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 Ministry Unicorn Myth
Many churches waste time searching for perfect ministry candidates that don't exist. This unrealistic quest for a "ministry unicorn" leads to extended vacancies, team burnout, and missed opportunities to hire promising leaders with potential to grow.
• Churches often create impossible job descriptions seeking candidates with every qualification imaginable
• Warning signs of unicorn hunting include searches lasting over nine months with no frontrunner
• Search committees frequently disqualify strong candidates over minor flaws or preferences
• Prolonged vacancies lead to staff burnout and loss of church momentum
• Better approach: look for faithfulness, fruitfulness, teachability and mission alignment
• Shift from seeking "perfect fit" to finding "mission fit" candidates
• Great ministry leaders aren't found fully formed but developed within supportive communities
• Focus on character and chemistry rather than perfect credentials
Reach out anytime at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com to discuss your church's hiring challenges and develop healthier approaches to building your ministry team.
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Many churches are stuck in neutral, kind of, on this endless search for the perfect staff member, this mythical preacher with flawless theology and dynamic leadership and cross-generational charm and a resume that reads like a superhero origin story. It's time that we bury the unicorn. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes and I am one of the co -founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and you are listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. What if I told you that the perfect ministry candidate doesn't exist and it probably never did? If your church is still holding out during a staff search for a ministry unicorn, you're wasting your time and you're burning out your team and you're missing out on some incredible leaders hiding, possibly even in plain sight, and that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about what's really killing your hiring process.
Speaker 1:I worked every day with churches and with candidates in my work as a co-founder here at Chemistry Staffing and I can tell you the myth of the ministry unicorn is real. We've all heard the list right. I talk to churches every day. Sometimes it's uncanny what a church is looking for. If you've looked at a job description for a church, sometimes they're four, five, six pages long, and sometimes you're going to get a list like this. We want a PhD in theology, we want 20 years of experience, but you've got to be under 35, right, you need to be that dynamic communicator and yet a deep shepherd, a tech genius. You really need to have some personal skills, some emotional intelligence. It'd be helpful if you're bilingual, matter of fact, yeah, we want bilingual. And if you can be musical or maybe your wife is musical that of course is helpful, and of course we want to pay you as cheaply as we can. Right, does that sound familiar? Maybe, if you're a church, hopefully that doesn't sound familiar. But if you're a job seeker, you're probably shaking your head and saying, yep, I've heard that story before. That is not a candidate, that's a unicorn and unicorns. A little secret for you here today unicorns aren't real. A little secret for you here today Unicorns aren't real.
Speaker 1:Churches that cling to this fantasy of the perfect candidate often see searches that stall for months or even years because they're just waiting, waiting for someone who checks every imaginary box. But the truth is, this mindset isn't just unrealistic, it can be harmful. Okay, what the Unicorn Fund does for your church is this the longer that you hold out for the unicorn, that perfect candidate okay, the more that your current staff can burn out and that your congregation can lose momentum and that your mission can get stuck in limbo. And churches, many times that are chasing perfection, often are overlooking candidates Matter of fact, I would say, most of the time are overlooking candidates with really great potential, character and calling. And instead of asking can this person grow with us, they ask why aren't they more like our last superstar? Or why don't they look like that megachurch pastor that we saw on YouTube? And it's really easy to get caught in the trap. It's really easy to get caught in the unicorn trap.
Speaker 1:Here are some of the signs. Here's some of the warning signs that your church might be on a mythical quest for a person that just doesn't exist. Okay, if you've been in search mode for over nine months with no clear front runner, that is probably a sign that you're looking for a unicorn. If your search team keeps saying we'll know the right one when we see them, sometimes that can be an indication. Maybe you've disqualified some strong candidates for just tiny little flaws or preferences. That could be a sign. Maybe your candidate profile keeps growing longer rather than shorter, month after month. Or maybe you secretly believe that God is just going to drop the right person in your lap. Let me tell you, my friend, that is not discernment, that's denial. So I want to give you a better path today.
Speaker 1:If your church is stuck in a search and you're just like well, waiting for just the right person, there's nothing wrong with waiting for just the right person, but there's something wrong with waiting for just the right person when you've got a list a mile long and you're not willing to budge on everything when you're looking for that perfect unicorn candidate. Here's some things to do instead. Look for faithful and fruitful. Instead of searching for perfection, search for faithfulness. Okay, look for people who are already doing fruitful ministry where they are. Look for people that have a teachable spirit and an emotional health that can work well in your church or your situation. Look for people that align with your mission, even if they need a little bit of support to grow into the role.
Speaker 1:Okay, the key to having a great hire is not plug and play. It's character and mission and making sure that the person that you find is going to be a great chemistry and bring some great chemistry, not just credentials, to your church. Okay, remember, great ministry leaders aren't found truly formed. They're actually developed in their community, and even the best candidate, wherever they came from, is going to be different than your church. Okay, so let me talk just a little bit, and then I'll get you out of here for today, about a better framework for hiring.
Speaker 1:Okay, I would love for you to shift your hiring mindset from perfect fit to mission fit Okay, and instead of asking a question that sounds good, but it's just not, instead of asking are they perfect for us? Ask things like can they do the job, can they grow with us, can we love and lead them well and do they help us become more like Jesus individually and as a church? Okay, so stop looking for those mythical beings and start cultivating real disciples. Yep, even at the staff. Okay, here's the bottom line for today. There's no such thing as a ministry unicorn, but there are amazing God-called leaders that are waiting to be seen, not for their perfection, but for their potential.
Speaker 1:I hope this has challenged you a little bit today, especially if your church is in the middle of a search and it's just not going well, or it's going way too long and searches are taking. To be honest, searches are taking a little longer these days than what they were a few years ago. But if you're stuck, if you would just like to talk through some of this and say, todd, help us to know, maybe we've been looking for this unicorn, maybe we need to be a little bit more realistic, but we don't know what realistic looks like for us. I'd love to have a conversation with you. Reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I absolutely love to come alongside churches and help them develop healthy church staffs, and part of that includes hiring really healthy church staff people. So reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, thanks so much. That's it for today. We will be right back here tomorrow here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
