How Your Work Connects to the Big Picture (Even When You Can't See It)
•Episode 693
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The Healthy Church Staff podcast episode addresses the common issue of staff and volunteers feeling disconnected from their church's mission, despite working hard. Todd Rhoades discusses how this disconnect can lead to demotivation and provides practical steps for individuals to align their roles with the broader church mission. He encourages listeners to actively seek clarity and understanding of how their tasks contribute to the church's mission, rather than waiting for leadership to provide this connection.
• Staff and volunteers often feel disconnected from the church's mission.
• This disconnect can lead to decreased motivation and satisfaction.
• Understanding the connection between daily tasks and the church mission is crucial.
• Individuals should actively ask how their role supports the mission.
• Leaders should consistently reinforce and clarify the mission's connection to each role.
• Seeing the impact of one's work fosters engagement and reduces burnout.
You're updating the website, you're filing all the receipts, you're planning the volunteer schedule for next month, and somewhere in the back of your mind is this quiet question. Does this really matter? Does what I'm doing really make a difference? You know your church has a mission statement, and probably on the wall on a nicely framed plaque somewhere, but honestly, you couldn't tell someone how your job really connects to it. And that disconnect is killing your motivation. If that's you, you're in the right place, because we're going to talk about that today here on the Healthy Church Staff
Podcast. Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistry staffing.com. I was reading something from the Unstuck group recently about executive pastors, and it hit me about how many staff members are working really hard, but at the same time have no idea how their role really fits the bigger picture of what's happening in the mission of the church. A lot of times this is just an invisible disconnect. Most churches have a vision, could be on your website. Like I said, maybe it's on a banner, maybe it's up on the wall in the lobby. But here's what's missing. It's really the translation layer. Nobody told the admin how her spreadsheets connect to changed lives. Nobody's really mentioned to the worship guy how song selection shapes discipleship. Maybe nobody's told the facilities person that a clean building communicates that you matter here. And when people can't see that connection, they start to drift. Not because they're bad at their job, they're probably really great at their job. But they start to drift a little bit, possibly because they just can't see why the job matters beyond the task that they're doing. How does cleaning this toilet or updating the spreadsheet
really matter in the big scheme of things and in the kingdom work that this church is trying to do? So what happens when that connection gets lost? People start showing up, but they're not really present. And maybe this is you. Maybe you're dealing with this now, just wondering how you fit into the big mission. You do the work, but it just feels like you're checking boxes. The meetings feel like noise, the emails feel like sometimes just a waste of time. And when somebody asks you what you do, you give them your title, but you can't really explain the impact. So here's the thing: if you find yourself in this situation, it's not laziness, it's not apathy, it's really the natural consequence of what happens when vision stays at the leadership level and never really makes it down to your desk. You're doing the work, you're just not sure that you're doing it with purpose. So now your senior pastor probably thinks this is really clear. Okay, they probably assume that everybody on the staff gets it, that all the volunteers get the mission, and when they volunteer or when they do their staff role, that it contributes to the mission, they see that crystal clear, but the assumption is the enemy of alignment, and that's the case here. So here's what I want you to hear today. You don't have to wait for somebody to connect those dots for you. You can do it yourself. Now it'd be great if they would help you connect those dots, but you can do it yourself. And here's how. Here's how to make the connection, even if nobody else does for you.
First, you just need to ask the question out loud. How does what I do connect to the mission? Ask your boss, ask your supervisor, ask your pastor, ask in a staff meeting. Don't assume just ask the question and make them say it. So first thing, you ask a question and you do it out loud. Secondly, you trace your work backward, okay? Pick one thing that you did this week and then ask yourself, who did this, who did this really serve? How did it maybe remove a barrier to somebody? What did it make possible? Your task isn't the point. It's what and what your task enables. That's the point. First, you gotta ask the question out loud. Second, trace your work backward. And then third, reframe your role in mission language, okay? You're not just the admin. You're removing obstacles so that ministry can actually happen. You're not just the tech person. You're creating space for people to encounter God without distraction. So find the mission thread in your role and then pull that puppy tight. And then fourth, own your part of the story. When you're updating the calendar, you're helping people show up. When you're ordering supplies, you're making sure that volunteers have what they need. When you're answering what seems to be those mundane emails every day, what you're really saying to the person you're emailing is, hey, you're seeing and you matter. And that's not small. That's the mission of the church in motion.
And here's why I think it matters so much. If you're a leader, you can't assume that people see what you vision isn't clear just because you said it once. It's clear when every person on your team can tell how their role advances it. So that's your job. If you're the leader today, that's your job today to connect the dots for everybody on your team, volunteers, staff, not once a year on a retreat, not every week, in real time. Hey, here's an example. The way you handled that email, you just lived out our value of hospitality. The way you organized that event, you made space for life change. So name it. If you're the leader, name it and reinforce it and connect it. Because when people see how their work matters, absolutely everything changes. They don't burn out as fast, they don't disengage. They actually lean in because they're not just doing tasks anymore. They're helping, they're part of the team, and they're a part of the church's mission. They are on mission.
So here's your bottom line for today. You can't stay motivated in a role that you don't see connected to the mission. Let me repeat that. You can't stay motivated in a role that you don't see connected to the mission. And this goes for senior pastors as well. Things are going slow and you just want to plow ahead, but for some reason you're getting you're getting some pushback or it just feels like the church isn't ready for change yet. That's okay. You can stay motivated in your role because you know that you're on mission. It might not be going according to your time schedule, but you can tell that you're on role, that you're doing what you're supposed to do when you're on mission. And the opposite of that is a bottom line for today. You can't motivate, be stay motivated in a role that you don't see connected to the mission. Here's the thing: your work matters more than you think, no matter what you're doing. Even and maybe even especially when it feels invisible, even when nobody's watching, you are a part of something bigger. And it's time that you saw it that way. I hope this has been helpful, hopefully encouraging to some of you today. And I appreciate you listening. I enjoy our time together here on the podcast. We're here every Monday through Friday. If there's ever any way that I can help you or your church, reach out to me. Podcast at chemistry staffing.com. All right, that's it for today. We'll be right back here tomorrow. Hope you'll join me.
