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
Before You Go - Understanding the Church You’re Considering
This episode emphasizes the critical considerations when moving to a new church, focusing on mission alignment, leadership styles, and congregation culture. Key insights include the importance of asking the right questions about the church's financial health, expectations, and ensuring a supportive environment for your family.
• Understanding the alignment of church mission with personal values
• Evaluating leadership structure and culture for a healthy fit
• Assessing financial health to ensure stability
• Observing congregational culture during site visits
• Documenting insights and questions throughout the process
• Emphasizing the importance of seeking wisdom in decision-making
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Hi there, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. I'm excited to have you with me here today. Transitions are not just about where you're leaving. They're also about where you're going to, and today we're going to dive into a crucial question Do you really understand the church that you're considering? Okay, we've been in this three-week series. We're closing out the first week today of this three-week series Based on Wade Hodges' book Before you Go questions every pastor must ask before moving on to a new church, and we're going to explore how to evaluate the church you're thinking of joining to ensure it's the right fit for you and your family.
Speaker 1:Stay tuned toward the end of the podcast I'll tell you exactly how you can get a free copy, a free PDF download, of Wade's book before you go. Okay, let's start here. And you already know this and you already know this Joining a new church is a huge decision and it's one that should be made with open eyes and a discerning heart, and Wade emphasizes that in his book that the understanding of culture and history and the expectations of the church you're considering it's really crucial to a healthy transition. Expectations of the church you're considering. It's really crucial to a healthy transition. So let's talk about some of these areas as you're looking toward a specific church that you think God might be calling you to, or a specific church that you're interested in moving to. Let's look at some of the areas to evaluate and consider, and the first one is just the church's mission and vision. Does the church's mission align with your personal calling? Are you excited about where they're headed or do you sense tension between their goals and your passions? And here's where you even at this very first area of looking at the church's mission and vision.
Speaker 1:A couple days ago we talked about are you running to something or from something? If you're running from something and you start to look at the church's mission, if you're running from something, you may make some bad calls here. When you talk about does the church's mission align with your personal calling? Yeah, are you excited about where they're headed? Yeah, I'm more excited about there than I am here. Do you sense tension between their goals and your passions? Sure, if you're running from something, it's going to skew how you look at your future potential church's mission and vision.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you, if you cannot answer these questions with a clear conscience and be really excited about them. Don't make the move, because you're going to be picking up the phone and calling me six to 18 months later and saying, todd, I made a bad decision, I didn't like where I was, but I really don't like where I am now either, because I don't align with their mission. So take that this is really vital, really important, and that's why I camped out here. It's really important, especially if you're running from something rather than to something. Make sure that you answer these questions and the other questions we're going to go through very honestly and don't just make up an answer to justify your decision to leave or to go to a particular church.
Speaker 1:Another question look at their leadership style. What's their leadership culture look like? Are their roles and responsibilities clear? Is the job description that they're giving to you clear? Are healthy leadership dynamics essential for long-term success? And if you're stepping out of something that's not healthy and you're stepping into something that's not healthy, guess what? You're going to get back to where you are today, wherever you go. So make sure that you're stepping into a healthy leadership structure at your new potential church.
Speaker 1:What's the culture of the congregation? What vibe do you get If you've visited the church, what vibe do you get? Do they seem to be open to change? Are they open to new ideas? Is there a sense of resistance to growth? And you can only tell these. You can't tell these things through a Zoom call. You can only tell these things through your site visit or your site visits what the vibe of the congregation are. And if they're open not only to change, but are they open to you, how do they treat you?
