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
Ministry Staff Need Margin—Here’s How to Build It In
The most mission-critical staffing strategy for churches might be slowing down and incorporating Sabbath thinking into your organizational culture. When we treat Sabbath as a structural element of staffing rather than just a personal spiritual discipline, we create sustainable ministry that prevents burnout instead of reacting to it.
• Sabbath isn't just spiritual—it's structural and should be embedded in how we hire and lead
• Celebrating exhaustion is not a spiritual gift and often leads to turnover, cynicism, and moral failure
• Staff margin equals mission sustainability—ministry is a marathon with eternal stakes, not a sprint
• Churches with "Sabbath-savvy staffing" retain leaders longer and create healthier cultures
• Practical strategies include building buffer into roles, allowing seasonal flexibility, designating true off days, and even quarterly mental health days
• If a role can't be done with health and wholeness, it might need restructuring
If you're wondering how to build a staff culture that lasts, reach out to me at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com. We have team members ready to partner with you to develop a healthy staff culture plan.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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What if I told you about your church's next best staffing move isn't about hiring a rockstar pastor or even revamping your board chart. It could be about Sabbath. That's right. In a world obsessed with hustle and being busy all the time and constantly moving forward, maybe the most mission-critical staffing strategy may be one that just slows things down a little bit. Stick with me and I'll show you how I think Sabbath thinking could be the thing that keeps your staff from crashing and even maybe, your ministry from burning out.
Speaker 1:Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm also one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. Okay, we've talked about Sabbath a time or two here on the podcast and I will fully admit up front, I don't do as well with Sabbath as I should, but I'm doing better than I used to. Maybe I'm talking about this today because I feel like I need this, but I think it particularly is important when you're talking about church staff and keeping your church staff healthy, because, you see, sabbath isn't just spiritual, it's structural, and too oftentimes I think we treat Sabbath like it's just some kind of a personal spiritual discipline, but for church staff, it really needs to become a part of the structure of how we hire and how we lead. It's just that important. When God built Sabbath into creation, he wasn't just giving us a break. He was really trying to embed a rhythm that sustains life and health.
Speaker 1:And staffing without Sabbath thinking means hiring people just to fill tasks, not to flourish in their calling. So a couple questions for you to ask here. Are you hiring roles that require hustle every week to survive, or are you building in some margin that reflects at least a little bit of trusting God here and there? Burnout is not a bridge of honor. So let's stop celebrating exhaustion like it's some kind of spiritual gift. If you're not just constantly moving, if you're not just pushing all the limits all the time, you're not doing your job. No, celebrating exhaustion, exhaustion, is not a spiritual gift. Church leaders aren't more holy because they're always busy or they're always tired. And the truth is burnout leads a lot of times to turnover that's staffing right, cynicism, that's staffing health right and sometimes even moral failure. And believe me, you don't want to go there. A lot of churches have and a lot of leaders have, because they don't take their spiritual life seriously and their ministry spiritual life very seriously or as seriously as at least they should. When Sabbath thinking is woven into your staffing structure and this might be a new concept to you, but when it's woven into even your staffing structure you're going to hire at a pace that helps prevent burnout, not reacts to it, and what that means is you're going to have, hopefully, fewer emergency hires, maybe some more sabbaticals, or maybe some sabbaticals, maybe better delegation structures, because ministry should flow from rest, not from rescue missions.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when you here's another way to think of it Think of staff margin as equaling your church's mission sustainability. Okay, ministry isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, and it's a marathon with absolutely eternal stakes. Right, there's a lot at stake. People's eternal destiny is at stake. That's why we got into this business. Right, but that's really why God called many of us is because we were called by God to help make a difference, and the stakes are high. So, when it comes to staff, why do we treat everything like it's a hundred yard dash? So step back for just a minute and think about, maybe this wild idea.
