Beware: Not Every Potential Staff Member is as Good as They Appear

Have you ever been charmed by the top layer of strawberries in a punnet, only to find the ones hidden underneath aren't as sweet as they seemed? That's the cautionary tale we unpack as we explore the critical process of church staffing. Much like fruit selection, the search for the ideal team member goes beyond the tantalizing surface of education and past experience. We delve into why it's essential to probe deeper, understanding the hearts and capabilities of those who may become part of your spiritual family. A harmonious and lasting match depends on it, and we share insights on how to find that sweet spot where qualifications meet true calling.

If you're navigating the waters of ministry job seeking or your church is on the lookout for fresh talent, Chemistry Staffing's bespoke services can be your lighthouse. Submit your resume or let's have a heart-to-heart chat about matching your unique skills with a church that's eager for someone just like you. For churches, we offer a compass to navigate the vast sea of potential hires, guiding you to the candidates that not only fit the bill but will also sail smoothly with your congregation's currents. Remember to join us next Monday to continue this enriching journey towards creating and nurturing a vibrant church staff ecosystem.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

Be sure to subscribe to The Healthy Church Staff Podcast wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.

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Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.

Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Whoop, whoop, it's Friday. I'm interested to know how many of you guys tick Fridays off, what's the day? Send me an email at podcastchemistrystaffingcom Let me know what day off you tick. I know a lot of pastors tick Fridays off. A lot of pastors tick Mondays off. A lot of church staff tick the same day off every week. I'd love to hear. I've already gotten off on a tangent but haven't even started. Hi, I'm Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 1: 0:42

We are here every Monday through Friday for 5 to 10 minutes of just frank talk. Sometimes it's encouraging, sometimes it's challenging, but it's all designed specifically for you. Just a conversation between you and me and church staff issues. And today we're going to talk about church staffing. It's one of the things I love to talk about, because that's what I do at chemistry staffing Each and every day work with churches, work with candidates to help them find what we call a chemistry healthy, long term fits. But today I want to talk about a little bit of a warning. Not every potential staff member is as good as they appear.

Speaker 1: 1:21

An analogy and illustration I want to use here is have you ever gone to the grocery store and bought a quart of just beautiful looking strawberries? You're really excited. You're going to go home make some strawberry shortcake or milkshake or just eat them out of the little plastic box they come in or whatever. But you get them home and you open them up only to find that there were six really beautiful strawberries at the top of that container and a quart full of half rife berries filling the rest of the container. I'm always amazed when I buy strawberries. It seems like this happens to me all the time and I just pick up the container and look all the way around it and it appears that one side of the strawberries ripe and that's the side that's on the outside of the box. It's no secret that the best berries are usually the most visible. They put them up at the top and it's a mistake to think my experience has told me that all the berries in the container are going to look as good as the ones that they put at the top. It seems that the only way you're going to get out is to get out of this conundrum is to take the time to dump all the strawberries out and inspect each one, and nobody does that. Nobody takes that much time. It'd be rude in a store, I guess. It's probably maybe a little socially unacceptable as well. But, and even though that's the best logical solution and alternative, you're still going to end up with at least a few unripe berries. Okay, I've taken this analogy as far as I can go, but here's why I mentioned that.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Is we just all the time in the church world, when churches hire new staff members, many times we're just looking at the top berries and the most easily seen attributes of candidates, and I see churches do this all the time. So what are you looking at? What are those top berries that you're looking at and you're thinking, oh yeah, this is the perfect candidate for us. They're going to be great. Here's some of the things we look at, some of the high level things, and these maids look really ripe and really great.

Speaker 1: 3:21

But I'm going to tell you here in a second how to drill down a little bit. So we ask questions like where do they go to school? Hey, we like this. I went to that school. If they went to that school, they have to be great for us, maybe not. What degree do they have? Where did they last serve? Oh yeah, I know that church. That's a great church. If they could serve at that church boy, they could serve here. What denomination or tribe are they? Oh yeah, they're in the same denomination we are. That's awesome. How old are they? How does their resume look? How do I like them personally? Did I hit it off?

