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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
The Seat Squatter Problem in Churches: What Every Leader Needs to Know
We examine what "seat squatters" teach us about church leadership and how to handle people who try to occupy positions they weren't assigned. This concept helps us understand entitlement in ministry settings and provides practical solutions for maintaining healthy boundaries.
• Entitlement will always find a loophole in church settings
• Set clear expectations and enforce them consistently, even when uncomfortable
• Accommodating the wrong people ultimately hurts the right people
• Stop rewarding bad behavior and protect faithful, humble volunteers
• Authority without accountability leads to chaos in ministry
• Lovingly reinforce structure and remind people that leadership is about service
• Churches run best when everyone stays in their assigned seat—the one God called them to
Have you dealt with seat squatters in your ministry? Share your experience or questions by emailing podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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Hey, have you ever been on a flight where someone just sits in a seat that they didn't pay for? Yeah, that's awful, but here's the real question how often does the same mentality show up in your church People stepping into roles that they weren't given, maybe skipping the process, maybe expecting privileges that they didn't earn or work for? And today we're going to break down what seat squatters teach us about church leadership and how to deal with ministry volunteers, staff and members who try to sit where they don't belong. I'm so glad you joined me. This is going to be an interesting discussion today. My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom.
Speaker 1:Today you are listening and watching, if you're on YouTube, the Healthy Church Staff podcast. Okay, three leadership church leadership lessons from church seat squatters. Interesting, huh? Let's just dive right into it. Number one entitlement will always find a loophole. Okay, so we're talking about seat squatters.
Speaker 1:All right, seat squatters don't just randomly pick a seat. All right, they usually are looking for an opportunity. They're looking for a seat that fits them well, even though they didn't earn it or pay for it. They're targeting an opportunity. They're assuming that others are just going to give in and they might just think nobody's sitting here, why not me? I deserve this spot more than the person who actually paid for it. We've seen some of the videos of some of the people on planes. They get taken off of planes because they have this sense of entitlement and they think what's the worst that could happen.
Speaker 1:And in churches, when we're talking about churches, entitlement shows up when a volunteer demands a leadership role without putting in the work, when somebody bypasses the decision-making process because God told them they should do something. Maybe a long-term member insists tradition matters more than mission and they refuse to adapt. I had someone one time came up and it was a choir member and said Todd, god told me that I'm supposed to come over to your house for dinner today. Literally, they said that and I said until God tells me that you're not coming to dinner. But it was somebody that just thought what's the worst that could happen? I'll just, I'll go for it. Okay, it might be a really poor example, but it happens. If you've been in church ministry, this kind of thing happens and entitlement shows its ugly head when you least expect it. So what is the solution here? Okay, so set clear expectations and you need to enforce them. Okay, consistently, even when it's uncomfortable, even when you have to tell somebody God's not told me that, so we're not going to do that right now. Okay, let people know that roles in ministry aren't about status, but they're about calling and faithfulness. Okay, so number two we're going to talk about today Accommodating the wrong people hurts the right people.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's go back to the plane for a second. All right, the original seat, odor, ended up trading seats with the squatter and got stuck next to her drunk husband. That's a classic example of maybe a misplaced accommodation. Okay, the same thing happens in churches. Here's how it happens.
Speaker 1:Okay, a loud, demanding person gets their way, while faithful, humble volunteers get overlooked. Does that ever happen in a church? The squeaky wheel? Yeah, it does. Loud, demanding people. They think what have I got to lose? And a lot of times they have nothing to lose because we as leaders give in to them and all the time, the person that's faithful and quiet and humble. Sometimes they get overlooked.
Speaker 1:Leaders avoid confrontation, thinking that they're maybe being gracious, but end up rewarding the wrong behavior. The wrong people are given influence and that causes others to feel undervalued or leave. So what is the solution here for this area? Stop rewarding bad behavior. If someone takes a ministry role without permission or forces their way into a position or just oversteps their bounds, you need to redirect them instead of giving in, instead of saying oh, that's just Peg, right, that's just Bill. He does that all the time If it was anybody else. You need to stop rewarding bad behavior. Protect the right people and don't let bullies take over. Sometimes people are bullies in the church. I have been told things at church as a staff member that no one would ever tell me outside the church. It's like the audacity of some people and you know this. If you're a leader, you need to stop. I know you hate conflict, I know you hate confrontation, but you need to stop rewarding bad behavior. That's the only solution here.
Speaker 1:Okay, number three authority, where entitlement creeps in. Authority without accountability usually will lead to chaos. Okay, imagine going back to the plane again if an airline didn't enforce their seat assignments. If they just said, yeah, I know you're 30AA, 34a, but you want to be in 1B, go for it. People would sit wherever they wanted and, believe me, chaos would ensue. Rules exist for a reason.
Speaker 1:Okay, in churches we sometimes fear enforcing structure because we don't want to seem ungracious and, yes, there are ungracious church leaders out there. You always need to be gracious, but without clear leadership and accountability, people will walk all over you. They will take roles they're not qualified for, they will override biblical authority and leadership because they feel entitled to it and they'll create division by ignoring the right process. They will. They'll take advantage. They'll think what the heck? What have I got to lose? Let's go for it and see what happens. Here's the solution. Don't be afraid to lovingly reinforce structure. Okay, set boundaries early and remind people that leadership is not about service, not about entitlement. Churches, like airlines, run best when everybody stays in their assigned seat, the one God actually called them to. When we let entitlement take over, the mission will suffer. The mission of your church will suffer.
Speaker 1:If you've ever dealt with seat squatters in your ministry, I would love to hear specific examples. Nothing will surprise me, but maybe and this is a little bit different way to look at this I've never really thought about this or heard this analogy, but do you have a seat squatter in your church, in your ministry, that you're dealing with? I'd love to hear a comment. You can send me your comment. Just tell me what you're going through. I'd love to hear your story. Nothing surprises me anymore. I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, but I'd love to hear stories. I'd love to hear about the seat squatter that you're dealing with, or somebody that you dealt with. Or maybe you said, todd, I'm dealing with this, how do I deal with it? What do you think? I would love to hear. You can send me questions anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to hear your comment and let's learn together through this. Okay, thanks so much.
Speaker 1:That's it for today's edition of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope it's been helpful. We're here for you every day, monday through Friday. We are here on the podcast. We are on our YouTube channel. You can check us out there as well for the video version of this podcast, and I hope you'll join me again right here tomorrow. Have a great one, you.
