Committed to the Mission: Why Staff See a Future Here
Jun 06, 2024Season 1Episode 109
Todd Rhoades
Ready to unlock the secrets to keeping your church staff engaged and committed for the long haul? Join Todd Rhodes in this enlightening episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast as we unpack the latest findings from our Healthy Church Staff assessment. Discover why 58.3% of church staff members are eager to stay with their current church for the next three years and learn the pivotal factors that contribute to this loyalty, such as alignment with the church's mission, opportunities for professional growth, and a strong sense of belonging.
Hear compelling stories from staff members who have found renewed purpose and support within their church community, emphasizing the importance of a nurturing work culture. Whether your church is thriving or facing hurdles, these insights offer a roadmap to fostering a healthier, more committed staff environment. Don't miss out on the chance to participate in our current assessment—details on how to join are shared at the end of the podcast. Tune in and take the first step toward building a steadfast and flourishing church staff.
Ready to unlock the secrets to keeping your church staff engaged and committed for the long haul? Join Todd Rhodes in this enlightening episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast as we unpack the latest findings from our Healthy Church Staff assessment. Discover why 58.3% of church staff members are eager to stay with their current church for the next three years and learn the pivotal factors that contribute to this loyalty, such as alignment with the church's mission, opportunities for professional growth, and a strong sense of belonging.
Hear compelling stories from staff members who have found renewed purpose and support within their church community, emphasizing the importance of a nurturing work culture. Whether your church is thriving or facing hurdles, these insights offer a roadmap to fostering a healthier, more committed staff environment. Don't miss out on the chance to participate in our current assessment—details on how to join are shared at the end of the podcast. Tune in and take the first step toward building a steadfast and flourishing church staff.
Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. If you've been listening along to the podcast for the past few weeks, we've been unpacking what we learned last year in our Healthy Church Staff assessment. Hold on till the end of this podcast. I'm going to tell you how you can be a part of our current assessment. It's only open today, and tomorrow's the last day that you can take the 2024 assessment. I'll give you some instructions on how to do that here at the end of the podcast. On how to do that here at the end of the podcast.
Speaker 1:
This week in particular, though, we've been looking at what we call our future stability kind of benchmark that we used on the Healthy Church Staff Assessment last year and this year, and yesterday we talked. Well, all this week we're talking about future stability. Yesterday we talked about levels of optimism, and today we're going to talk about kind of longevity. Here's the question not really a question a statement that we put out to about 1,100 church staff that took the assessment last year. Here's the statement we gave them. I would love to be on staff at this church for the next three years. Okay, so that's a statement that we asked to give us a rating of one Like one would be. Like I really, todd, please, I don't want to be on the church staff in three years To five man, I hope I'm here in three years. That would be great.
Speaker 1:
What did we hear from the results of that statement? Here's what the comments and the response back that we got. It was about 58.3, if you want to get really exact, 58.3 of staff members expressed a real desire that they would like to be at their church for the next three years. So almost 6 in 10, 58% About 23% disagreed. Those would be the ones and the twos, matter of fact, 26.2 strongly disagreed About another I'm sorry about 18% strongly disagreed, and there's about 18% that were right smack dab in the middle. They answered three, so they're neutral. What does this mean? Well, it's encouraging to see that the majority 58% is a majority.
Speaker 1:
The majority of church staff in the United States see themselves as part of their church's future. It's also really crucial that we explore the factors that contribute to this commitment and understand at the same point why some staff members are either neutral or uncertain or considering other options. So let's start with the positive stuff first. All right, 58.3% of staff members now it could be higher, could be lower, in your church, according to how healthy your church is and how healthy your staff are, but about 58.3%, if your church is normal said that they would like to be at your church in another three years.
Speaker 1:
So what makes those almost 60% want to stay? It could be any number of things. It could be a strong alignment with your church's mission and values. It could be opportunities for professional growth. It could be just a great fit. It could be a great sense of belonging, not only for them but for their family and the church and in the community. It could be that they just love everybody they're working with and it's a great team and they love being a part of the team.
