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
Silent Alarm: The Myth of 'Just Find the Unicorn'
We tackle a harmful church hiring myth: the fantasy of finding the "unicorn" or perfect candidate with impossible qualifications at a modest salary. While churches wait for this mythical person, positions remain open, current staff get overloaded, volunteer morale drops, and the congregation suffers.
• Churches waste months or years holding out for candidates with conflicting qualifications (seminary trained but relatable, visionary but administrative)
• The perfect candidate is not coming, but great staff members might be right in front of you
• Phrases like "we're waiting for the right person" often mask unclear hiring priorities
• Prolonged vacancies hurt your team culture, volunteers, and congregational health
• Clarify your non-negotiables and distinguish between ideal and essential qualifications
• Hire for trajectory not perfection - the best leaders become great, they don't arrive that way
• Consider internal candidates, marketplace leaders, and people who don't fit your traditional mold
• Ask if you're looking for someone to lead a role or rescue your church - the latter is unrealistic
For more on this topic, get my new book "Silent Alarm: The Quiet Collapse of the Church Staff Pipeline and How to Rebuild it Before it's Too Late" at chemistrystaffing.com/silentalarm or on Amazon.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
Be sure to subscribe to The Healthy Church Staff Podcast wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.
- - - - -
Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.
Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.
Hey there, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes and we are on episode number four of our Silent Alarm series 10 hard-hitting, hope-filled hopefully hope-filled conversations about what's broken in the church staff pipeline and what you and your church can do about it. And today we're going to tackle a hiring myth that's hurting a lot of churches more than they realize, and we're going to talk about the fantasy of finding a unicorn, finding the perfect candidate. Okay, the type. They're seminary trained but also a compelling communicator. They're culturally savvy but deeply theologically grounded. They're young enough to reach Gen Z and mature enough to win over boomers. They're a strong leader, a humble team player, a mentor. They're a visionary. They're a systems thinker, oh, and they're willing to move across the country for about $45,000 or $55,000 in no housing allowance.
Speaker 1:This is a unicorn hire, and churches are wasting months, even years, holding out for them. We talked about this last week on the podcast, but let me say it again here very plainly your unicorn, your perfect candidate, is not coming, but your next great staff member might be standing right in front of you if you change how you look at things. All right, the myth of the unicorn hire shows up in phrases like we just want. We just want to wait for the right person. We'll know it when we see it. We just haven't found it. We haven't found the right fit. Yet we're holding out for somebody really special.
Speaker 1:Now. Are high character, high capacity, high alignment leaders out there? Absolutely. But are they applying to every new church job opening on churchstaffingcom? Nope, they're not. And are they going to be a perfect fit from day one? Also nope. Are they likely to have every single attribute your search team is dreaming up on the whiteboard Triple nope.
Speaker 1:But here's what happens. While you wait for a unicorn, the position is going to stay open for a really long time and your current team is going to carry the weight of that. Your volunteer morale drops because they have to step up and do the work of the youth pastor. Because there is no youth pastor and, believe it or not, people leave quietly, volunteers leave quietly, congregation members leave quietly. Sometimes staff leave quietly because they see no hope for getting any help on their staff and your culture suffers. All because you're just chasing this fantasy of a perfect. If we just find the perfect person, all of our troubles will go away. You're chasing this fantasy instead of investing in what's real. Here's your truth bomb for today. Perfect candidates and perfect unicorns aren't real, and holding out for one is usually just code, for we don't really know what we're looking for yet. All right, so let's talk a little bit about the cost of unrealistic expectations. And in my work at Chemistry Staffing, here's what I'm seeing over and over again. Chemistry staffing here's what I'm seeing over and over again.
Speaker 1:Churches many times create impossibly long job descriptions with conflicting priorities. They want a creative visionary who loves administration Good luck with that right. They want someone experienced but not set in their ways Again opposing there. Sometimes. They want somebody who'll challenge the team but not ruffle any feathers. Now come on right. They want someone who's led a church of 2,000, but is excited to move to a town of 800. Seriously, sometimes it happens, but it's very rarely the case. And when those candidates don't show up, they say God must not be leading anybody right now. But often it's not a spiritual problem, it's more of a strategic one.
Speaker 1:So let me give some ideas about what you can do instead. Let's be constructive and here's how to shift. Okay, first of all, clarify your non-negotiables what really matters Character, theology, leadership, style. First of all, clarify your non-negotiables. What really matters? Character, theology, leadership, style. Be honest what do you have to have, what are your non-negotiables, what are your nice-to-have and what are the things that you just absolutely have to have? You need to make this distinguish the distinction between ideal and essential.
Speaker 1:Don't load every church hope into one hire. That's too much to put on one person and even if you find somebody that you think is the perfect candidate, they're going to buckle under that pressure because that's way too much pressure for one person. Hire for trajectory, not perfection. You don't need a plug-and-play candidate. Are they teachable? Do they grow? Can they lead with support and widen the lens?
Speaker 1:Look at internal candidates and marketplace leaders and people who don't necessarily match your old mold but fit your mission. We tell churches all the time we are surprised when we start a search for a church. We are often surprised at what we find and we love it when this happens, when we find somebody who doesn't necessarily fit the mold. But man oh man, would they be a great addition to your staff if you just are willing to take a look? They'd be a great addition to your staff if you just are willing to take a look and you're going to have to invest in development. The best leaders often come great. Best leaders often become great but not arrive great. Okay, let me repeat that again, because I goofed it up. The best leaders often become great. They don't arrive great, so arrive great. I goofed it up again. Man, build them up and, most importantly, ask are we looking for someone to lead this role or to rescue our church? Because if it's the latter, no higher, as I said, will ever be enough. So here's your bottom line for today.
Speaker 1:This episode is based on the realities that I write in my new book, silent Alarm. It's called the Quiet Collapse of the Church Staff Pipeline and how to Rebuild it Before it's Too Late. And if this struck a nerve, if you've been chasing that perfect candidate, that unicorn, or you're holding out for perfect in your search, I think this book will really unpack and give you ideas to give you a better framework for what hiring can and should be in today's church. And I'm pretty proud of it. It's my first book. I'd love for you to have a copy. You can get your copy today at chemistrystaffingcom slash silentalarm. You can order it over to Amazon. You probably have it tomorrow and you can follow along as we continue on for our series of the rest of this week and into next week.
Speaker 1:Speaking of that series, tomorrow we're going to look at a painful irony Even healthy churches are struggling to hire and even if you've got a good culture and solid team and fair pay, sometimes you still find that nobody's applying. And we're going to unpack why tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast on episode number five of our Silent Alarm series. And if you'd love to reach out to me and just ask me any questions or give me some feedback on today or the series or the book, I would love to hear it. Just be nice, right, you can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. We're here each and every weekday, monday through Friday, with a brand new episode, something, hopefully, that you will find interesting in your journey as you serve the Lord in your church as a church staff member. All right, we'll see you back here again tomorrow. Have a great day you.