Speaker 1:Okay, like I said, step back, open your mind here. What if your team didn't feel guilty about finishing their work at four o'clock on a Thursday? What if their work was done and they were able to take off an hour early? Not every day I've seen some staff that take off. They come in at one and leave at three. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about don't feel guilty if you're not working 10 hours a day, because that margin that you have when you create those areas where just margin that's going to fuel your creativity and rest is going to refuel that resilience that you really need to have, both in your church leadership and in your staff Churches.
Speaker 1:With Sabbath let me call it Sabbath savvy staffing retain leaders longer. You're going to experience fewer transitions, fewer people going off your staff, which means that you won't need to hire as many new people, which I guess is not good for me I own a staffing company, but anyway but you'll create cultures where people want to stay and want to serve, and those cultures will be healthier and that's a great win for your church. So here's what I want you to ask Can your current staffing model handle a slow season? Can it handle a crisis? Can it handle a creative breakthrough? So, as I sum this up today here, as we talked about Sabbath, I want you really to think of maybe considering this as a Sabbath strategy, and here's what it actually might look like. Okay, because you're probably saying, todd, you've got to land the plane here. Tell me exactly how do I do this. All right, so here are some ideas on how you can build this Sabbath as a strategy.
Speaker 1:Okay, in your staff and in your staff hiring. Okay, build in some buffer into your roles. Okay, not every hire has to be maxed out. You don't have to have your new hire working. I still see job descriptions that say 40 to 60 hours a week. That has no buffer, especially if someone has a family. So build in those buffer roles. Not every hire has to be maxed out. Not every hire has to be like 100 miles an hour all the time. Allow some flexibility in workflow based on ministry seasons. Some seasons are a little heavier. Some times of life are a little bit more challenging. Maybe you've got a big event or a big outreach. Seasons are fine to run hard right, and we should be running hard, but you can't run hard all the time.
Speaker 1:And then a couple other ideas Designate true off days for everyone and respect them. I think I've mentioned on here before. My son works at a church. He's a tech director at a church and they call I don't know that. They call it mental health days, but essentially that's what it is, and here's what they tell their staff. And this is a great kind of a Sabbath as a strategy Strategy. Okay, they say, hey, one day a quarter, one day a quarter four times a year. We want you to not to come into the office, we want you to not look at your email, we want you to not do anything church related. We want you to go and do something. Go sit in the woods and read your Bible, go do something, a hobby that you like to do, something that will refresh your soul, something that will re-energize you. No guilt, no harm, no foul. Matter of fact, if you don't take this, we're going to be on your butt about it. Okay, so that's one way that you can do this. And just by designating some true off days for everybody and then make sure that they respect them, because if you don't enforce that or respect that, people will find ways not to do it.
Speaker 1:We just a lot of us are hard workers and it's hard for us to step back. You can maybe fund some sabbaticals and enforce some digital off-ramps. Maybe you could hire with margin as a value, not as a luxury. So the bottom line for today is I'm going over here a little bit, but SABBA thinking is a staffing filter. So if a role can't be done with health and wholeness, it might just not be the right role. You may need to just back up for a little bit and say, okay, what do we need to take out of here? Because whoever we hire for this role, we want them here for the long run. We want them not to burn out. We want them not to have to run a hundred miles an hour, eight days a week. Okay, sabbath just isn't a command, it's a gift and it's a strategy. Your staff deserves more than just survival. They really do need some space to thrive.
Speaker 1:If you're wondering how in the world to build a staff culture, a team culture that lasts, I'd love to chat with you. I'd love to hear where you're at, hear where you're struggling. We have people on our team that would love to come alongside you and partner with you to come up with and help you develop this Sabbath or this Healthy Staff Culture plan. So you can reach out to me anytime if you'd like to have a conversation for your church. My email address is podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your comments on this as well and how your church maybe one thing that your church has done, or maybe one way that your church has been stung in this area in the past. I would love to hear it Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, that's it for today's podcast. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. You.
