Your sermons spark joy in your parishioners’ souls. You need to convince the congregation you’re the right fit to get your dream job. Achieve it with our pastor resume guide.
To be a good shepherd, you need the right blend of skills and experience, starting with theological knowledge and ending with empathy and communication skills.
You know you have what it takes, but how do you convince others that you’ll exceed their expectations if given the opportunity? Simple: with a show-stopping pastor resume.
In this guide:
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John Caldwell
Pastor
Phone no.: 732–388–7103
Email: john.caldwell@reslabmail.com
linkedin.com/in/12john.caldwell
Summary
A compassionate pastor with over 7 years of experience. Eager to support The Holy Cross Church in growing the congregation and working closely with the parishioners. At the Saint Joseph Church increased mass attendance by 30% within two years by delivering insightful, thought-provoking sermons.
Experience
Pastor
Saint Joseph Church, Houston, TX
May 2016–July 2021
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievement:
Chaplain
Home and Health Hospice, Houston, TX
September 2012–May 2016
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Education
B.Sc. in Marriage and Family Ministry
Moravian University, Bethlehem, USA
September 2007–June 2011
Skills
Activities
Languages
Alongside leading the congregation in prayer during religious gatherings, pastors are responsible for growing the congregation, administrative tasks, fundraising, and home visits, among other duties. The purpose of your pastor resume is to highlight your theological knowledge and people’s skills.
Let’s discover how to write an equally good pastor resume for yourself:
Before your experience can get a chance to resonate with the reader, your resume needs to look inviting enough to actually get picked up.
This is where your resume formatting comes in:
What’s the next step?
Unless stated otherwise, make sure you save your resume as a PDF. A PDF will preserve your resume layout so that the document looks the same on every device.
While writing a sermon, you know you need to catch your parishioners’ attention right at the beginning. The same applies to your pastor's resume, except that in this case, you don’t need a thoughtful, inspiring opener—
You need a compelling resume profile. That’s a 2–4 sentence introduction aimed at grabbing the reader’s attention.
If you already have experience as a pastor, opt for a resume summary that’s comprised of:
Without that kind of experience, you can write a resume objective statement instead. Focus on achievements and transferable skills from other jobs, volunteering, or your education.
Expert Hint: It’s best to leave this section until the end. Write the rest of your resume first, then highlight the best bits and compile them into a job-winning profile section.
What makes a good work experience resume section?
First, the work experience you choose to include has to be targeted to the role at hand. Targeting your resume means proving that you’re the best candidate for this specific position, not for any pastor job.
Secondly, focus on your professional achievements rather than basic descriptions of your duties. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 10,000 people hired in the clergy sector. If you want to get a job, you need to stand out.
Here’s how to write a targeted job description for a pastor:
While you’re thinking about your skills, you may as well prepare your resume skills section—a list of your 5–10 most relevant abilities, ideally those mentioned in the ad. Here are some skills examples to get you started:
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Educational requirements vary between pastor roles, but in any case, you should always include your academic history on your resume. Omitting this section suggests you may not have the right degree to apply!
For experienced candidates, the job is easy—list your highest degree, the name and location of the awarding institution, and your graduation date. That’s all!
On the other hand, if you’re writing a resume with no experience, elaborate a bit more. Add bullet points under your degree, detailing your academic achievements and most relevant areas of study.
Your resume is almost complete: assuming you finished writing your resume profile, all you need now are a couple of additional sections.
Use any space you have left on the page to describe other relevant information about yourself that didn’t fit into any of the other sections. Think about:
Lastly, write a cover letter that will accompany your pastor resume. It will help you state your case, show your communication skills, and impress the congregation.
Double your impact with a matching resume and cover letter combo. Use our cover letter generator and make your application documents pop out.
Want to try a different look? There's 21 more. A single click will give your document a total makeover. Pick a cover letter template here.
To write a convincing pastor resume, remember to:
Thank you for reading! Do you have any questions about writing a pastor resume? Or would you like to share some insider knowledge? Leave a comment below; we’d love to chat!
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Dominika is a job expert with a focus on career development and onboarding processes. At ResumeLab, she co-manages our team of career experts.
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