New Paraclete Associates

As we got deeper into the pandemic last spring, the number of folks interested in serving with Paraclete dropped off.  At one point in late April there was no one in our recruiting pipe line--a first for as far back as I can remember.  Things picked up in the summer and we have processed some new associates, but now our recruiting dashboard is getting smaller once again.  

Paraclete has never been big on advertising.  We have to be careful.  We are philosophically opposed to "sheep steeling" from other mission agencies.  It doesn't seem becoming in the Kingdom.  And even if we were willing to recruit staff away from other organizations, it would not be in our interest to do so, since many of the organizations where we might recruit are Paraclete clients.  Even without a kingdom perspective, it doesn't make sense to harm your clients!  An yet, we regularly get candidates from client organizations.  How does that work?

Almost all candidates at Paraclete come via word-of-mouth referrals from serving associates.  That will always be the case.  Even in the best of organizations, things happen to make it difficult for folks to continue service.  When our associates hear of cases of "loss of fit" for a serving missionary or minister, they will often suggest Paraclete.  More often than not, when a change is initiated by the worker instead of a "recruiter" a happy transition is possible.  It has happened again and again.

We decided to tell some of those stories on paraclete.net and Facebook postings, to encourage folks who might be sensing the need to move on, but who were hesitating to make a move in middle of a pandemic. What has resulted is a series of stories on the theme of "Why I joined Paraclete." You can read them on our Facebook page or the Mission News section of the Paraclete web home page.

All Paraclete associates, with the exception of a few with extraordinary security concerns, are visible on our People page.