Speaker 1:And then also look at their financial health. Are they financially stable? I talk with candidates quite often and say, man, I feel like God might be calling me to this church. It's like everything I'm looking for, but they've got a $30,000 deficit and I don't know if they're going to be able to pay me long term. That's a really important consideration. Look at the church Are they financially stable? Financial struggles can create stress and limit opportunities and you might find yourself if the church can't support you and your family. You might find yourself, if the church can't support you and your family, you might find yourself looking for another role very quickly.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, two other things expectations for the role. I'll go through these quickly. What are the church's expectations for you? And we mentioned it. Is there a clear job description? Is there a clear role? Is it realistic? Do they align with your gifts and capacity? Are you genuinely excited about the church's job description and the church's expectation?
Speaker 1:And then, finally, you need to look at your family. Will your family thrive in this environment? If you're a guy and your wife says I really got to move, I'm tired of the snow and the cold, we live in Ohio, that's where I live, I'm tired of the snow and the cold, I just want to move someplace warmer, and you take a job in Minnesota, your wife may not thrive in that environment. She may say, yeah, I'll do it, but is she going to be happy? I don't know. A healthy fit for your family is just important as a healthy fit for you. You got to put your family up there, and the priorities as well. And understanding these aspects of the church, all these things that we talked about, can really help you avoid some surprises and ensure that the transition is a real positive one.
Speaker 1:So here's your bottom line for today you need to have a clear understanding of the church that you're considering. It's absolutely essential if you want to have a clear understanding of the church that you're considering. It's absolutely essential if you want to have a successful transition. You don't want to get there and find out things that you should have known before you took the job. I hear it all the time. I didn't know that they do, or I didn't know that this I had one guy tell me hey, they told me they were a church of 500. I got here and there were 115 people in the sanctuary. That's on you. You need to do your research to make sure that you align, that this is going to be a great fit and that there's no bait and switch going on here. And yes, churches do bait and switch all the time. Sometimes they do it knowingly, sometimes they do it unknowingly, but that's a whole thing for a whole other episode.
Speaker 1:All right, here's how to get started, and this week we're really talking about just writing down what you're thinking. Don't be afraid to ask about the church's history and their culture and their finances and their expectations, and take good notes. You can learn some of that on your Zoom calls. Most of your church is doing Zoom calls, unless you're really local. You can learn some of that, but really the majority of that. We call it chemistry. That's why we call it chemistry staffing. A lot of that chemistry you're going to learn, really with boots on the ground when you're doing a site visit, and the more, the better prepared you'll be and the better decision you could make. And that includes meeting the staff, attending a service, getting a good feel for the congregation's energy and culture, everything we just talked about. So maybe you're resonating this week with what we've been talking about. You're in this in between. Yeah, I think I'm going to go somewhere, but I'm trying to decide how to do it, when to do it, all of that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 1:If you're considering a move to a new church, I'd love to hear how you're navigating the process. Everybody kind of navigates it a little bit differently, but if you'd email me my email address is podcast at chemistrystaffingcom I'd love to hear your story, support and encourage you however I can. And if you're at your church and they're looking to hire new staff or just have any kind of staff issues, that's my specialty, it's what I've given my ministry toward helping churches and helping individuals get really good, good fits. Reach out to me. Chemistrystaffing a podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. There's a lot of resources. All these podcasts and everything is available over absolutely free charge at chemistrystaffingcom as well. It's a fantastic resource for pastors navigating transitions. And also a fantastic resource is this book by Wade Hodges, before you Go, that we've been basing our series on, and if you would like an absolutely free copy of Wade's book, just email me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd be happy to send you an absolutely free copy from us here at Chemistry and from Wade himself.
Speaker 1:Thanks for spending time with me today. I really there's so many different things you could be doing right now other than listening to me, and yet you chose to listen. So I really appreciate spending time with me. Here's what I want you to walk away with today and consider today Taking the time to truly understand your church that you're considering. It's really important. It can make all the difference in making sure that you start your next season well. You've got to do your homework, you've got to ask the good questions and trust that God will guide you. He says to ask for wisdom and he will freely give it to you, and I truly believe he will, all right, take care. I'll see you on Monday. Enjoy your weekend. We'll be back here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast on Monday. Have a good one.
