This was a first.

I was standing in a Holiday Inn parking lot, talking to a search committee, with the signal dropping at random times on my end while my daughter was upstairs, reading books with my parents as I try like mad to sound both passionate about ministry and completely rational.

And I just might have pulled it off.

This is in direct contrast to my experience with other phone interviews, in which I spread the notes out in front of me, marking the parts of the profile that seem particularly relevant with post-its.  A well thought-out list of questions neatly typed and ready.  Maybe even budget and census data to go from.  All of that was upstairs.  On the computer I no longer had access to.  Seeking a better signal, I ran downstairs and called the search committee back, doing my best to seem calm and collected, while my brain is screaming “this better work!”

If you have ever seen me on the phone, you can imagine what I must have looked like: pacing across this massive, nearly empty parking lot, one hand gesturing like a spastic composer, wearing out the concrete between two lampposts along this crack that wasn’t quite lined up with the paint of the parking spaces.  But on the phone, I was as honest and true to myself as I have ever been.

Honestly, I don’t know if I sounded like a guru or a nutjob, but it was exhilarating.  Anyone else have a crazy interview experience?