When Your Staff Member Becomes the Church Influencer

This episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast addresses the challenges and dynamics that arise when a church staff member gains significant influence or a personal platform, particularly through social media. Host Todd Rhoades explores the implications of such developments on the church's mission, internal staff dynamics, and how to manage and steward this newfound influence effectively. • A staff member's increase in influence can shift church dynamics. • Influence should be managed to align with church values. • Setting boundaries between church roles and personal brand is crucial. • Influence on social media should serve the church's mission, not compete with it. • The key challenge lies in balancing loyalty to personal success versus team success. • Open, direct conversations about influence are essential for healthy staff dynamics.

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Transcript

When A Staff Member Blows Up

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Your worship pastor just hit 50,000 Instagram followers, and the recent post just got more engagement than your church's entire social media footprint in the past month. People are driving from other cities to hear them leave worship at your church, and you're genuinely happy for it. Right? But something feels off. The staff dynamics somehow have shifted a little bit. They're getting speaking requests that your church has never received before. It might not be a worship pastor and it might not be someone finding success online as a pastor or a church staff person. It could be somebody that has a side gig in fashion or some other hobby that they do, and all of a sudden they have a following. If

What Changes Under The Surface

SPEAKER_00 0:56

this has happened to you, or if it's happening to you, or you're just intrigued by it, you're in the right place, because we're going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about what's really happening under the surface when this happens to someone on your staff that kind of instantly, overnight, not overnight, has a platform that you didn't see coming. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.

Celebrity Dynamics On The Team

SPEAKER_00 1:24

When someone on your staff becomes the thing, the draw, a lot of things changes. In fact, kind of everything changes. People start coming for them, maybe not the mission of your church. Other staff members on your team feel it immediately, and suddenly there's the celebrity tear on your team. The power dynamic shift, whether you acknowledge it or not. And honestly, most churches just pretend this isn't happening. And that's where it starts to get a little bit complicated. The influencer staff member starts operating a little bit differently most of the time, whether they know it or not. They're building their brand while they're doing ministry. According to what their role is, it could be that every sermon, every moment, every instance becomes content that they use on their platform. And you're thinking about their next post during worship all of a sudden. And other staff feel like maybe the supporting cast on somebody else's show. You start second guessing decisions based on their platform. And before you know it, it's possible. I've seen it happen in churches, the tail starts wagging the dog.

Boundaries That Protect The Mission

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Now, there's nothing wrong, if we can be quite honest here, there's nothing wrong with your staff having influence. God gives people platforms for kingdom purposes and for personal purposes. Platforms aren't evil in and of themselves, but you do need to have a healthy approach to this if it were to happen in your church, and that means you need to have the conversation early, and you need to have the conversation directly. It goes something like this Bob, your platform's a gift. How can we steward it together? Establish some clear boundaries about church time versus personal brand time. Make sure that they're representing the church's values, particularly if it's a ministry type of a platform. Make sure they're representing the church's values when they represent themselves. Create policies around outside speaking and opportunities. And don't let one person's influence reshape your entire ministry philosophy. Remember, you hired them to serve your mission, not to build their empire or their platform.

Competing Loyalties And Real Influence

SPEAKER_00 3:40

But here's the deeper issue, okay? Here's what I think anyway. I think this is really not about social media. It's about loyalty. And it can be, if we're not careful, about competing loyalties. Because when someone's personal success becomes more important than team success, brother, you've got a problem. And the question isn't whether they have influence, the question is who are they influencing people toward? So here's your bottom line for today influence is a tool, not a trophy. And healthy teams will steward that together. Your staff's influence can be a huge asset for the kingdom and for your church. Just make sure everybody's rowing in the same direction.

Influence Is A Tool

SPEAKER_00 4:25

That's it right here for this week and this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I hope you have a great weekend, and I hope you'll join me again right back here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast on Monday. If you haven't subscribed, go ahead wherever you're listening, hit that subscribe button so that you can become a regular listener right here at UNE on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Have a great weekend.