Ministry and Vocation Connections – What You Should Know
Do you need a job, internship, or volunteer position in ministry?
Do you need to hire quality candidates for a ministry or vocation position?
Do you need interns or want to recruit clergy for your denominational organization?
For the past year, we have been listening to those who are looking for work and those who are seeking to hire our students and alumni, and we have heard and observed the things which make the networking process difficult.
With in-person interviewing visits to our physical campuses, there have been many barriers to cross when connecting those who wish to hire ATS students and alumni with the whole of our global community:
- Traveling to each satellite campus can be expensive, time consuming, and wildly inefficient.
- It is impossible to reach the whole of our global community by visiting our physical campuses only. ExL students and alumni are unable to be reached in this manner. Even students who are on campus often do not respond well to this method.
- It is difficult to arrange travel and in-person meetings during a time that is convenient both for the Connection and the student/alumnus.
- Notifying students of every individual in-person interview opportunity is not effective when there are numerous similar announcements.
We have devised a system to help our community network more efficiently between those who are looking for positions and those who are searching for quality candidates to fill them! With our NEW Ministry and Vocation Connection system, ministry and vocation connections can engage the whole of our global community—both students and alumni—without the need to bombard everyone with undue announcements.
If you are an alumnus or student looking for work and would like to see our list of registered Connections and request an interview: Anyone who is a part of our ATS community can view one page to receive information regarding Connections (that’s people who want to hire our people) who are offering interviews. You may view and send emails to registered Connections via our Ministry and Vocation Connection Page on Asbury Connect. There will no longer be any need to rely on email announcements when individuals are on campus and want to interview.
If you would like to become a Connection to provide job and ministry opportunities within our system: All individuals and organizations who would like to hire or develop a ministry or vocational relationship with Asbury Theological Seminary’s students or alumni have one page and one short form to register and begin networking within our system. Simply leave your information with us via our Ministry and Vocation Connection Registration Portal, and we will contact you personally to set up your account details. We strongly encourage alumni to register as Connections if they have hiring needs or would like to mentor potential ministry candidates through seminary!
HOW OUR NEW MINISTRY AND VOCATION CONNECTION SYSTEM WORKS FOR STUDENTS AND ALUMNI NEEDING CONNECTIONS FOR MINISTRY NETWORKING AND VOCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT
- If you are looking for a job, ministry internship, volunteer opportunities, or to network with denominational representatives, you have one page where you can view all the network Connections who have registered as interested in hiring or developing relationships with students and alumni of Asbury Theological Seminary. You can view the Connection’s contact information and email that person for an interview directly from the portal.
- You decide what information you share with people who are hiring or wish to develop a networking relationship with you. Asbury Theological Seminary will not collect any information about alumni or students via this portal. We do not monitor or record any data regarding emails sent through this portal. Use of this portal is free of charge and one of your benefits of being a part of your Asbury Theological Seminary community. It is unavailable to the general public and intended for use in facilitating networking among our ATS community and our strongest kingdom-building supporters.
- Meetings with any Connections are at your discretion. Whether you prefer to meet face-to-face or digitally, you will be making all arrangements directly with the Connection with whom you requested an interview.
HOW OUR NEW MINISTRY AND VOCATION CONNECTION SYSTEM WORKS FOR REGISTERED CONNECTIONS WHO SEEK TO NETWORK WITH AND HIRE OUR STUDENTS AND ALUMNI
- Whether you want to handle all your hiring needs remotely or you want to have in-person interviews with potential candidates, you will sign up as a “Connection” with our office. Our staff will then add you to our site as an active Connection and offer your contact information to our community, as well as an email portal for them to request an interview with you. This page is only accessible to members of our community who have a secure SSO account with our seminary, so your contact information will not be publicly viewable anywhere on our site.
- Once students and alumni begin requesting interviews with you via email, you can set up online interviews with them directly, via any video call software of your choice (we recommend Zoom) or you may opt to visit them in-person at both parties’ discretion (please be safe!). If you would like assistance with reserving meeting space for interviewing at any of our physical campuses, our staff can assist registered Connections with doing so. PLEASE NOTE: Physical visits to our campuses may be restricted at this time and/or require adherence to our institution’s Official COVID-19 Policy, which is updated regularly. Staff availability for assisting Connections on-site may be limited during certain times of the academic year depending on the activity level of our campuses.
- If you would like to stop receiving interview requests from students and alumni at any time, you may do so in two ways. 1) You may request to temporarily have your account toggled to “Inactive,” which will remove you from the contact portal and remove your contact information from our page, but this will not delete your information from our system. Our staff can then toggle your account “Active” at a later date if you are ready to hire a fresh batch of Asbury’s best. 2) If you would like to remove your account from our system permanently because you will have no further need to hire, you may do so at any time by emailing our office.
Any inquiries about Asbury Theological Seminary’s Ministry and Vocation Connection System, including alumni who need help with logging in, may be directed to alumni@asburyseminary.edu.
Hope there can be a way to simplify all this.