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8 Ministry Staff Recruiting Red Flags

Sunday, March 19, 2017

As staff recruiting in ministry world continues to evolve and become more competitive and sophisticated in recent years, churches and recruiting firms have developed a keen sense of red flags during the recruiting process that relate to whether a candidate is a good fit for your church or not. Those red flags may be a bit different from church to church but there are many red flags that are fairly consistent across the board.

Now a red flag doesn’t necessarily mean that a church should stop recruiting a candidate, even though that’s very possible, but it is a cause for concern and gives reason to hit the breaks on the speed of the process and dig deeper with the candidate.

So after being on both sides of recruiting, both being recruited and recruiting a number of hires, here are some of the biggest church staff recruiting red flags.

Candidates that are Overly Concerned with the Opportunity to Teach

If teaching is really important to the candidate and you’re not hiring them to a teaching role then don’t hire them. Let them go plant or pastor their own church.

Candidates that are Indecisive

If they need to go date other churches then let them. Just don’t marry them.

Candidates that Freely Speak Negatively of their Current Church

If they talk bad about their current church they may have a difficult time taking personal ownership and as a result have a low E.Q. And by the way, if they talk bad about others, they’ll probably talk bad about you. 

Candidates that don’t Ask Good Questions

If they don’t ask good questions they’re not going to be a very critical thinker or strategic and will have a hard time moving the ministry forward at your church.

Candidates that Treat People they have Nothing to Gain From Poorly

If they only treat people with perceived power and influence well (those they seem to gain something from) and overlook others, or even worse treat them poorly then they have a serious character defect that will hurt your team.

Candidates that are Too Eager

If they are too eager to jump ship and join your team then they’re probably running from something or chasing something, either way they’ll have a hard time leading in the here and now if they join your team.

Candidates with an Overbearing Spouses

I know you’re not hiring their spouse you’re hiring them, but sharp people typically marry sharp people. If their spouse is overbearing you’re probably going to want to pass.

Candidates that Change Jobs Too Often

If they have a track record of changing jobs every few years chances are they’ll leave you soon too.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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Breaking Growth Barriers: Learn to Lead for Where Your Church is Headed

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Here’s the good news about many church growth barriers:

They can often be overcome by discovering the shifts that need to happen in your own leadership and in the systems your church is currently engaging. We’ve encountered many a church of 800 still leading and operating like a church of 400. We’ve worked with many a multisite church still approaching leadership and management like a single site church — even if they don’t realize it.

We say this a lot, but being stuck is a terrible feeling, and hope is not a strategy for getting unstuck. Are you willing to take your next steps in leadership? By joining a coaching network, you can take those steps with a community of like-minded church leaders on a similar journey.

In May 2017, we’ll kick off 3 New Leadership Coaching Networks that will help you learn best practices from healthy, growing churches and begin applying them in your church from day one.

Each is designed to help churches address specific growth barriers. Learn which is right for you:

The Unstuck Church: Reaching 1,000 Coaching Network

This network is designed to help you move from reaching hundreds to reaching 1,000 in attendance by clarifying what’s working and what’s wrong, defining an action plan for next steps, and establishing a staffing and ministry structure that supports growth and health.

The Unstuck Church: Growing Beyond 2,000 Coaching Network

This network will help you develop strategies to tackle the unique challenges of larger churches including leadership development, staffing, communications, discipleship and establishing healthy growth engines.

Multisite Leadership Coaching Network

This experience will set you up to more effectively lead a growing, multisite church. We will help you navigate Common Pitfalls in Multisite, Refining Your Model, Clarifying How You Structure and Operate, Best Practices for Launching a Campus, Managing the Tension (Central vs Campus), and more!

[Learn More and Apply]
Registration closes April 1

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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Why Leading by Example doesn’t Work

Monday, March 6, 2017

Leading by example sounds like the right thing to do, doesn’t it? After all thousands of pages written on leadership, by leadership experts can’t be wrong can they? The problem is you can’t lead by example. Your example may inspire others, it may set behavioral standards for others, your example may even be a prerequisite for authentic leadership, but your example doesn’t actually lead others anywhere. Instead great leaders set the example and then hold the team accountable to the standard. The secret is in the accountability…not the example.

