Is Your Church Staff Talking... Or Just Making Noise?

Ready to revolutionize the way your church staff communicates? We're taking you deep into the world of effective church communication, where the disconnect between leadership and their teams is not just an issue, but an opportunity to transform. In our insightful podcast discussion, we unpack the findings from last year's Healthy Church Staff Assessment, which revealed a startling 40% of church staff members are starving for better communication channels with their leadership. This isn't just about talking more; it's about cultivating an environment where conversation flows freely, feedback is a treasure, and every voice is not just heard but valued.

Join me, Todd Rhodes, and the dedicated team at chemistrystaffing.com, as we tackle the untapped potential lying dormant within church teams and how it can be unleashed through empathetic leadership and strategic dialogue. We don't just talk about the problems — we give you actionable strategies that can reshape the core of your church's staff interactions. Don't let poor communication erode the foundation of your mission. Tune in to learn how regular check-ins and an openness to diverse communication needs can reinforce trust, diminish turnover, and build a stronger, more connected team. We are committed to guiding you toward a future where your church staff is engaged and your leadership vision is clearly shared and passionately pursued.

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

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Happy Monday to you. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and this is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. So glad that you're joining us Today. I'm really excited. We did this last year and we're kicking it off again this year. It's the 2024 Healthy Church Staff Assessment and I would like to encourage everyone if you serve on a church staff or in church leadership, we would love to have you take this free assessment. You'll get a report afterwards that gives you some details on your state of health currently and it's a really insightful report and would love for you to take it. We're going to talk about it for the next few weeks here on the podcast, but if you'd like to take it and be one of the very first ones to take it this year, you can go to churchstaffassessmentcom, churchstaffassessmentcom and you can take the assessment there. We would love to have you do it. Last year we had a little over a thousand people take the assessment, which is a really good sampling of church leadership across the country. And over the next few weeks here on the podcast, we're going to be talking about some of the things that we learned and I'm going to try and relate some of the things that I think should be implemented or could be implemented in your church.

Speaker 1: 1:26

This week, we're going to talk about communication, and today we're going to talk about the title of today. Is your Church Staff Talking or Just Making Noise? And here's how we put it in last year's church staff health assessment, the statement that we had and asked people to respond to this. The statement was my church's leadership communicates its vision and mission to the staff regularly, and here's what we found Did you know that 40% of church staff feel that leadership could improve communication? And this gap can really lead to some real problems, and we're going to talk about that with communication all this week here on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 2:08

The gap, though, in communication can lead to disconnection, and it can lead to disengagement. There's an old saying that says a break in communication is a break in connection, and this is true. And poor communication in churches is also linked and we see this all the time in our work in chemistry staffing. Poor communication is also linked to higher staff turnover rates, and really the adverse effect of that. Effective communication is the key to building a really strong and unified team. So how should we respond? Let's talk about how to even foster open dialogue, because that's not something that some churches do well, or at least naturally. Really, what you need to do and this is easier said than done, I get that but create an environment in your church that encourages two-way communication, and that means that you need to listen actively and not just listen, but also facilitate some really meaningful conversation. Communication is where we get our common ground, and when you came on staff at a church or when you hired a new staff member, there was a lot of conversation, and those conversations, that common ground, needs to continue.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Another thing that we found is that a lot of churches aren't very empathetic with their leadership. You need to put yourself in your staff's shoes. If you're one of the bosses at your church, put yourself in your staff's shoes and understand what they're feeling, understand their concerns and their hesitations and actually show genuine concern and build trust in your actions and words. And really, you do need to have some kind of a communication strategy. You need to adapt your approach that is going to meet the diverse needs of your staff. You may need to communicate differently with younger people on your staff or with older people on your staff, with guys or gals on your staff, with different departments, communication may be different and those communication channels may change even frequently. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to communication, and you need to remember that.

Speaker 1: 4:13

But here's one of the big things, and then we're going to talk about a call to action that I would love to have you consider this week as we talk about church staff health and communication in particular. But here's one thing that will really help Implement some regular check-ins and get into a rhythm of some feedback sessions. These opportunities will really help you to gauge your effectiveness of how well you're doing with your communication level and your staff. And here's the call to action that I would like to call you to today Encourage your staff to communicate, and you need to communicate as well. But really, what I would love to have you do is try to overcome the fear that some staff feel Forty percent said that there's not good communication in their church Overcome the fear that maybe some of your staff have about voicing their concerns or their ideas.

Speaker 1: 5:07

I often say a lot of times our biggest obstacle is often fear, and this is true in communication as well. So you need to break down those barriers Maybe you and your church have. Maybe it's an unwritten rule that really you don't value feedback or you don't ask for feedback. Maybe conversations are one way. They're from the top down. That probably should change. Every staff and every church DNA is different, but if you've got four out of 10 people which is what we found in last year's church staff health assessment that says that my church's leadership really doesn't communicate its vision and its mission to its staff regularly, that's something that's going to cost you in the long run. It might not cost you today, it might not cost you tomorrow, but it will cost you in the long run and it's probably going to cost you not only in effectiveness, but it's also going to cost you over time. It's going to cost you staff members that are going to leave. So commit to as much as you can to continuous improvement.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Effective communication is not a once and done thing. It's something that you have to continue to do. But today I want you to concentrate on asking yourself if you're a staff member, asking yourself maybe this question a little bit differently, but if you're a leader of staff, a little bit differently. But if you're a leader of staff, do I value the input of my staff and do I communicate my vision and our church's mission to our staff regularly. Because if your church is typical and we did research to talk to over a thousand different people probably hundreds of for sure, hundreds of different churches and four out of 10 say hey, my church really just doesn't do a really great job Only 28% not even a third of people that responded said that they strongly agree. About 32% said that they agree, 10% said they strongly disagree, 12% said that they disagree that their church does a good job with communication.

Speaker 1: 7:09

So remember, effective communication. It's really and we're going to talk about that more this week as we talk about communication it's really the foundation of a thriving church. In many ways, and particularly, it's a key factor in a thriving church staff and you just have to find ways. If you're not doing it, and you have to be intentional, I'm telling you, you have to be intentional for everyone to feel involved. You can foster open dialogue, practice empathy, try some different approaches and if you really try, with some of the tips that we're going to give you this week, to build a strong, if you really try, with some of the tips that we're going to give you this week, to build a strong, connected team, your communication will not only get better, but your team will get stronger.

Speaker 1: 7:57

Okay, so this is just one of the things that we're talking about this week. Tomorrow, we're going to continue on our theme of communication and we are going to be talking about how we build a culture of connection on our church staff team. So I hope you'll join us and in the meantime, before you do that, if you've got a couple minutes right now, I would love for you to just head over to churchstaffassessmentcom, take the free assessment. You'll get an email back with your results immediately and I'd love to hear any feedback you have on what you learn and what you're learning about communication and about your church staff health. I would love to hear it. Just send me an email anytime at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.