Are we overlooking the wisdom and experience older candidates bring to church staffing? On this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, I, Todd Rhoades, confront the thorny issue of ageism in church hiring. Too often, churches lean towards younger candidates under the guise of seeking "fresh ideas," thereby ignoring the seasoned insights of older applicants. We’ll dissect how age discrimination subtly creeps into job descriptions and hiring practices, and why it’s counterproductive. From my extensive experience with churches, I'll share real-world examples and data revealing the hidden biases that often go unnoticed.
Get ready to rethink your hiring strategies as we uncover practical ways to foster a more inclusive approach. Discover how seemingly innocuous phrases like "energetic" or "recent graduate" can deter older candidates from applying, and how overly rigid experience requirements can shut out potentially exceptional candidates. This episode aims to shift your perspective from age-based preferences to valuing the unique strengths each individual brings to the table. Whether you’re a church leader or simply curious about equitable hiring, this discussion promises to offer eye-opening insights and actionable steps.
Are we overlooking the wisdom and experience older candidates bring to church staffing? On this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, I, Todd Rhoades, confront the thorny issue of ageism in church hiring. Too often, churches lean towards younger candidates under the guise of seeking "fresh ideas," thereby ignoring the seasoned insights of older applicants. We’ll dissect how age discrimination subtly creeps into job descriptions and hiring practices, and why it’s counterproductive. From my extensive experience with churches, I'll share real-world examples and data revealing the hidden biases that often go unnoticed.
Get ready to rethink your hiring strategies as we uncover practical ways to foster a more inclusive approach. Discover how seemingly innocuous phrases like "energetic" or "recent graduate" can deter older candidates from applying, and how overly rigid experience requirements can shut out potentially exceptional candidates. This episode aims to shift your perspective from age-based preferences to valuing the unique strengths each individual brings to the table. Whether you’re a church leader or simply curious about equitable hiring, this discussion promises to offer eye-opening insights and actionable steps.
man, I wish I had sound effects. I would be like this flaring alarm signal or something that I would play right now, because today we're going to talk about a really sensitive topic. Topic, but it's an important one. It's talking about ageism in an age discrimination in church hiring. Oh, what a topic. Why are you going there, todd? I was asking myself that just now, but we're going to go there and I'm glad you're here to join us. This is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and your host here on the podcast.
Speaker 1:
Now, ageism just isn't a problem in the secular workplace. It can rear its ugly head in the church as well, often disguised as preferences for young blood or fresh ideas or someone that can relate to the next generation. But age discrimination many times is very counterproductive, and here's why Older candidates can bring a wealth of experience and wisdom and maturity to the table. They've weathered storms, they've learned from mistakes. They've developed leadership skills that can't be replicated overnight. Matter of fact, some research from LifeWay recently found that 69% of Protestant churches say that they'll be willing to hire a pastor who's 60 or over. However, other studies suggest that older candidates often face subtle biases and stereotypes in the hiring process. So I work with churches all day, every day, and I can tell you that every church has in their mind, if not an age, at least a stage of life that they're looking for. And many times I can tell you because I talk with churches all the time that are hiring they're looking for younger candidates. Now I don't think it's as blatant as it was even 10 years ago, when there was a real want for young candidates. Churches still like to hire younger, particularly in youth and worship, but for senior pastors that seems to have leveled out a little bit. And here's what I tell churches, just bottom line. I'm going off script a little bit here, but age really is a number.
Speaker 1:
We interview candidates that are in their 60s, that have the energy and the vitality of, and they interview like they're a 45-year-old. We interview 40-year-olds that look like they're 60 and don't have the energy and stamina. They're just burned out, they're tired. So when you put in your filter, hey, we want a candidate that's between 35 and 45 or 45 and 55 or whatever you may be, without even realizing it, taking some really qualified candidates either on the younger side or on the older side out of the mix. Okay, so I would just encourage you, just as we're looking at this from a 30,000 foot level, we always tell churches hey, we don't know what we're going to find when we start your search. We're not sure what we're going to find. Matter of fact, god's not surprised, but we are a lot of times that the people that we find that would be a great fit for your church, of times that the people that we find that would be a great fit for your church, not only age-wise, but age-wise, but experience-wise and what their background is, and all different kinds of things A lot of times we're surprised finding some great candidates that maybe break the mold a little bit as to what you thought you were going to be looking for.
Speaker 1:
All right, so let's come back down to this ageism thing and this man. This is just a hot topic. It's a hot topic, it's controversial, I know, but how does ageism manifest itself? In churches and staffing? And here are a few red flags to watch out for. Okay, so job descriptions with age-related language phrases like energetic or digital, native or recent graduate, those can subtly discourage older candidates from applying, and the opposite could be true as well with some phrases. How many job descriptions have you seen that say 15 years of experience or we need somebody with a D-min? Something like that can also and sometimes those are very warranted, but other times they will just cause people that really could be great candidates not to apply.
Speaker 1:
Here's what I think you should do. Okay, I'm going to cut to the bottom line here, because it bothers me a lot of times, and it could be that I'm turning 60 this year. So it could be that I'm just in a stage of life where I feel like, hey, you know I'm 60. I still got a lot to offer, but I see it all the time on the younger side too, with hey, we want, you know, we want a youth pastor. We want to pay $35,000 a year, we want them to have a D-min and work for we just want them. We want everything, but we want them to have 10 years of youth pastor experience, which you know is really hard to do. So how can you do this? I realize I'm mumbling here a little bit because this is a tricky topic, but the first thing I would say is examine your own biases. We all have biases. Okay, a lot of them many times are unconscious.
Speaker 1:
Take time to reflect on your own attitudes toward stage of life and age of candidates and challenge any stereotypes that you might hold. One of the things that we do with churches when we talk with them is we ask them are you okay with somebody that's just coming out of seminary? Would they be a good fit? Would you be okay with somebody who's maybe a little older, that has more experience, that might have five or ten more really solid ministry years ahead of them? Every church likes to hire for the next 25 years. Very few candidates will stay at a church for 25 years anymore. It's not like it used to be.
Speaker 1:
All right, examine your own biases. All right. Examine your own biases and then evaluate candidates based on their merit. Look beyond their age and focus on their individual qualifications and their strengths and their potential contributions. That's huge. Diversify your search committee. Include some people from different ages and backgrounds on your search committee. That'll help. And then seek some wise counsel. Consult with your trusted advisors and mentors.
Speaker 1:
Reach out to me podcastchemistrystaffingcom. Love to share my two cents with you as well, after you tell me what you're looking for. But the bottom line is, if you've done this or if you're doing this now, stop evaluating candidates based merely on their age. I always think that's a mistake More toward their qualifications. You're either taking people out on the young end that have unbelievable potential, or you're taking people out possibly on the back end when they bring just a wealth of ministry experience that you're not going to find in younger candidates.
Speaker 1:
I'm an advocate on both sides of the spectrum. Not everybody is 40 years old and raring to go, so anyway, that's my thoughts on this. I realized I've rambled more, and it's more because this is a tricky topic, but I see it as something that needs to be addressed in churches. If you'd like to pick my brain about this or ramble a little bit about how I rambled, I would love to talk to you. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcastchemistrystaffingcom. I hope you'll join us again tomorrow. Tomorrow we're going to be talking about if your church is getting ready to hire. What position should you hire next? We'll talk about that tomorrow here on the Healthy True Step Podcast.
