The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Theology: Finding Alignment Without Compromise
Can theological differences make or break a church team's success? Join us for a compelling exploration of this critical question in the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, where I'm Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing. Together, we'll unpack the first of five pillars essential to making a great hire: theology. Navigating theological alignment in your church staff can feel overwhelming, but it's crucial for harmony and effectiveness. This episode is packed with insights into defining your church's non-negotiables—those core beliefs that are non-negotiable for your church's mission and identity. We'll touch on everything from the authority of scripture to spiritual gifts, ensuring you communicate these closed-fisted beliefs clearly in all hiring materials.
At Chemistry Staffing, we employ a robust 25-question theological assessment to ensure alignment between candidates and your church’s beliefs. This tool helps distinguish between green flags of agreement, yellow flags that warrant discussion, and red flags that are non-starters. Discover how even seasoned church leadership teams often uncover theological discrepancies among themselves, underscoring the necessity of clearly defined non-negotiables. Plus, learn where flexibility can thrive on open-handed issues, like predestination or rapture timing, allowing for diverse perspectives while maintaining unity. Tune in for a practical conversation that will equip your church to thrive in theological harmony.
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Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, the co-founder over at chemistrystaffingcom, and I'm your partner here on the podcast and hopefully helping you build a stronger, healthier and more effective church team. Today we did the introduction yesterday, so go back and listen, if you would. If you missed it to yesterday's introduction. We're diving into the first of the five pillars of a great hire. These are the pillars, the five pillars that we use all day, every day at Chemistry Staffing. This first pillar is theology.
Speaker 1:Now, let's be honest. Theology can feel like it's a minefield in the hiring process. I mean, how do you make sure a candidate aligns with your church's beliefs without turning the interview into a seminary exam? How do you navigate theological differences without compromising the church's core values? It's an important one, so let's get right to it. Okay, so theology, the foundation of ministry absolutely.
Speaker 1:If a church and its staff aren't aligned theologically, it's not a matter of if conflict will arise, it's a matter of when conflict will arise. So the first thing that you need to do is define your non-negotiables. The first step is to be crystal clear on your church's core theological beliefs, and I'm talking about the non-negotiables. The first step is to be crystal clear on your church's core theological beliefs, and I'm talking about the non-negotiables. These are the hills that you're going to die on, okay, the big things that define your church's identity and mission. Now, these might be the authority of scripture, it might be salvation through Christ alone, it might be your stance on baptism, or spiritual gifts or end times theology. It's different for every church. We talk about open-handed issues, those things that you're kind of open-handed on. You have people that believe different things and you're okay with that, and then we have closed-fisted issues. Those are the things that, man, these are the hills we're going to die on and those close-handed issues. We need to have somebody on our team that believes the same way we do. So whatever your church holds as essential, let's make sure it's documented and clearly communicated in all of your hiring materials.
Speaker 1:Ambiguity is the enemy of alignment. So a couple of really kind of fun things here. First of all, is everybody really on the same page theologically? This is how we do it. Here's the first thing I want to share. This is how we do it.
Speaker 1:At Chemistry, we have a theological assessment. It's 25 questions that all of our churches and all of our candidates fill out. It asks questions about authority of scripture and salvation and baptism and spiritual gifts and, in times, theology and and cultural things. We do that at the beginning of each of our searches and then we compare what the church says, what your church says and what each candidate says, and we identify the green flags, those things that you agree on. The yellow flags that maybe are the open-handed issues that you need to have a discussion about and the red flag issues. You know, if those are just close-handed issues, if your church says we believe in the virgin birth, and a candidate comes across our scope and we ask them the question, they say I don't believe in the virgin birth, that's a red flag issue Never going to work. It's a non-starter, okay. So that's how we handle it.