Speaker 1:
A couple of things that we heard, a couple of stories that we heard. One staff member shared how being a part of their church's outreach programs really gave them kind of a renewed sense of purpose and a desire to continue on that road of making a difference. Another staff member, for an example, mentioned that they felt really supported and valued by their team members, their colleagues, their leadership, and that's really strengthened their commitment to stay. These examples really highlight the importance of fostering a work culture that nurtures staff, that cares about their well-being, that is concerned about their purpose and puts a plan in place for their growth. Those are the positives. That's what we hear back from those that are dug in. They're well-rooted and they want to be at your church for the next three years.
Speaker 1:
And maybe you're in this position now and that's great. Maybe you've been in this position before and you know how it feels, but you're not there now. That's okay. But particularly if you're in charge of a staff, it's really important. As we've said all this week, it's important to know exactly where your staff are. So let's take a little look at those that are not doing so well. They're the other 41, 42 percent that are either neutral or negative. Can I say negative? I guess it's negative if they don't want to be at your church in another three years. It's really important, it's essential.
Speaker 1:
If you're in charge of a staff, you need to engage in some open dialogue here with these staff members. You need to understand their perspectives. Is it a one-off perspective? One person doesn't feel like they want to be there in three years, but it's an isolated reason or are there patterns emerging that you can see? Hey, we've got a couple people on our team that share the same perspective, that kind of have the same concerns. Those are the ones that you really need to pay attention to and see if you can by actively listening and working, and to try and find some solutions. Maybe you can find some solutions that can turn those people around. Same with the neutral people.
Speaker 1:
Neutral responses may indicate just it's not that they want to be there in three years or they don't want to be there in three years. They're just not sure, they're uncertain, and engaging with these staff members is going to help you to understand kind of the reservations. It could be something about the church, it could be something they're going through personally, it could be kind of career aspirations, what they feel God has called them to All those things. Though, if you're a supervisor, if you're a senior pastor, executive pastor or lead a team of staff members, those are really important opportunities or important perspectives to be able to find out. If you have your head in the sand and you're not sure where your staff are, man, that's my admonition to you today is start to have those conversations, start to engage with those staff members and see how they're doing, see how you're doing, see how the church is doing and how they feel about their future. There may be some things that you can do to make people feel a little bit more at home. Maybe some mentorship programs, getting them some help, providing some training, creating some clear pathways for advancement, creating challenging and rewarding opportunities. Those are all really important things that you can put in place that can move those people that are feeling neutral or those people that right now just don't want to be there to win them over a little bit.
Speaker 1:
And if you're a staff member and you're in that neutral or you're in that man, I don't know that I can do this for another three years. As I said a couple days ago, the big thing to do, I think and I don't want this to be a pat answer but you really need to start praying about this and really taking it before the Lord and saying God, you've called me to live a life and live it more abundantly, but, boy, it doesn't feel real abundant right now. So help me to understand where you want me and how you want me to be. Help me to figure out how I can be a better staff member here, how I can feel more fulfilled and how I can be more excited about the future. I really believe that if we ask for wisdom, that God will give it to us. Maybe not today, maybe not tonight, maybe not first thing in the morning, but eventually God's not going to let us hang out there to dry. He's going to give us clear direction on what he's called us to and where he wants us to be.
Speaker 1:
I mentioned earlier that we are doing another, the 2024 church staff health assessment, and that is open today and tomorrow. If you're listening to this on Thursday, it's open today and tomorrow. We would love to have you be a part of that. We've had about a little over 1,100 people take that assessment so far this year. We're going to have the report ready on August 1st and we will send you a free copy.
Speaker 1:
If you are a part of this year's assessment, you can do that at churchstaffassessmentcom. It's churchstaffassessmentcom, you can take that. And if you have any questions, any comments, any topics that you'd like to hear here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, you can email me anytime. My email address I read every email that comes in at podcast at chemistrystaffingpodcast, at chemistrystaffingcom. I'm available to help the church if you've got some search needs and you're looking for some new staff members. If you're a staff member and just need maybe some transition coaching or just need somebody to talk to, we can arrange that as well. Just reach out to me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back tomorrow as we round out our series here on future stability and actually our series on our Healthy Church Staff Assessment. We'll close that out tomorrow as well. So I hope you'll come back and listen and be a part.