Why Churches Talk About Diversity But Hire the Same People

Many churches verbally promote diversity while continually hiring the same types of candidates, creating a gap between their stated values and staffing reality. This episode explores the unseen biases and unspoken defaults in church hiring practices while offering practical advice for building staff teams that better reflect God's kingdom.

• Churches often preach diversity but hire for comfort and cultural fit rather than representation
• Diversity isn't just a value to preach but a discipline that requires intentional practice
• Everyone has bias in hiring—the danger comes when we don't acknowledge it
• Examining your last several hires can reveal patterns of unconscious bias
• Diverse leadership provides protection against blind spots and expands your ministry reach
• True cultural fit doesn't mean staff must all be similar in background, age, or perspective
• Shift from asking "can they fit here?" to "what might God show us through them?"
• Hiring in God's image rather than your own image requires deliberate effort

If you have questions about hiring at your church or want to discuss building a more diverse team, reach out anytime at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.

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

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Diversity Illusion vs. Hiring Reality
• 2:20 Unacknowledged Bias in Church Hiring
• 3:11 Representation Changes Everything
• 5:08 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Churches often preach the value of diversity, from the pulpit to the mission statement, but when it comes to hiring, many keep choosing the same type of candidates over and over again, and today we're going to explore why some of the reasons I think they say they value diversity, yet struggle to reflect it in their staff. Now, whether it's race or gender or socioeconomic background or denominational diversity, we're going to break down some of the blind spots and offer some practical shifts today that can lead to more kingdom reflective teams. So I hope you'll continue to listen today. My name is Todd Rhodes. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, One of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. Hope you'll check us out over there at chemistrystaffingcom as well. All right, your church says it values diversity, but you look around the staff table. Does it show any diversity? You may not be trying to exclude everyone, but your hiring habits might be doing it for you. So today we're going to talk about some of these unspoken defaults and quiet biases that keep our churches kind of stuck in hiring the same types of people again and again. So today we're going to be unpacking three uncomfortable but essential questions every church needs to ask before their next hire.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Okay, let's go ahead and get started here with the first thing, and that's the diversity illusion versus the hiring reality, and we've already touched on this in the intro. Today Churches say they value diversity because they genuinely believe it's biblical, and rightly so. But when you dig deeper, many of the hiring decisions just come down to comfort and culture, fit and speed, not calling, not voice and not representation. You know, we just want someone who gets our vibe. A translation of that many times is we want someone who looks and thinks and acts just like us. Diversity isn't just a value to preach, it's also a discipline to practice, and most churches haven't built that, haven't built the muscles to do that just yet. So that's point. Number one is the kind of the diversity illusion versus the hiring reality. A lot of times there is a big gap there.

Speaker 1: 2:20

The second thing I would tell you is that bias is normal, okay, but unacknowledged bias is dangerous. Every hiring practice and every hiring process has bias. You have bias, I have bias, everybody on the search team has bias. The issue is when we don't acknowledge it. And this unconscious bias isn't a political term, it's really a human reality. If you think about the last three people that you hired at your church. I mean, were they from the same denomination? Were they from the same background? Did they have the same leadership style? That might be a clue. So you can't fix what you won't face, and if you only hire who you know, you'll always get what you've always had. And I want to speak to this just a little bit here in a second, but let me go over this third point. Okay, and that's representation changes everything.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Having diverse voices on your staff isn't just about optics, it's about discipleship and impact. And when your leadership table reflects only one generation or only one ethnicity or only one theological stream, sometimes your blind spots multiply and your reach, rather than expanding, it narrows. And what happens, though, when different perspectives collide in grace-filled collaboration? Well, that's when the kingdom work expands. So churches really, in a lot of cases, need to stop asking, you know, can they fit here? And start asking what might God show us through them? And this is the point that I wanted to make as I leave you.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Today is a lot of times, the reason that we hire people are just like us is because we want people that fit our church and our culture and our DNA, and at Chemistry Staffing, we are all about finding staff, people that meet your church and your culture and your DNA, but that doesn't mean that they have to be just like you. They don't have to look just like you, they don't have to believe exactly just like you. Sometimes we think, if we just can find somebody that fits our team, well, yeah, you need to find somebody that fits your team, but not somebody that's just like you. Okay, that's where the diversity piece fits in, and I'm not just talking racial diversity, I'm talking age, everything. There are so much that we can learn from people who are not just like us. I'm not telling you to go out and hire people that are so theologically diverse that you're not going to recognize them. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just saying that you can't say that you value diversity and not do anything about it. You've got to build it, you've got to be deliberate about it, you've got to be prayerful about it and sometimes, sure, it's got to be uncomfortable, but if you're going to preach diversity, you've got to stop hiring in your own image and start hiring in the image of God's global church.

Speaker 1: 5:05

So maybe you've got questions on this. Maybe you're just like Todd. I want to pick your brain on this and see. You know, I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure we can do it. I'm not sure that I agree. Even I'd love to have a conversation with you about this and hiring at your church and how we might be able to help you and partner with you. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Maybe you don't have a need now. That's awesome. Maybe you have a need this afternoon. Reach out. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, thanks so much for listening. Today is Friday if you're listening on the day it's released, so if you're listening to this on a Friday, I hope you have a great weekend. We'll be right back here on Monday. If not, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Okay, come back and we'll talk tomorrow on the Healthy Church Stand Podcast. Have a great day you.