The Volunteer Ceiling_ When Unpaid Leaders Outperform Paid Staff

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff podcast, host Todd Rhoades explores the complex dynamics that arise when passionate volunteers outperform paid staff in church environments. He discusses the potential issues this can create, including the protection of current staff at the expense of mission effectiveness and hesitant leadership decisions. Rhoades offers practical advice for churches, such as having honest conversations, creating pathways for volunteers to become staff, and recognizing the true value individuals bring regardless of their title. Additionally, he promotes the 'Church Leadership Radar' email newsletter for further insights tailored to church staff. • Volunteers sometimes outperform paid staff in church settings. • Differences in passion, skills, and organizational capacity between volunteers and staff. • Common issues: protecting staff over mission, avoiding tough conversations, underutilizing talented volunteers. • Importance of aligning roles with individual capacities and mission priorities. • Suggestions for solutions: honest capacity discussions, offering pathways from volunteer to staff, reevaluating org chart based on effectiveness. • Promotion of Church Leadership Radar newsletter for ongoing church staff insights.

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Transcript

Welcome And Newsletter Invite

The Awkward Volunteer Versus Staff Gap

Availability Hires Create Capacity Problems

Build A Volunteer To Staff Path

Choose Mission Over Payroll Comfort

Weekly Challenge And Next Steps

Leadership Radar Reminder And Closing

SPEAKER_00 0:08

What do you do when pastor and volunteers consistently outperform your paid staff? This uncomfortable dynamic is more common than you think, and ignoring it could be costing your church its absolutely best leaders. Hi there, we're gonna talk about that today. My name's Todd Rhodes. I am your host for the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Also one of the co-hosts over at chemistry staffing.com. Alright, this week I've been telling you about a new project that I've started. It's a brand new email newsletter. I think it's gonna be great for anybody that's on a church staff. We're able to cover in the newsletter every day for free things that I can't mention here in the podcast just because there's not enough time. So you can check it out at churchleadershipradar.com. Just to add your first name and your email address and your in on all of our charter members. All right. Let's talk about this. You know, your children's pastor calls in sick again, but Sarah, your volunteer coordinator, already has scheduled, rearrange the schedule. She's texted the parents, she's prepped the materials, she's recruited all the backup elders, helpers. Meanwhile, your paid youth pastor forgot about the lock-in planning meeting again. And you're sitting there thinking, man, Sarah would crush this job. But she's not getting paid, and he is. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Sometimes this happens in churches. It doesn't make any difference whether it's a large church, a small church, wherever you're located. It happens everywhere. And nobody, nobody really wants to say it out loud, but here's the truth, okay? And that's what we're building the podcast on today. Here's the uncomfortable reality. Some volunteers have higher capacity than your paid staff. What? What are you talking about? Well, they're more organized, they're more proactive, they're more passionate, they anticipate problems before they happen. You you know if you've got this on a volunteer that's sitting out of the park even better than a staff member, they communicate better with teams. Honestly, they're making your paid staff just look bad. So what's really going on here, right? Well, you you hired for availability, not capacity. All right. The person who said yes fastest sometimes gets the job. And your volunteers, on the other hand, they chose to be here. Your staff needed to be here. Okay, volunteers often have marketplace skills that your staff might even lack. I mean, they're not burned out on ministry, they're not burned out from ministry pressure yet. And here's the kicker your volunteers, they're not trying to prove themselves. Now, listen, your paid staff aren't bad people, but you might have a structure problem and not a people problem. So you might need to recenter a little bit here. And here's here's what I recommend. If you if you find that you've got a volunteer that's maybe outshining a paid staff member, and you might think, Yeah, I'm all uh nobody's ever experienced it. No, a lot of churches experience this, so you're not alone. Stop pretending this dynamic just doesn't exist, right? Have some honest conversations about capacity and expectations. Consider offering that volunteer a role on your staff, maybe even that actual position, if it becomes something that needs to happen. Yes, even if it means moving that current staff person somewhere else on your team, or maybe they need to find another ministry opportunity when this becomes really, really, really apparent. Great volunteers shouldn't be held back by mediocre staff. All right. Let me let me say that again. Great volunteers shouldn't be held back by mediocre staff. Your church deserves leaders who can actually lead. But here's where most churches honestly mess this up. They protect the paid person's feelings over the church's mission. They assume that volunteers can handle real responsibility. I mean, after all, they're not on staff, and they forget to have that they're just afraid to have difficult conversations or or they just pile more work on the volunteer without any compensation. Either one of those things is a it's it's a no-loser. It's how you lose your best people. So I want to help you today. Here's what healthy, a healthy approach should look like or could look like for you if you're in this kind of a position or this kind of a situation. First of all, create some clear pathways that lead from volunteer to staff. Like pay people for the value that they bring, not just their title. And and maybe you just need to move that underperforming staff person to roles that fit their capacity. Maybe they're a great staff person, but not in the area. Maybe they're just in the wrong seat on the bus. And and stop letting your org chart prevent the most obvious leadership moves. Remember, your first responsibility is to the mission, not to the payroll. Okay? First responsibility. This is why we don't have the tough conversations, because when you find out that the mission is being affected by somebody that's on your payroll, you can't continue over and over and over to kick that can down the field. I just mixed a couple of analogies there, but you know exactly what I'm saying about. This is not about volunteers for staff versus staff. This is about putting the right people in the right seats. Some of your best staff started as volunteers, some of your volunteers should become staff, and some of your current staff might be better suited elsewhere. The goal isn't harmony, it's effectiveness. So here's your bottom line for today. When volunteers consistently outperform staff, that's not a volunteer problem. That's could be a staffing opportunity. Here's your challenge for this week. Identify your highest capacity volunteer who whose name came to your mind as you listen to this today. And maybe you don't have anybody, that's great. But if somebody came to your mind, I want you to have a conversation about whether there's a role that actually fits their abilities. I mean, stop wasting talent just because of titles. Your church's mission is too important to let your org chart or your payroll get in the way of great leadership. Well, that's it for today. I hope that's been helpful for you. And also, just want to remind you head over to churchleadershipradar.com. Churchleadershipradar.com. If you've not already done that, we're getting a really great response to this email newsletter. It comes out every Monday through Friday. Uh, it has my top three picks for the day and then some additional resources, things that you can skim. You can skim it in about 90 seconds while you're drinking your morning coffee if you want to. There's links so you can go and check out the full resources for any of those that you really want to dig in on. But I really do think that the great leaders are readers. And uh part of part of the problem is we just have so much stuff that comes across our desk that we we just get buried. So this is my attempt to kind of help you through that a little bit. Again, churchleadershipradar.com. Go there today, and I will send you my church leadership radar email first thing in the morning. You'll have it in your inbox by 6 a.m. All right, that's it for today. Hope you have a great day. If there's any way that I can help you or your church, reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staff.com. That's it. Have a great day.