimonies of answered prayer?
SD’s mission is to inspire and empower people to shape their destinies. When you work with us, you would be part of a local church. How do you plan to handle the spiritual authority that SD has and that that the church has?
If we were to decide to plant a church after you come here, would you actively support and be a part of the that?

Questions about faith, debt, and ability to serve God with little financial resources

Do you have any debt right now? How much? What is your plan of paying it off?
Is your car paid off?
Do you have student loans?
How are you currently paying your bills? How much help do your parents (or others) offer you financially? If people don’t see your job as their ‘source’ of sustenance, they may not be as committed to it.
Financial Assessment: 1) Financial Obligations? 2) What is the least amount of money you need to be ‘comfortable’ right now?
Are you willing to do support raising? Talk to them about raising support.
Are you in College or planning to go?
Do you plan to go to grad school?
How much money would you make to be able to meet your obligations and work without worry…? What is the minimum?
Laying Down Life: What if five months down the road we didn’t have money to pay her? What would you do? Tell them Jimmy Seibert’s story of how they gave up salaries early on. Tell Ken’s story of not taking a salary.

Questions Learning

One of the core values “continuously grow yourself”

Tell me about your learning activities over the last three months? How about over the last month? [Re – According to N2Growth, the CEOs of most Fortune 500 companies read an average of four to five books a month. You want people who are self-directed learners in the field you are hiring them for. You don’t necessarily want someone who is an avid Romance novel reader unless that has to do with your job.
On average, how many books do you read in a month (that are not required by a class or exam you need to take)? Tell me about the last three books you read. What did you learn from them?
In the last year, how many books have you read…?
Any other forms of learning like podcasts, TED talks, blogs, vlogs, etc in the last 3 months?

Support System & Potential Responsibilities

How does your family feel about you working with us? You want to know: Does the immediate family approve? Some people can’t handle, in the long-run, the disapproval of loved ones and so eventually quit.
Marital Status? Newlyweds? Have newborn or young children? Many people who are newlyweds have many stresses at home and are emotionally not at their best. It may not be a good idea to allow them to make certain sacrifices or commitments to volunteer in difficult ministry settings. Exercise caution. Also many people with new babies–especially first-time parents have difficulties that would affect work if the work environment isn’t very conducive.
What marital stresses do you have that you think you need to consider when working here? How do you plan to handle that?
Any significant stressors: newly married? Loss of a significant family member? Divorce? If so when? Recent break up with a lover? If so, when?
Dating Someone? Planning to get married?
Do you live alone or with parents?
Depend on parents or someone else for financial support?
Check Availability: What other major things are you involved in? Work, Church involvement, other organizations, boards, family responsibilities, mentoring responsibilities, business?
What will stand in the way of you doing this job?

Assess Maturity

Assess emotional maturity. Don’t ask them if they are emotionally mature. Simply look for signs of emotional maturity. Discern that.
Assess their maturity – Physically, Psychologically, Socially, and Spiritually.

Previous Work

What kind of work environment do you like to work in – do you flourish in? E.g. organized? Rapidly changing? Doing different things? Stable? Doing the same thing?
What is the best job you’ve had? What did you like about it?
What’s the worst job you’ve had? What didn’t you like about it?
Who’s the best boss you’ve had? What did you like about him?
Who’s the worst boss you’ve had? What didn’t you like about him?
Why did you leave your last job (or are considering leaving it)? [Look for people who can keep a job. It’s risky to hire someone without good work history of keeping the same job for a long time. If they’ve been quitting, there is a good chance they’ll quit on you.]

Family & Upbringing

Can you tell me about your upbringing? Upbringing is key to find out. How did he grow up? In what kinds of circumstances? What kind of neighborhood? A person’s upbringing has an impact on their behavior and emotional stability.
Do they come from a wealthy family? Many–not all–children raised in wealthy families have been shielded from the realities of the world and so may be immature when it comes to handling the stresses of life and ministry. Determine where this person.

Design, calling, & Health

If all your needs were guaranteed and met, what would you do with your life?
What things would they do that would make you quit? People quit people, not companies. What things can SD leaders do that will make you want to quit.
What is your calling in life?
What are your strengths, weaknesses, goals, and dreams? (Address them one by one)
SHAPE questions. Spiritual gifts, Heart (Passion), Abilities (talents), Personality, Experiences ( 1. All major positive and negative experiences. 2. Skills and knowledge)
Medical Assessment: 1) Current Medications, 2) major hospitalizations in the last five years, 3) Current medical conditions. 4) Smoking & alcohol use, 5) Recreational drug use / illicit drugs.
Soldiers go to war and risk their lives for their countries, a cause that they believe in and are willing to die for. Martin Luther King, Jr, said, “A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.” He was willing to die to fight for the civil rights of minorities in the U.S. Have you identified a cause that you are willing to fight and die for? If so, what is it?
Go through the 21 attributes of a fully devoted follower of Christ and check how they are doing on each one of them.
Assess soft skills.

Maturity, Commitment, & Trust

Determine: Can I trust this applicant? Notice the difference between trust and being reliable. Trust comes from a sense of common values and beliefs.
Determine: Are they running to you (because you are a magnet drawing them) or are they running away from someone or something but headed in your direction? Are there problems where they are and they are consciously or unconsciously trying to get away from there? They may not know this. You need to check. If they didn’t come to you because of you, when the problem that sent them to you is over, they’ll find not need being with you. They’ll leave. In relationships, people may pursue a new boyfriend or girlfriend because they have been dumped. It’s called a rebound.
They are coming into a family: Every good family demands integrity, loyalty, focus, commitment, perseverance. Good family members say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. That is commitment. A family is not like Cain who said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” A family sticks together and lays down life for each other. And even when someone is far away, they are present in Spirit like Paul.
How many hours will you be committed to doing weekly?
Commitment is key in working with people and solving problems that arise. What is your commitment?
Look for past history of commitment: Frequent church changes, frequent job changes… ask for reasons. Commitment & focus in one place is an issue that needs to be settled.
Assess the presence of focus; look at history.
Assess brokenness.