Red Light or Green Light?
The Cover Letter
By Robert L. Withers
In 2009 churches will receive as many as two hundred candidate profiles for positions posted on Pastorfinder.com. This Niagara Falls of resumes not only overwhelms many search committees, it also drives them to only consider the best and discard the rest. Will your cover letter be a red light or a green light to a search committee? Will it induce the committee to turn the page and read your profile or will it bring the committee to a full stop?
I recently critiqued a cover letter for a pastoral candidate that was three pages long. In it he attempted to unpack his passion for ministry, his emphases in ministry, and his vision for the prospective church. He also guaranteed that his cover letter would be a red light for the reader, that the page would not be turned and that his profile would not be read. In fact, it is doubtful that many search teams actually read his entire cover letter, especially if the teams had professionals on them – because professionals understand that the purpose of the cover letter is to induce the reader to turn the page and read the resume, the green light; it is not to trigger a decision by the reader to talk to the candidate or to hire the candidate, and when a cover letter attempts that impossible task it turns into a red light.
The message that a three-page cover letter sends is, “I don’t know what I’m doing. Please stop here and don’t read my candidate profile.”
The purpose of the cover letter is to say: “I’m interested in the position, please turn the page and read my profile.” The cover letter is not designed to generate an interview, to get hired, to tell your life story or to showcase your humor, wit, or knowledge of Scripture. The purpose of the cover letter is to get the reader to turn the page. Therefore it should be simple, short and to the point. A wordy cover letter can do more damage than good. After the envelope in which your packet is mailed, the cover letter is the first impression you make on the recipient. Use the leadoff hitter principle.
In baseball when a manager makes out his batting lineup, the leadoff hitter has one goal, to get on base. The leadoff hitter is not selected to hit home runs, he is not expected to drive in many runners during the year, he is not the most powerful hitter on the team. His job is simply to get on base. If the leadoff hitter should make an out, the rest of the inning becomes problematic. The cover letter is the leadoff hitter. If the cover letter makes an out, if it turns the reader off, then one of two things will occur; the reader may not even turn the page and look at the candidate profile, or the reader will turn the page but read the profile with a bad taste in his mouth. Either way you lose. The rule for the cover letter: Keep it simple.
Tips for a professional cover letter:
§ Use a business letter format. If you are not sure what a business letter format looks like there are ample resources on the web and in your local library. Take the time to get it right.
§ Present a professional appearance. If you are sending your documents in hard-copy do not use basic copy and printer paper, use professional white or off-white paper, and do not use colors that you think will grab attention – those colors will grab the wrong kind of attention – a green, blue or yellow document will likely be sent to the Sunday school for scrap paper.
§ Keep your letterhead crisp and clean. Do not clutter your stationary with bumper-sticker sayings and symbols or use exotic fonts. Let the reader know that you are focused and that you have substance by avoiding amateur mistakes.
§ The above advice on stationary and letterhead also holds true if you are doing an electronic submission. Avoid the temptation to use background designs that incorporate colors and patterns – those are red lights to the reader.
§ Use the correct date at the top of your letter. While this may seem like a no-brainer, in the age of word processing when document formats are used again and again you might be surprised how many times a letter is sent in February 2009 with an October 2008 date. Is that a red light or a green light?
§ Use the correct addressee. Once again, at first glance this appears elementary, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received letters for a position at First Antioch Church that were addressed to First Brethren Church. Often the name in the address block of the letter is correct, but the salutation has another church name in it – all the result of our electronic age, our lack of proofreading, and our hurried lives.
§ Indicate the position you are interested in and provide two or three reasons why you are attracted to the ministry posting. Be brief and be specific. At least 50% of the cover letters most churches receive are general and have no direct bearing on the church profile. You can expand on your strengths in your profile/resume; remember your goal in the cover letter is to get the reader to turn the page.
§ Refrain from telling the search committee that God is calling you to be its next pastor or youth leader. While that may be true, trust God to help them see this through the process. While you may be sincere and well meaning in your sense of God’s calling to the prospective church, more often than not such statements are red lights. If we believe in the New Testament teaching of the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit, then we can trust God in the process of our search for best place for ministry and our own spiritual formation.
§ Thank the search committee for its prayerful consideration and let them know that you are praying for the best pastoral match for their church – and then pray for the church. Remember that these folks are reading about two hundred cover letters and could use some thanks now and then, and they can certainly use the prayer.
§ If you are sending a hard-copy of your profile, use a flat envelope, do not fold your material in a #10 envelope. You are a professional, mail your material professionally. Consider using either Priority Mail or Express Mail, depending on the circumstances. By doing so you are communicating, “What is inside is important, read it.” Yes, it will cost more to do this but you are investing in your future.
Should you use a cover letter when doing an electronic submission? The temptation when sending a resume/profile via email is to let the body of the email substitute for a cover letter, this is a mistake. Do the extra work, go the extra mile, make the best impression you can – attach a cover letter to your submission.
Remember, the average search committee will receive about two hundred candidate profiles. Many of them will be discarded because of poor presentation and substance. Will your cover letter be a red light or a green light?
Note to Search Committees:
Using the above criteria, what does the cover letter communicate to you about the candidate?
§ Professionalism?
§ Organization?
§ Attention to detail?
§ Focus?
§ Clarity of thought?
§ Communication ability?
Is the cover letter a red light or a green light?
Copyright © 2009 Robert L. Withers, all rights reserved
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