Speaker 1:But really interesting thing is that a lot of times the churches we're working with will sit down even the leadership team on their staff, maybe two or three people on their pastor, executive, pastor, co-pastor, whatever We'll sit down and they'll fill out that try to get together collectively and fill out that theological assessment and they will discover that they might not even all be on the same page, even current staff. It's really important to define your non-negotiables. And then number two, understand where flexibility is possible. Here's the thing Not every theological issue needs to be a deal breaker. Not every theological issue needs to be a deal breaker. Some do those close-handed issues absolutely do. But some differences, like maybe views on predestination or the timing of the rapture, might fall into the kind of we can agree to disagree and still get along and fellowship well together. Now, in some churches those are core issues, so they would not be, but in other churches, you know, like a literal six-day creation. For some churches that's a huge deal, for other churches it's like, you know, it's not a big deal for us, okay. So before you start interviewing, you need to ask yourself what are we willing to be flexible on and what's non-negotiable? You know, being up front with candidates about this can save you both sides a lot of time and a lot of heartache.
Speaker 1:And again, what we try to do with our assessment process with both the churches and the candidates if you're working with us at Chemistry Staffing is we try to identify those red flags. We throw those candidates out. They don't ever make it to you. The green flags man, you're in agreement? That's awesome. We identify the yellow flags. The devil, let me tell you, the devil lives in those yellow flag issues, especially theologically. So what you need to do is identify those, and our assessments will help you to do that. Identify those yellow flags and then those are the things that you're going to want to have theological discussions around before you make the hire and you determine whether is this person going to be a good fit. Can we agree to disagree on this one area, or is it a big deal? Okay, so that's really how we work and I think that's one of the most valuable services that we offer and that search firms offer a church is.
Speaker 1:We know the questions to ask. We've got the assessment pieces in place to be able to identify those yellow flags and kind of steer you into the right direction as far as what conversations you need to have. Okay, number three ask the right questions. Just mentioned that this is where the rubber meets the road. I mean, during interviews, don't just ask candidates to check boxes on that theological questionnaire. Instead, ask some open-ended questions in some of those yellow areas and reveal how they really kind of live out their beliefs. So, for example, how does your theology shape your approach to ministry? That's huge. That's huge. Can you share an example of how you've navigated a theological disagreement with grace. I mean, what excites you most about our church's statement of faith? Those kinds of questions will help you see how a candidate's theology aligns with their character and with their philosophy of ministry as well. And then, lastly, I mean, watch out for red flags. Every once in a while you'll come across a candidate who gives all the right answers. In our work at Chemistry we can usually identify these candidates pretty quickly because we talk to so many candidates. We've heard every story, so we can usually identify these candidates right away.
Speaker 1:If you don't interview people for a living, a lot of times you might get taken by a candidate that just seems to have all the right answers, but in the end something just doesn't quite sit right. I mean, maybe they're overly rigid or they seem maybe a little evasive. Pay attention to your instincts. Okay, a candidate might sound theologically great on paper but lack the humility or grace to work with somebody well in a team setting. So a church that we worked with once hired a youth pastor, a brilliant theologian. This wasn't a church that we worked with, but a church that I know hired a youth pastor, brilliant theologian, but he couldn't connect with students because they approached every conversation like a debate. Needless to say, the ministry struggled. I mean, theology does matter, but it does matter how it's also played out in relationship. All right. So bottom line for today, here's what I'd love to have you do Take a look at your church's statement of faith this week, ask these questions, three questions, okay, your statement of faith?
Speaker 1:Is it clear? Is it accessible or could it use some updating? Okay, number two have we defined and decided what's non-negotiable versus what's open to interpretation? What are our open-handed, what are our closed-fisted issues? And then, number three are we prepared to ask questions that go beyond doctrine and dig into how theology shapes this person's ministry? Now, once you've clarified those things, make sure that your hiring team is all on the same page. Make sure everybody's on the same page before you even start interviewing.
Speaker 1:Okay, hey, if you're in the middle of hiring and feel stuck on how to navigate kind of this theological alignment piece, I'd love to talk with you. Shoot me an email podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd be happy to help you think through it. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss tomorrow's episode. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the second pillar of a great hire, and that's culture fit. I mean, how do you figure out whether a candidate will thrive in your church's unique environment? It's going to be a good one, so make sure you stay tuned. And that's it for today. Remember theological alignment. It's more than just ticking those boxes. It's about building a team that's unified in both belief and mission. You've got to take your time. You've got to do the work. You've got to trust the process and it will work out. Okay. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I will see you tomorrow here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
