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
Skills vs. Calling: Striking the Right Balance
Unlock the secret to making an exceptional church hire with our latest episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast! Guided by Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, we venture into the art of balancing skills, calling, character, and potential. While skills might get a candidate through the door, it's the calling that truly sets them apart, imbuing them with passion, humility, and growth. Todd shares a cautionary tale of a children's pastor whose stellar resume overshadowed a critical weakness—lack of a heart for discipleship—leading to a ministry that appeared successful but lacked genuine impact.
Navigate through the nuances of evaluating both skills and calling to ensure a candidate is not just job-hunting but truly aligned with your church's mission and culture. Todd offers insights into recognizing the deep sense of purpose in candidates and how this calling fuels their passion and dedication. This episode promises to equip you with the tools to not only assess technical qualifications but to uncover the potential for meaningful ministry leadership, ensuring that your church staff thrives and fosters a vibrant church community.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.
Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.
Hi there, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at Chemistry Staffing and your friendly guide through the often complicated world of church staffing and church health. You know we've been in the middle of a series here of the five pillars of a great hire and today we're on pillar number four and we're going to talk about skills. Now, if you missed any of these, just hit subscribe. You can go back and listen this week and actually Thursday and Friday, of last week's episodes we talked as we started this series. Like I said, today we're going to talk about skills, and I know that skills might seem like a pretty straightforward part of the hiring process. I mean, either you've got the skills and experience or you don't have the skills and experience. Not a whole lot you can do in the next five minutes to get that right. You've got a job description, you've got qualifications, you check the boxes right. Well, yes and no. Okay, skills matter, but they're not the only part of the equation and that's what we're going to talk about today. Balancing skills with calling and character and potential is where the real art of hiring comes in. So today we're going to talk about how to get that balance just right. So let's start with the obvious. I mean, skills are essential. If you're hiring a worship pastor, they've got to know how to lead worship right. If you're hiring a student pastor, they need to connect with teenagers, they need to love the students. Skills are the can they do the job part of the equation, and without them it's going to be really, really tough to succeed. But this is where it gets tricky. Just because someone can do the job doesn't mean they're the right fit for the job, for your church.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about this, okay. First of all, I want to tell you that skills are a starting point. Okay, they're a starting point, but they're not the whole picture. I mean, when you're looking at a candidate's resume, it's tempting Believe me, I look at resumes all day long a lot of times and it's tempting to focus on their skills, their technical qualifications. But hiring isn't just about finding someone who checks all the boxes. I mean, it's about finding someone who's called to the role. It's about finding someone who fits your church's culture and vision, as we've already talked about, and here's a quick story to illustrate. I mean, I heard of a church once that hired a children's pastor. She had an incredible, incredible resume. I mean tons of experience, creative ideas. I mean, she was the whole package. But what they didn't notice during the process was that this gal lacked a heart for discipleship. And she was great at planning planning events but she struggled to connect with families on a deeper level. And so what do you think the result was? I mean, the ministry felt really hollow and it looked good from the outside, but it wasn't producing the fruit that the church had hoped for. Okay, so skills are a starting point, but just because somebody has skills doesn't mean they're going to do great at your church.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the second part of this is calling. I mean, calling is what sets leaders apart. Calling is kind of that deep sense of purpose, the why behind the what. Okay, when someone is called, they bring more than just skills to the table. They bring passion, humility and a willingness to grow. And I know, man, my generation looks at calling and defines calling a lot differently than the generation before me and definitely the generations after me. So, but calling is still a huge part of when you're hiring somebody, to make sure that they're called, that they have that sense of purpose and that calling to do what you are asking them to do. So ask yourself this I mean, is this person here because they feel called to do the ministry or are they just looking for their next job? I mean, it's pretty easy a lot of times to be able to tell the person that's really committed and called and passionate about ministry or the person that's just looking for a next job. That's a huge distraction. It's worth digging into during the interview process. Okay, so calling is what sets great leaders apart.
Speaker 1:Now the third thing is assessing skills and calling together. All right. So how do you do both the skills and the calling? How do you put those together during the hiring process? Okay, here's a few tips For skills.
Speaker 1:Ask for some concrete examples. I mean, can you tell me, for example, a time when you led a team through a challenging situation? Right, that's a skill. What's a specific project or initiative that you're most proud of in your current role? That's a skill. Okay, look for results, not just generalities. So that's a couple of things you could ask for skills, hard skills For calling. Ask more reflective questions instead of concrete questions Like what excites you most about this role? How do you see God leading you into this next season of ministry Now. Pay attention to their energy level, pay attention to their focus, pay attention to whether they're really passionate or if it just feels like they're just filling words to make a sentence Okay, that will tell you a lot about their calling Okay.
Speaker 1:So and then, lastly and I'll leave you with this don't overlook potential. Here's the thing Sometimes the best candidates don't check every box. Matter of fact, we tell the churches that we work with you know, because they all come with a long list of check boxes that you're going to have to prioritize, because there's no perfect person and chances are, the person you eventually hire is not going to check every single box. Now, they might not have every technical skill that you're looking for, but you want to make sure that they're teachable and that they're passionate and that they are aligned with your church's mission. Everything else that we talked about so far in this series okay. A great hire is somebody who's not just ready to do the job today, but it's also willing to grow into it over time. So don't discount someone just because they're not perfect on paper or because they don't have every box checked off. Okay, that's really, really important. All right, here's your action step for today. Here's where the rubber meets the road and your bottom line, however you want to put it.
Speaker 1:If you're in the process of hiring, I want you to take a fresh look at your job description. That's right. Nobody likes to write job descriptions, nobody likes to look at job descriptions. But I want you to pull out that job description and ask yourself three questions. Number one, number first are we focused too heavily on technical skills at the expense of character or calling? Okay, where are we putting our priorities? Number two are we willing to invest in someone with potential if they align with our missions and values? Some churches are absolutely yes, we would love to hire somebody that's a little bit green, that we can invest in, that has great potential. Other churches are like no, we need plug and play. Where are you on that continuum? Okay. And number three do we have a plan to develop the skills of our staff once we're hired?
Speaker 1:Once they're hired, even if you're not hiring somebody with potential, you still have to develop skills and compatibility with your team once that person's hired. We call it onboarding. So, even if you're not hiring right now, think about your current team. I mean, are there areas where you've prioritized skills over calling, or maybe vice versa. How can you strike a better balance moving forward, better balance moving forward? And maybe you're just smack dab in the middle of navigating a tricky hire or maybe a tricky fire, or you just need to figure out how to balance these skills and callings in your interviews or on your team.
Speaker 1:Let's talk. Email me anytime at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to be able to help you. Hop on a Zoom call, a quick Zoom call, and I'd love to hear more about your situation and how I might be able to help. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss tomorrow's episode as well. Tomorrow we're diving into the final pillar of a great hire, and that's chemistry. It's really kind of the secret sauce. That's why we named our company Chemistry Staffing. It's the sauce that can make or break a staff team. So don't miss that tomorrow. Okay, all right, that's it for today. Remember, a great hire isn't just about finding someone who can do the job. It's about finding someone who's called to the role and aligned with your church's mission. And when you get that balance right, man, it's amazing what God can do through your team. Thanks so much for taking this eight minutes and 40 seconds to talk with me today and to listen, so enjoy our time together and I will see you back here again tomorrow. You.
