The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Your First Staff Hires Matter More Than You Think
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When a church is just starting out, these early staff hires can either set the tone for long-term health or they can start the process of dysfunction that takes years to unwind. Today on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're going to talk about why first hires are so critical and the most common mistakes that churches make when they make their first hires, and how to approach early staffing decisions with wisdom and clarity. Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes. I am one of the co-founders over ChemistryStaffing.com, and I'm your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. All right, so maybe your first staff hire could be the beginning of a beautiful story or a decision that haunts you for years. We talk and work with a lot of church planters, and we find that the stakes for these very first hires are very high. So we're going to talk today about why your first few hires matter more than you ever think they could, and how to avoid some of the common mistakes that churches make when they're starting out and building their staff. All right. The first thing I want to make very clear, and you know this if you're planning a church, everything that you do, everything that you do helps to get into cement that cultural DNA of what your church will eventually become. And first hires, hiring people on your staff is no exception. That first youth pastor, that first worship pastor, that first associate pastor, they're not just doing ministry, they're really shaping how your team will communicate, how your team will solve problems, and how they're going to interact with each other and the members of your church. And a lot of times what happens is even with great intent, the first hires are not really great hires because you don't have a lot of money and you're just looking for a little bit of relief. So a bad first hire can a lot of times it just happens, okay? But that bad first hire can really goof you up with some undue influence and some personality-driven culture. It can really get you in trouble with some misaligned expectations. You're not just hiring for a role, you're hiring for tone and for trust and for long-term trajectory. And since this is a first-time hire in whatever area that you're hiring this person, you have to make sure that you have the person that sets the right tone and that can trust and that has the potential not to be there just on year one, but also year three or year four or year five. Okay? So what are some of the common mistakes? We've already established that it's really important to make really good hiring decisions, particularly when you're just starting out. But what are some common mistakes in early hiring? I've seen a good number of these, and I'm just going to rattle these off. And if you're a church planner and you're thinking about hiring, or maybe you planted a church 20 years ago and you're thinking back to your first hires, maybe, maybe some of these mistakes were things that that if you had a do-over, you wish you could redo. Okay. So hiring for friendship instead of function. Hey, I know somebody, or I've got a friend that knows somebody. Just hiring for friendship rather than function is not necessarily a good way to go. Maybe you're bringing somebody in too early, maybe before the role is clear. We've talked about that often here, even in this past week on the podcast, about making sure that the role is crystal clear before you hire somebody. Maybe you're choosing loyalty over competency. We just talked about that yesterday. Maybe you're choosing fit over competency. Maybe they can play the guitar, but they can't lead. Those are really big mistakes, potentially, when you're hiring. Maybe, and I get this, maybe you're letting urgency rush the process. I've always said that planting a church, I think, leading worship, being a worship pastor and dealing with all that, I think is number two. But and people I say that kind of in jest, but everybody thinks their role is really difficult, but that's the role that I was in. I've always thought that planting a church can be most one of the most exhilarating things, part of a church plan, but one of the most exciting, exhilarating things, but most one of the most exhausting and difficult roles in any church anywhere. So you are going and you're running, you're doing everything when you plant a church. So you urgently you want to hire somebody right now. You want to hire a whole, you want to be the church down the street with 10 staff people, but you can't. You don't have the money and you don't have the resources to do that. So don't let urgency rush your process. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time, and if you rush the process, that can really come to bite you. Every hire that you make, remember, high every hire that you make makes brings a different level of I don't want to say chaos, but it totally does compound your clarity or it let's say it this way, it can multiply your mess, right? Do you want to do everything on your own, or do you want to have two or three other people around that create all kinds of different problems? Because you can control your problems, right? You can't necessarily control other people's problems. All right, we've already mentioned some of the pitfalls. So what should you do instead? Okay, here's my suggestions, and you might not like all these suggestions because the first one, I know you're not gonna, because it's just to slow down to get the role and the outcomes clear. Make sure that you know exactly what you're looking for before you make the hire. And that means don't just do a willy-nilly. You have to involve outside eyes to challenge your assumptions. You need to make sure that you've got the roll down, that you know exactly what you're looking for. Not just the type of personality, not just somebody that has fit, but somebody that has competency and somebody that can lead. Churches that do this well, they staff for the church they want to become, not just for the church that they are now. So again, it's really important that you hire somebody in year one that can grow with you, that is not that your church won't outgrow them, that they can continue to be a vital staff member and grow the systems and the processes and the worship teams and everything that you need them to be into the future, that they've got a long shelf life. And churches that do this really well, prioritize, care prioritize character and cultural alignment over those quick fixes. I know when you're a church planter, you want a quick fix because you just need to be able to breathe, but you need to make sure that those fixes are going to not create more chaos and more problems for you. Remember, it's easier to hire slow than to untangle dysfunction later. And believe me, we've talked to church planters that are six months into their first hire and they're just like, oh my, what did I do? What did I do? All right, so here's the bottom line. Here's my final thought for today. The early days of the church are full of excitement and momentum and vision and possibility. Don't sabotage that with a rushed or a misaligned hire. As much as you want to hire today, don't do it until you have everything in order and you know exactly what you're hiring and exactly what you need that role to be. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to me anytime, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. I'd love to hear what's the one thing you wish you knew before making your first staff hire? I'd love to hear. How did it all blow up? I'd love to hear those stories. And how did you make it right? And what did you learn so that you didn't do it again? I'd love to hear those stories because I could share mine too. I do often on the podcast if you listen, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. I'd love to hear from you today. And if there's any way that I can help you in your church, maybe you've got a church plant, maybe you've got an established church, but you're like, hey, help me walk through what does it mean to have clarity about a position before I hire it. I'd love to be able to work with you and see if there's a way that we can partner together on your new staff search. All right, just reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. Thanks so much, and we'll be right back here tomorrow to end your week here on the health church.
