Is Your Church a Safe Space for Staff Ideas? It Should Be.

Discover what it truly takes to build a fearless church staff where every voice can be heard. I'm Todd Rhoades, and today we dissect the intriguing results of our church staff health assessment—revealing a communication gap that begs to be bridged. While many confidently share their thoughts with leadership, a staggering number hold back, and it's our mission to change that. We'll explore proven strategies to create a culture of trust and openness, ensuring no concern goes unvoiced. Whether you're a pastor, a church staff member, or anyone leading a team, this episode equips you with the tools to transform the way your team communicates, fostering a strong, united front in your ministry.

Ready to take your church's communication to the next level? Look no further, as we offer tailored coaching and a sneak peek at what's ahead on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Engage with us for personalized support, and don't forget to take advantage of our free assessment at churchstaffassessment.com to gain valuable insights into your team's dynamics. Stay tuned for our next conversation, where we'll delve into the art of opening communication lines and the vital role each staff member plays in polishing the communication plan. This is more than just a lesson; it's a journey towards a healthier, more transparent church community.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. Is your church a safe space for your church staff to give you ideas? If it's not, it should be, and that's what we're looking at this week. We're looking at church staff communication. This week we're looking at church staff communication. It's all a part of our 2024 church staff health assessment and I would encourage you if you could go over and take our free assessment, probably take you 10 or 15 minutes. We ask you 50 questions on how you're doing as a staff member, and we do this for a number of different reasons, but the first reason is really just we want to know how you're doing, and not just how you're doing, but collectively. Last year, we had about a thousand people take the assessment Collectively. How are church staff doing? How are they feeling? How healthy are they? And one of the key areas we're looking at in our assessment this year is the area of communication, and that's what we're talking about this week. So head on over to churchstaffassessmentcom today and take the assessment, if you haven't already. Okay, today we are going to talk about creating a safe space for staff ideas, and here's the statement that we presented last year in our church staff health assessment and asked for input, and this is a statement that we said.

Speaker 1: 1:22

There is a clear and open line of communication between church staff at the ground roots level and church leadership. And here's what we found 68% of church staff noted that their comfort in expressing their viewpoint to church leaders, to their bosses, to their boards, whatever their superiors and that's 68%. That's pretty good. That's close to 70%, right? Seven in 10 people feel like they have a pretty clear line of communication between the staff and the leadership. That's good, but and you're going to hear me say but a lot during this series. There's a silent about 19% raising concerns behind the scenes and about 13% that are sitting on the fence that say that they don't really have feel like they're just neutral on that. So let's look at that, okay, first let's talk about the positive things, right. What are we doing to command the trust of about seven and 10 of staffs? And your church may be different, but a typical average church in the country this is what we found from our thousand respondents is that 68% feel like that they have a clear and open line of communication between staff and church leadership. So, open forums, transparent leadership, communication is at the heart of this. Absolutely transparent leadership. Communication is at the heart of this. Absolutely seven in 10 churches feel, or staff members feel, that they get that from their leadership. So that's great. That's great. Let's start there, but let's continue on.

Speaker 1: 2:55

We also have to understand that the concerns of the 19% who hold back, that feel like that they don't have that open line and as leaders it's really our role to create an environment where they feel safe to express their ideas and their thoughts and their reservations and particularly their concerns are really important. So we need to find ways that we can encourage those that are holding back to actually be able to feel comfortable in sharing what they're feeling. And then let's talk about the neutral 13%. They're like I could go either way. Sometimes I some days I feel like there's open, clear lines of communication. Other days, there, I don't feel like there's an open line of communication. And those, the neutrality you hear me kind of hem-hawing. That's how these people feel. They feel like, yeah, sometimes that's good, sometimes it's bad, but but I don't feel strongly that we have great communication. I don't feel strongly that we don't. I'm just in the middle Between. You get the 70% that are good, but you've got 30%, about 20 and 10% that are 10%, that are neutral, about 20% that feel like, no, there's not a clear and open line of communication. So how do we do this? How do we make this better? And we've said every day this week that communication is not great. Communication in your church is not a switch that you flip, that you turn it on and off. It's a continuing. It's a continuing process.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Okay, and one of the key takeaways, I think, is that, as you look at the 30% that maybe don't think that things are the greatest in communication, there are probably I call them kind of silent whisperers, particularly in that 20% that we really need to try to engage. That's really, when it comes to communication, you really want to try to engage the neutral and those that feel like they don't have a voice. Silence speaks as well, and we need to be able to listen in the silence. Okay, what do we do If you're leading a team or if you're on a team that doesn't have good communication? What's the call to action for today?

