What position should your growing church hire next? Discover the essential factors that will guide you in making the right choice for your ministry. I'm Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, and in this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we'll explore how aligning your new hire with your church’s vision and mission can fuel growth and avoid costly missteps. From identifying current pain points to assessing financial sustainability, we'll walk you through five critical aspects to consider before adding to your team.
Tune in as we address the roles that are often pivotal for expanding churches, including worship pastors, youth ministry leaders, executive pastors, and communications directors. Whether your church is experiencing bottlenecks or preparing to reach new heights, our insights will help you make informed staffing decisions. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to build a team that propels your ministry forward and serves your congregation effectively.
What position should your growing church hire next? Discover the essential factors that will guide you in making the right choice for your ministry. I'm Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, and in this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we'll explore how aligning your new hire with your church’s vision and mission can fuel growth and avoid costly missteps. From identifying current pain points to assessing financial sustainability, we'll walk you through five critical aspects to consider before adding to your team.
Tune in as we address the roles that are often pivotal for expanding churches, including worship pastors, youth ministry leaders, executive pastors, and communications directors. Whether your church is experiencing bottlenecks or preparing to reach new heights, our insights will help you make informed staffing decisions. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to build a team that propels your ministry forward and serves your congregation effectively.
Okay, today we're going to talk about something that's on the questions on the mind of a lot of growing churches. We get it all the time here at Chemistry Staffing. It's what position should I hire next? It's a crucial question, isn't it, and we're going to talk about that today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes.
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I'm one of the co-founders over here at chemistrystaffingcom and would love for you to check out our website sometime. If you're a candidate that's looking, or a person that's looking to maybe change roles, or you work at a church and you're looking to hire some new staff, I would love to have you check out our website. All right, crucial question what position should I hire next? After all, your staff team is the engine that drives your ministry and this next right hire can propel your church forward. The wrong hire, the wrong position, the wrong person can stall your progress, but with so many options and if you're like most, you've got limited resources how do you determine the next right position to add to your team? And I'm here to tell you there's no magic formula, okay, so sorry if you were hoping that I was just going to spew wisdom here that would bring some magic to the table. I can't do that, but I can give you some key factors to consider. Okay, five of them, to be exact. The first is vision and mission alignment. What are your church's core values and priorities and long-term goals? Your next hire should align and support your overall vision and mission, so you have a clear mission and vision and that there's an area of that mission and vision that there's a hole somewhere. That could very well be the place where you need to direct your next hire to. Okay. So vision, mission and alignment is number one. Number two current needs and pain points. Just talked about that a little bit. Where are you experiencing the most strain in your ministry? Where are you experiencing bottlenecks in your ministry? Which areas again going back to that mission and vision alignment which areas do you feel being neglected or feel like they're understaffed or need more help? Identifying these pain points can help you pinpoint the most pressing need for your new hire. Look at your current needs and pain points, stack them on top of your vision and mission alignment and a lot of times that can point you in the right direction. Third thing to look at is growth potential. Is your church growing in certain areas? Maybe certain demographics. Do you need to expand your children's ministry, for example? Or maybe launch a new campus or reach a specific demographic or people group? Sometimes hiring strategically again going back to that vision and mission hiring strategically can help you capitalize on those opportunities that you have.
Speaker 1:
Number four financial stability or sustainability. Can your budget realistically support a new hire? You got to consider the salary and the benefits and the other associated costs. But make sure that you've got at least two to three years of financial sustainability when you hire somebody, so that you don't hire somebody and then 12 or 18 months later say we can't afford you anymore. And then, number five, look at the talent pool. A lot of times the talent pool will let you know maybe the next place you should hire. Do you have qualified candidates within your congregation that could fill that role? And if not, are you prepared to do that external search? So that's huge, all right. So let's talk about some specific positions that churches often consider as they grow.
Speaker 1:
And this isn't rocket surgery, by any means, but a worship pastor. If your worship services are lacking energy or engagement or a clear vision, a worship pastor can help bring leadership. Maybe you need children or youth. If you're tracking young families or you have a growing youth population. Sometimes investing in these ministries is huge. We did a podcast, I believe, last week on executive pastors. Maybe your senior pastor is starting to get overwhelmed with some administrative tasks. An executive pastor can help you out in that area.
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A lot of churches are hiring communications and marketing directors. If your church is struggling to communicate effectively or reach new people, communications professional can really help you craft that message and build a strong online presence. That's really important now and we're also seeing a lot of churches hiring for the first time. Their next hire is an outreach or a missions pastor. So if your church is passionate about reaching the community or supporting global missions, this role can help you develop and implement an impactful set of outreach initiatives. There's no one size fits all okay.
Speaker 1:
So the question of what position should I hire next? You're the only one that can answer that as your church. The best decision for your church really depends on your unique context and your needs and your resources. So here's the bottom line Strategic staffing. It's more than just filling vacancies. And one thing I didn't mention is a lot of times when churches come to us, they're looking primarily at replacement hires, and one of the first things we tell them. If your youth pastor came in and resigned, or your worship pastor came in and resigned, or somebody on your team came in and resigned and you're thinking, well, we need to replace that position, I think the first thing you need to do is look at that job description and see do we need that position or should we change it to something different? And that's one of the things that we can help you with at Chemistry Staffing. It's really about building a team that's aligned with your vision and equipped to meet your needs and passionate about fulfilling your church's mission.
Speaker 1:
So if you're wrestling with this question and maybe your church is getting ready to hire somebody maybe you don't know your next hire, but you've got some money there and you need to hire somebody Maybe you need to develop a staffing strategy, maybe you need some help with compensation issues, anything. Don't hesitate to reach out to me If I can't help you. I've got somebody here on our team at Chemistry Staffing that would be a great fit, I'm sure, for whatever you're going through. Just reach out to me at podcast at chemistrystaffing. It's podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and I'd love to connect with you. Church leaders, man, your staff is your most valuable asset, so invest wisely and we are here to help you if you need help to hire strategically. Okay, thanks so much for joining us on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Join us again tomorrow and we're going to do another. We've been talking about hiring this week, but we're going to talk about seven warning signs to watch for when hiring your next church staff person. Join us tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. See you then.
