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 1997 Church Isn't Coming Back
The church of 1997 isn't coming back, and that's actually good news for ministry leaders willing to adapt their staffing approach. Many churches are still hiring for positions that made sense decades ago, using outdated strategies, and wondering why they're struggling to gain traction in today's rapidly changing ministry landscape.
• Culture shifts that once took generations now happen almost daily
• Economic realities have changed dramatically, with living costs making 1990s salaries unsustainable
• Today's leaders want purpose and flexibility, not just defined roles to fill
• Technological shifts have created entirely new ministry needs and positions
• Generational changes bring different assumptions, boundaries and expectations
• Update your job descriptions to speak to today's leaders and clarify outcomes
• Rethink your organizational chart for today's ministry needs
• Redefine success metrics to align with your mission, not nostalgia
• Embrace innovation with new roles and staffing arrangements
• Let go of outdated assumptions while holding firm to the gospel
Get your copy of the Silent Alarm book at chemistrystaffing.com/silentalarm and reach out with feedback or questions at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.
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, and my name is Todd Rhodes and I'm the co-founder of thechemistrystaffingcom and you have landed on episode eight of our special silent series silent alarm series and in this series started last week, continuing on this week here on the podcast, we're unpacking some of the deep shifts that I think are reshaping the church staff world, and today's shift is one that some of us are still resisting. And here's the truth the church of 1997 isn't actually coming back, and that's actually good news. If you, like me, were in ministry back in the late 90s or early 2000s, you probably remember the formula right you added a second service, you launched a youth band, you bought a fog machine. You probably remember the formula right you added a second service, you launched a youth band, you bought a fog machine, you build a worship center, you hire a team of 20-somethings who could do ministry for cheap and work 70 hours a week with no boundaries, and it worked for a while. But that ministry was built on a very different world, and, reality shocker, that world doesn't exist anymore. The problem, though some churches are still staffing like it's 1997. They're hiring for positions that made sense, made great sense back then. They're using a strategy that worked back in the early to mid-90s. They're trying to recreate a ministry vibe that only existed back then and now they're wondering why it's not working. So we're going to dig in as to why this old model isn't translating anymore.
Speaker 1:And number one is just there's been a huge culture shift. There's been a huge culture is moving so fast. It used to be we would measure culture shifts in generations, and then it used to be in decades, and then it was like maybe in five years and then it's maybe. I think culture is shifting almost on a daily basis, almost on a daily basis. And looking back, let's take the 90s, for example. People were still coming to church by default. Sunday morning had fewer competitors. Christianity had some cultural cachet, and that's just no longer the case. The culture has shifted. The economy has shifted as well. The cost of living has absolutely skyrocketed and many of today's church staff can't survive on what churches were paying in 1997. Dollars, adjusted or not, right Side hustles are unfortunately the norm, not the exception, in many churches and many church staff roles.
Speaker 1:And then there's been a vocational shift as well. Today's young leaders don't want to just fill a role. They want purpose and flexibility, and they want collaboration and agency in their roles. The just do your job and stay in your lane mindset. It just doesn't fly anymore. So there's been a cultural shift. There's been an economic shift. There's been a vocational shift. There's also been a huge technological shift. The church's online presence and their tech stack and their digital ministry needs are vastly different now, and roles that didn't even exist back then, like digital engagement, pastor, are now essential in many churches. And then, finally, there's been a generation shift. Right, boomers are retiring, millennials are now the core of the staff pipeline. Gen Z is knocking at the door, and they're not just younger versions of us. They're not. They have different assumptions and different boundaries and different expectations, and this is nothing new. New generations always bring something different to the table. So here's your truth bomb for today the staffing model that built your church probably will rebuild your church.
Speaker 1:You can't copy and paste your way into the future, so we have to start rethinking some things. So if you've been stuck in a hiring loop, posting jobs, getting no traction, kind of scratching your head here are some places that you can focus. Okay, first area is just update your job descriptions. Stop copying and pasting the one from 2005. Speak to today's leader, reflect on today's values and clarify outcomes, not just duty. You can't cut and paste your job descriptions from 10 or 15 years ago. Secondly, you need to maybe rethink your org chart. Do you really need three full-time siloed roles, or can you find one person with hybrid strengths and give them margin and freedom? So rethink your org chart. That's going to be different. The organizational chart that you had in 2005 or 1995 is not I'll almost guarantee it in every instance, is not the same org chart that you need in 2025.
Speaker 1:You may need to redefine success. Is your success a full room on Sunday morning or is it deep engagement, or is it flashy events or is it faithful discipleship? You need to make sure that your metrics align with your mission, not just your nostalgia. Okay, let me repeat that, because that one can cut deep. Make sure that whatever you're measuring, whatever metrics you're using, that those metrics align with your mission, your current mission, not with your nostalgia. And then, finally, embrace innovation. Try new roles, experiment with part-time or bi-vocational staff, think beyond traditional ministry molds. You don't have to blow everything up, you just need to open the window a little bit wider.
Speaker 1:Now, as I reflect on this. Nostalgia is just an absolutely terrible staffing strategy. It honors the past but it makes you resistant to the future. And here's the danger If you keep staffing for the church you were, you're going to miss the leaders God's sending for the church that you're becoming. So in many ways, and this is the painful part it's time to let go, not letting go of the gospel, not of truth, but of assumptions that no longer serve the mission. The 1997 church is not coming back. The 1997 church is not coming. The 2005 church it's gone. She gone. It's not coming back, and that's okay because what's ahead is too important to miss.
Speaker 1:All right, if this conversation in this series is hitting home with you in your role maybe you're on a search team or a senior pastor, or just on a team that is involved in hiring process in the future of your church If you sense the tension between what used to work and what's needed now. That's one of the reasons why I wrote the book Silent Alarm. It was for you. It's not a book about what has worked in the past, it's a playbook for what's next. I think you'll find it really helpful and it's my first book and I'm really proud of it. Love for you to read it. Give me some feedback on it as well. You can get your copy today. Chemistrystaffingcom slash silent alarm.
Speaker 1:And if you have any feedback on today's episode or maybe something you'd like for me to address in upcoming episode here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, you can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Maybe you need some help with a search. I'd love to be able to figure out how we can partner together. All right, I hope you'll join me tomorrow, because next time, tomorrow, we're getting into the most understood phrase of every search and that's the interim. It's often rushed, it's often ignored or just totally botched entirely. But what if your interim strategy, between the time that you have the vacancy on your team and the time that you bring somebody new, what could, if that could, actually set up your next leader to thrive or even fail before they even begin? That's the importance of the interim strategy and we're going to talk about that tomorrow right here on the HealthyChurchcom you.