Speaker 1: 3:53

A lot of churches hire almost exclusively on personality. Do I like this person? Unfortunately, I don't like this person. This is a big unfortunately. None of these top level filters really give you necessarily an accurate representation of how candidate would actually do long term in your church. If you're just hiring off of all of these surface layer things off the school that they went to and the degree that they have and where they served and their denomination and whether or not you like them personally, you're going to find a lot of times about six months to 12 months, maybe even 18 months after you're hired, you're going to be confused when all those berries, all those bad berries, start to show up and candidates do this too.

Speaker 1: 4:40

It's not just, it's not just churches. The candidates look, oh, look at their attendance, yeah, or their location, or their budget, or how much I like the pastor, how much I connected with him, how I like their denomination or man. Look at their facility. They have a beautiful facility. Oh, I can serve here. But few, if any, of these criteria, if you're a candidate, will tell you how long you're going to how well and how long you're going to be a good fit at this church.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Many churches and candidates get married after the first date. They always look at those top berries, they look at the top level things and then they wonder why their marriages aren't working out six months in it's because all the red berries are off the top, they're gone, they've already been eaten. So here's my admonition. Here's what I tell churches. I don't usually use the strawberry analogy like I'm using today. Here's my advice to you whether you're a candidate or whether you're a church, when hiring or when you're, when you're accepting a new position, be sure to do the due diligence. Be sure to go on that second date, be sure to go on that third date. Ask the right questions, probing questions, really dig in. See if the chemistry is there. Check the integrity. Don't go entirely off of your feelings. That is the key to a long term fruitful ministry. And it's hard work to decipher.

Speaker 1: 6:01

On the front end we tell people hey, there's five things that you need to have. We tell churches five things you need to find in a candidate. We tell candidates there's five things you need to find in your next church and you need to be compatible. You need to have synergy in all five of these areas and I'll tell you what. They are really quick and we're going to take a week, actually on a future podcast and unpack each one of these.

Speaker 1: 6:24

But there has to be a theological fit. There just has to be, there has to be church culture, what we call a church culture and DNA fit. You have to have the same philosophy of ministry. You have to be a good fit for the culture and the DNA of the church. That's number two. Number three there has to be a good personality fit. You need to be able to mesh with the people, the personalities, and with the team. Number four there needs to be a good skills and abilities fit. You need to be able to hire people that can do the actual job that you need them to do, or you need to go to a church that actually you have the giftings that they're looking for. Those are four, and then the fifth one is chemistry. They're just tested. On top of those four. There has to be a real desire that you want to work with them and they want to work with you.

Speaker 1: 7:13

So when hiring, make sure you do your due diligence. That doesn't come off of one interview. Honestly, it probably doesn't come with two interviews. We encourage every churches we every church we work with. We encourage every candidate we work with to do at least two site visits. Normally you can get a good read after two site visits. But that's really the key to long term ministry. You got to not just look at the top level things, not just going that first date. You really got to dive deep, probe and make sure if there's any yellow flags. You got to figure out what they are and then talk about.

Speaker 1: 7:46

That's one of the things that we do at chemistry staffing and if you are looking to go into a new ministry position this next year, I'd love for you to go over to chemistry staffingcom, give us your resume and profile.

Speaker 1: 7:57

It doesn't cost you anything and we can help you go through those five things and hopefully help you find a healthy fit. If you are a church that's looking to hire new staff, this is what we do all day long and I think we do, humbly speaking, a pretty good job of helping churches match up with really great candidates, and we stand ready to help you if you are looking to hire new staff. So here's what you need to do Just reach out to me. I'd love to connect with you. You can reach out to me at podcast, at chemistry staffingcom Podcast at chemistry staffingcom, and I'd love to start a conversation with you and just tell you a little bit about our approach and how we help you find a really good candidate and, if you're a candidate, how we can help you find a really great, healthy, long term fit for your next extended ministry. Okay, thanks so much for joining us. This is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We will be back here on Monday. Hope you have a great weekend and a great weekend at your church.