Speaker 1: 5:11

If you lead a team and you find that communication, you get the idea that you've got some people that feel like your communication is not the best. Here's what I think you should do. I think you should act swiftly and act now. Okay, address the concerns.

Speaker 1: 5:26

If you've got people that you that don't speak in, that you don't know and here's the easiest way, I think, to know who that 20% and who that 10% are you don't know where they stand because they're not communicating with you, and if you wonder where someone is and how they would answer that question, chances are they're probably either neutral or maybe even a little bit on the negative side. So act swiftly, act now, and the easy way to do that is just open up some follow-up discussions, some regular assessments. Enhance, however you can, those communications, not just in meetings, but individually with those people. Everything is communication and if you know that there's a problem and you delay, it's not going to get better. In fact, it's going to get worse. So implement some consistent engagement, some active listening, I think, going out to coffee, going out to lunch, some open forums where you allow people to be a little bit vulnerable. Maybe for the first time in a long time, you actually invite input, you invite people to share not only their ideas but their concerns with you. There's a level of transparency and a certain level of risk there, absolutely. But the alternative to just shutting down communication or having people that do not communicate is not good long-term. Bottom line is if you feel like you've got, if your church is typical, you have up to 30% of your team that either feels unheard or unvalued, and if there are certain team members that you're not sure where they are, my guess is they might fall in that 30%. My guess is they might fall in that 30%. Open up to them, take them out to coffee, start to have some conversations.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Communication is a two-way street and part of it relies on you. If you're a staff member and communication just isn't good, it's harder for you, right? Because you've got to. Instead of from the leader reaching down to you to get input, you have to reach up for input and that can be harder and it can be risky and it needs to be done right. If you feel like you don't have a voice and you need to have a voice reach up, ask your supervisor out to coffee, see if you can share some ideas, see if you can get that kind of open up, that line of communication with them.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Because we talked about this, I think, on Monday that if there's a lack of communication. And that continues on. And you're a staff member and you feel like, hey, this place, this church I'm at, just does not communicate. Guess what you're going to end up doing? Probably, in the next 12 to 18 months and our research backs this up too You're probably going to start looking for another role in a different church, one that you feel like you've got a little bit more input and a little bit of communication in.

Speaker 1: 8:17

While it might be risky and while you might feel like, hey, this isn't even mine, why do I have to? Why do I have to be the bigger man? Why do I have to take the first step here? It's because it's for your own good, it's for the good of the church, it's for the good of your supervisor and your leader, but it's also for the good of your family and trying to help stay in one place and really be able to fit in. That's the real goal. Of communication is to make sure that you and your leadership are all on the same page.

Speaker 1: 8:45

I'd love to hear, maybe, your specific communication quandary, whatever, if there's any way that I can help you, if there's any way that I can help coach, even on a monthly basis, you or your church or your staff on this area of how to implement a great communication strategy. I would love to talk with you about that. You can reach out to me anytime at podcastatchemistrystaffingcom. That's podcastatchemistrystaffingcom. And also I would love for you, if you've not done it already, head over to churchstaffassessmentcom. Churchstaffassessmentcom. Take the free assessment and I think you'll really enjoy it. We've made it really enjoyable to take Probably take you 10 or 15 minutes, but we think that would be a good thing. I think you would really enjoy doing that. Tomorrow we are going to finish out our area of communication and we're going to talk about how you we've talked a little bit about it already, but we're going to break down how you open that line of communication and how your staff can help you with that communication plan. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Hope you'll join us here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.