Pastor Casey?

The Job Situation
Okay, so I made myself walk to school today (1.5 miles in lovely Pasadena) so I could pray about some things regarding the future. I have been a student for 25, count them 25 YEARS. A quarter of a century. Unbelievable. So I have this ridiculous expectation that someone is going to hire me for $50-$100K right out of school and I’m going to have a dream job.
Except the problem is, we’re moving to South TX. So far, I’m not so sure that dream jobs exist there? And not being there myself, it is hard to get the feel for people and communities. God usually surprises me by bringing up something I never would have thought of, or designing life in a way I never would have expected life to work. So far so good, I have ZERO complaints about life thus far. So I should expect God’s covenant faithfulness to me to come through yet again. Why do I doubt? Oh yeah, it’s because my list of super sweet options for pastoral work so far are:

#1- solo pastor to a church of 50. Coming from a church of 3500, that’s hard to imagine.
#2- solo pastor to a small church of Filipinos! Even more awkward, as my Tagalog is less than sub-par☺
#3- Chaplain to an international boarding high school (cool, but a 45- minute drive each way)
#4- a substitute chaplain at the local hospital system (that already has 20 chaplains)
or today I found out about
#5- a 350 member church that wants a pastor part-time for youth/children. This may be my best prospect yet?

None of these are positions I fell in love with immediately, though some may be things I could get excited about when I actually meet the people/hearts involved. I am grateful for good counsel from pastor friends around the nation who I’m checking/balancing with (like a good Presbyterian). Here’s some of the advice I got today:
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What does have your name all over it is being a pastor. The context in which you do it matters in terms of fit and personality. But the work of being a pastor is the same irrespective of where you do it. The thing to note in process with any church is the health of the congregation and what pathology you're willing to deal with (and what pathology you need to run away from). In your first job you don't want to go to a place that has a history of being abusive to pastors. But if it's just a small dying church and they need you to do Mother Theresa work, that's not necessarily a bad thing and in my mind better than a hospital chaplaincy. Let's talk more, but that's the short answer.
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Here is what I can tell you from my experience:
Go to a place that you can buy into and support...
(1) the mission of the church- the explicit and implicit mission. (What do they say they want to be and do? What are they actually being and doing?)
(2) the model of ministry- their approach to programing/ structure/ philosophy (small groups vs sunday school? simple vs cafeteria approach? I would never go into a church to change or fix it as an associate, but to support and further what God is already doing.)
(3) the culture- the style, the vibe, the feel, the risk-taking/ adverseness, the friendliness, the age, uniformity/ diversity (this may be the most important thing in going to a church that no one ever talks about. Will you have to make apologies for what they do or how they do it? Is this the church you would chose to go to if you were just moving to town and you were going to pick a church to attend?)

Ask tons of questions of everybody. Ask them about their biggest change they've made in the last year. Ask the senior pastor what he is specifically and activity leading toward right now. Ask them about the last big disagreement and how they handled it. Ask about why staff has left. Get the names and numbers of previous staff and talk to them (don't skip this step).

Give Los total veto power. Don't ever go anywhere that Los isn't 100% called to.

Finally, don't settle. God is not a god of compromise. He hasn't called you to a mediocre place.
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AMEN
This advice seems to be good across the board, so maybe it will speak to some of you too?