Sacred Cows Are Eating Your Budget

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff podcast, host Todd Rhoades discusses the concept of 'sacred cow' roles in churches—positions that persist out of habit rather than necessity. These roles were relevant in a previous season but may no longer align with the church's current mission. Rhoades urges listeners to evaluate these roles, considering whether they should be retired, redeployed, or maintained. He highlights strategies like zero-based budgeting to help in reassessing staffing structures in alignment with the church's mission and resources.• Sacred cow roles are positions that feel untouchable but may no longer serve the church's mission.• These roles often persist due to habit, past relevance, or emotional attachments.• Examples include roles like a full-time media director when modern solutions are cheaper and more efficient.• There are various costs associated with maintaining these roles, including opportunity, culture, and leadership costs.• Rhoades suggests using zero-based budgeting to re-evaluate all roles and realign them with current church needs.• It's important to balance being prudent with resources and honoring valuable staff members.• The goal is to fuel the future and ensure staffing serves the church's mission.

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Chapters

• 0:08 Naming Sacred Cow Roles
• 0:46 When Roles Block Future Growth
• 1:06 Defining The Sacred Cow Problem
• 1:48 Costs Beyond Salary
• 2:56 A Stewardship Approach Forward
• 3:19 Zero-Based Staffing Rebuild
• 4:08 Redeploying Great People
• 4:31 Aligning Budget To Mission
• 4:45 Invitation To Share And Get Help
• 5:47 Healthy Staff, Healthy Church

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Some roles in your church probably feel untouchable, but that doesn't mean that they're still necessary. Today, this is going to be a really interesting episode because we're going to tackle the reality of baked cow positions in your church. The kind, the positions that were created in a different season, but are still being funded out of habit, not mission. And if your church is feeling overstaffed and under-resourced, this conversation could be for you today. Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at Chemistry Staffing, and your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast today. What if the biggest barrier to future ministry growth is a position on your payroll? Some roles were right for a previous season in your ministry, but now they're just expensive placeholders if you're really honest about it. And today we're going to talk about these sacred cows, what they are, how to spot them, and what to do if you've got one just munching through your ministry budget. Okay, so let's start off here. What is a sacred cow role on your staff? Sacred cows are staff roles that feel untouchable, right? That's why they're still there. They were created in a different ministry area. They might have been held by a beloved long timer, or they might just the positions might feel just too risky to evaluate or even talk about, right? But when it comes right down to it, the position no longer matches the mission of the church. Let me give you an example. A full-time media director hired in 2015 to manage weekly DVDs and graphic slide graphics and website updates, but now the church uses YouTube and Canva and outside freelancers to do just about everything. For a lot cheaper, even. But you know what? You're still funding that role just because you've always had it. That's your cow. Okay? And it has a cost. Every role has a cost beyond the salary. Okay, there's an opportunity cost. What ministry could have been happening instead? That's your opportunity cost. Maybe there's a culture cost as well. What message does it send to younger or more aligned staff that you still have this person on your team? It also has a leadership cost. What credibility do you lose by protecting the past? Churches often say that they don't have budget for new ministry while they're still funding old ministry that doesn't move the mission forward. And here's a question that I think you should ask. If you had to make that higher again, would you? Ouch. That's a question you need to ask. So what do you do about it? Do you it's the church, right? We don't want to run like a business. We don't want to eliminate positions unnecessarily, but we don't, we want to be wise with God's money and be a good steward of what God has entrusted to us as well. So what do we do about it if you identify or if you even right now have one of these sacred cow staff positions? Here's one thing I think you could try. You could do a zero-based budgeting exercise. Okay? So here's what this looks like. Assume that absolutely no roles, including your own, are sacred. And then rebuild your staff structure from scratch based on what your ministry currently looks like right now, what your current needs are. What that's gonna cause you to do is it's gonna cause some light bulbs to go off in your head. So you're gonna get some ideas and you're gonna probably need to have some hard conversations because sacred cows are often tied to really great people. You may have to be honest and kind and direct. It's possible to honor the past without protecting the past. And it we're not talking about you need to lay off everybody or fire everybody that maybe is in the sacred cow. It could just be that they need to be redeployed. Some staff in legacy roles can still, they're great people and they can still provide huge value, but not where they're serving now. They can provide huge value in new places with clear direction, new direction, and support. So reallocating resources isn't about cost cutting, okay? That's not what this is. It's not about cutting your budget. It's really about fueling the future and making sure that you're aligned with your mission and moving forward and not totally funding the past with these sacred cow positions. One final thought. Okay. Sacred cows make great sacrifices. Okay? They remind us that staffing should serve the mission, not the other way around. Alright, have you ever had to retire or rework a sacred cow role? I would love to hear your story. Reach out to me. Podcast at chemistry staffing.com. Maybe you've got some sacred cow roles. I know some churches have a legacy staff of some churches are larger and have a legacy staff of probably 10 or 20 people that are all legacy people. They're all great people, but no one's quite sure what they're doing. They're doing work, they're doing good, they're doing God's work, but they're not quite sure. No one's quite sure how they're contributing to the current mission of the current church. So if there's any way I can help you and talk through some of that, I'd love to do that. Just reach out to me. Podcast at chemistry staffing.com is one of the things that we do here at Chemistry Staffing. We want to do whatever we can to resource you and your team so that you can have as healthy a church staff and as healthy a church culture as you can. Because when your staff is healthy, your church is healthy. And when your church is healthy, lives are changed and people meet Jesus. All right, thanks for listening today. Hope it's been helpful, and we'll see you tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Day.