Set Expectations Often & Early

The earlier you state expectations and the standard with a team member the clearer everyone will be on deliverables. Without clearly stated expectations you end up surprising and frustrating team members when you hold them accountable to outcomes they were unaware of.

Don’t Micromanage

Micromanagement discourages production and results instead of encouraging it. Team members tend to resist and rebel against leaders who micromanage them no matter what kind of “example” they are setting in the workplace.

Follow Through

Do what you say you’re going to do. Reward team members who perform well and correct those who don’t. Follow through and hold team members accountable to the standard.

Coach those who want to be Coached

Not everyone on your team wants to be coached, even though you may feel they need coaching. So spend time coaching team members who are coachable. Don’t waste your time investing precious time into people who can’t or won’t take coaching.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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Leadership can’t be Taught in a Classroom

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

I’ve never worked with a church that said they didn’t need more leaders. No, many churches, even healthy growing churches I’ve worked with mention two big hurdles that they feel are holding them back from accomplishing the vision God has given them; leaders and money. In fact I’ve been surprised to hear in recent conversations the amount of churches searching for an off the shelf solution that they can plug and play in their church in a hope that they will develop more leaders.

There is probably more accessible, solid leadership content available to the church leaders today than ever before. But even with the wealth of legitimately excellent leadership content available at their fingertips, it doesn’t seem like churches are producing any more leaders than they have before. One reason that is the case is that churches continue to buy into a couple of fundamental flaws when it comes to thinking about leadership development.

Leadership isn’t Information

Leadership isn’t learned in a classroom, by reading books, or by sitting around drinking coffee or whatever your beverage of choice is and pontificating about leadership ideas and principles or worse, arm chair quarterbacking other leaders. Leadership is learned by leading. It’s something you simply can’t understand until you do it, you have to exercise that muscle to develop and strengthen it. The Bible teaches us that, “knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). If information was the same thing as maturity then the most mature people walking around when Jesus was walking the Earth were the Pharisees. They knew more about the Scriptures than anyone and they ended up having Jesus crucified. Not very mature huh? Leadership is a lot like love. You can’t say you love someone and not act on it…it has to show up at some point. Or you don’t love them.

Leadership isn’t a Program

Leadership can’t be developed using an off the shelf curriculum or program that you plug and play at your church. You are the leadership development program at your church. Leaders don’t build followers they build leaders. Stop using leadership programs as a crutch and excuse because you don’t have time to do this. If you’re the leader then lead…and build other leaders.

Leadership Skills can be Acquired

Even if you don’t have a leadership gift you can develop, practice, and perfect leadership skills. You can acquire new skills…even leadership skills.

A Leadership Gift can be Developed

According to the Bible, leadership is actually a spiritual gift (Romans 12:6-8). A gift not given to everyone, and to those it is given to, it’s not given in equal measure. But that gift no matter how great or small can be developed and grown.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Staffing

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Avoidance: The Silent Killer of a Team

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Great teams keep short accounts and normalize feedback, which allow them to make small degrees of change along the way. These behaviors allow great teams to create feedback loops, innovate, and test new solutions quickly.

The problem? Most teams aren’t great teams. Most teams don’t have the courage to be that honest with one another. Most teams would rather talk about one another than talk to one another. They avoid conflict, and in so doing, they quietly kill their team.

I don’t blame them; it’s easier to avoid conflict than it is to run towards it. It’s easier to tell people what they want to hear than tell them what they need to hear. It’s easier to tell people a shade of or portion of the truth instead of the full truth. It’s not always easy to speak the truth…even if it’s true. When avoidance runs rampant on a team you’ll typically find symptoms of defensiveness, combativeness, excuses and fear.

Jesus modeled a different, more courageous brand of leadership without taking a harsh or rude approach.

  • In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus encourages us that even if we are at the altar offering a sacrifice and remember that there is something between us and someone else, we are to leave what we’re doing and go make that right.
  • In Matthew 18 Jesus teaches us that if there is an issue between us and another person we are to go directly to that person to resolve it first.
  • Jesus doesn’t avoid speaking the truth to the woman at the well in John chapter 4 who had a string of broken marriages and He doesn’t avoid it with the woman caught in the act of adultery in John chapter 8.

Yes, timing matters and your approach matters. You may not do it well at first but don’t let that stop you from flexing a new muscle and building a new discipline. Don’t sit back and do nothing. Don’t let avoidance kill your team.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing
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