The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Why Apple Geniuses Might Make Great Youth Pastors
Churches could learn valuable hiring lessons from Apple, which selects employees based on communication skills and emotional intelligence rather than just technical abilities. This approach to staffing could transform youth ministry by prioritizing the ability to connect meaningfully with students rather than simply being young and entertaining.
• Apple hires exceptional communicators, empathetic problem solvers, and people who thrive under pressure
• Churches often hire youth pastors based primarily on energy and charisma, overlooking emotional intelligence
• Great youth pastors can explain spiritual truth clearly and relate to students in all emotional states
• Three "genius-style" questions to ask youth pastor candidates focus on communication, listening, and composure
• Job descriptions should emphasize emotional maturity, coachability, and relational depth
• Practical steps include reviewing job descriptions, observing successful relational environments, and developing better interview questions
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What if I told you that the best pastor youth pastor that you've ever hired might be working at an Apple store right now. Apple just doesn't hire techies. They hire exceptional communicators. They hire empathetic problem solvers and they hire people who thrive under pressure. So why do we often hire student pastors just because they're young and fun and can throw a football? Stick with me, because today we're going to talk about how this small change in the way that your church builds its next generation team might be a game changer for you.
Speaker 1:Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and I am your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. All right, so what makes an Apple genius a genius? Right? Apple is not just looking for text wizards, right? They're looking for people who can relate to others, who can break down complex problems into understandable solutions and create a positive emotional experience. So before you ever touch a screwdriver at Apple, you're going to be trained in human interaction. They literally have empathy training. Think about it. They have empathy training before they talk anything about the expertise. Okay. So, as that is our baseline, okay, let's apply that to ministry just for a second. Isn't that exactly what you want in a youth pastor. Some churches just I believe and I work in the hiring space in the church a lot of churches just are hiring the wrong way. They tend to look for energy over that EQ, that emotional intelligence. Can they connect with students really means, are they fun and outgoing? But if you don't have the charisma or the character or the strategy, you're going to have a really shallow youth ministry. We often overlook some of those soft skills that Apple starts with. Apple prizes these things like listening and guiding and adjusting to each individual person's needs. So what if we build a hiring process for youth pastors that prioritize people skills first? The genius blueprint for youth ministry might actually work in your church. What if your youth ministry team started with kind of three genius style questions Okay, so if you're looking for youth pastors, a youth pastor in your church in the near future, maybe these questions might be able to help you.
Speaker 1:Can they clearly explain spiritual truth in a way that students actually understand? That's the first question. Okay, that's very much an EQ question, it's not a. Are you going to have high energy? Are the kids going to love you? It's really a genius style question.
Speaker 1:When you're talking to a potential youth pastor ask them hey, can you clearly explain spiritual truth in a way that students actually understand? Of course their answer is going to be sure. I can Then ask them how they do it. Give me an example of how you in the past have explained the spiritual truth to a specific student. I always ask.
Speaker 1:When I'm talking specifically with youth pastors, I always say tell me a little bit different style of this genius style question. All right, but tell me about a life change in a specific student that you've helped mentor. And I tell you what. If they don't have a story, there's your answer. If they have to dig really hard to find a life change story. But most of the really great youth pastors that we interview, when we ask them that story, their face kind of lights up and they instantly think. Sometimes they're like, wow, let me think which one I want to share here, because they actually get this and they're doing that.
Speaker 1:So again, the first question is getting them to explain how they work through spiritual growth with specific students. Okay, the second question how do they know how to listen to teens, even when they're awkward or confused or angry, because let's just put this on the table, and I had four teenagers right and every one of them was awkward at times. They were confused at times and sometimes they were just angry. Do they know how to listen? Does this potential youth pastor of yours? Do they know how to listen to students? Okay, particularly when the students aren't all rosy and happy. And then the last question are they calm under pressure, like when your middle schooler just broke the toilet in the youth room? Do they fly off the handle? Or are they cool and calm under pressure? Apple evaluates candidates on these kind of principles, on these kind of emotional intelligence principles. And I tell you what it works If you can't hold your cool when somebody is really upset that you're not fixing their computer, if you can't do that, you're not going to last that long in an Apple Genius Bar.
Speaker 1:Let's stop writing these job descriptions for youth pastors that say, hey, you've got to be fun, you've got to be young, you've got to be willing to eat bugs for attention, those kind of things. Instead, what we really should be saying is that you need to be emotionally intelligent, you need to be coachable and you need to be relational. And if you hire somebody just because of their energy level or their looks, you're going to be sorely disappointed when you end up with kind of a shallow ministry or when you have to kind of reprimand your youth pastor for losing it with a student. You need to be able to train volunteers like a genius bar trains team members and you need to be able to hire staff like a genius bar hires staff because that's really the ministry that lasts. Okay, so practical takeaways for your church here Three simple things that your church can do this month.
Speaker 1:Okay, and this is I'm taking it walking back out of the youth pastor realm here for a second Three simple things that your church can do this month. First is look at your job descriptions. How many lists communication or empathy or emotional maturity as required traits Not just for youth pastors all across the board it's really important for all kinds of positions that you're hiring and all kinds of people that you have on your staff. Okay, so that's the first one. Just look at your job descriptions. Second kind of takeaway that you could do is, if you're close to an Apple store, go watch a Genius Bar in action. Seriously, go to an Apple store and observe, because you will see, because you've heard this podcast, and kind of know how they train, you're going to pick up some of that empathy that Apple saw in this employee, hopefully if you get a good Apple genius. And then the last thing is just take some of this information and develop better interview questions. The next time you're interviewing a candidate, ask tell me about the time you made somebody feel, seen and heard Questions like that emotional questions, emotional intelligence questions. You don't have to clone Apple, all right, but you can learn from Apple's genius.
Speaker 1:Okay, you want to build a healthier, more effective youth ministry staff? It starts with hiring like Apple, not just for charisma, but also for capacity and character. I hope this has been helpful to you. I would love maybe you want to push back and say no, todd, the emotional intelligence is not all that important. What are you talking? What are you smoking over there? I would love to hear from you. You can reach out to me anytime with your comments good, positive or negative, just be nice, right? You can reach me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I read each and every email, try to respond to as many as I can and I will be back here again tomorrow, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're here every day, monday through Friday, for some short, hopefully encouragement, maybe a little wisdom here and there to get you through your ministry week. All right, thanks so much. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow. You.
