What’s in this Episode?

You ever wonder why it is that the church grows faster than you have money to staff it? I mean, you’d think the Lord would kind of flip that and make it easier to make the decision or when to hire. Well, today’s episode of Church Tips podcast, we’re going talk about exactly that subject and help you get there. Knowing how and when to hire a church employee.

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Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:00
You ever wonder why it is that the church grows faster than you have money to staff it? I mean, you’d think the Lord would kind of flip that and make it easier to make the decision or when to hire. Well, in today’s episode of the Church Tips podcast, we’re going talk about exactly that subject and help you get there. Here we go.

Jonathan Hardy 0:21
As you’ve probably heard from some of the stories I’ve shared, I started Summit Park Church, helped start Summit Park Church. A number of years ago, we moved up from Springfield, Missouri to Kansas City, Missouri, quit the job there, the pastoral position there in Springfield to start the church here in Kansas City. And as we began going with the first few months of the church, my friend and our fellow lead pastor, Scott was the only person who is a full time paid person for the church.

Jonathan Hardy 0:49
And in any church plant, or, you know, in most churches as a whole, you’re always kind of wondering, well, when can I get to the point where I might be able to hire another person? That was the point we were at, and wondering at what point were we gonna be able to do that? And, you know, so there were some things we started figuring out, and I was overseeing the budget for the church, but I was doing that on a voluntary basis, you and I were working together. So I was doing that kind of on the side and trying to figure out, how do we know at what point do we do that.

Jonathan Hardy 1:15
You’re looking at the money, you’re looking at all the different things. And so today, we want to talk to you about some ways that you can know when to hire another church employee, because this is something that’s helpful and it doesn’t matter whether you have one person or maybe you don’t even have a full time pastor yet, and you’re looking to maybe hire that pastor full time. Or it could be adding another staff member. How do you know when to do that? So we’re gonna be talking about that today, giving you some ways to help determine when and at what point that that takes place.

Dick Hardy 1:42
You know, and we covered a little bit of this subject, oh, man, it’s been a few weeks ago in Episode 56, paying stipends to key people, because I think that is a way that you get started, even on your end. So that’d be a good episode, for you to go listen to and watch if you’d like before you even watch this one. But anyway, let’s get into this. I think we’ve got four or five points here we want to talk about so, what do you got?

Jonathan Hardy 2:06
Well, the first is to evaluate the need. So you have to figure out what is the need? And there’s a few things that you you might have. First of all, there’s the intangible that, just that innate sense, what do you feel? What’s that intuition saying? In terms of, you know, at what point do we need to pull the trigger and make something happen here?

Jonathan Hardy 2:26
But then there’s other, you know, metrics you might look at whether it be the attendance, you know, has there been a growth in attendance that merits the need for another hire? Is there potential growth coming that you see, and because of this potential growth, this is going to potentially merit another hire? Those are some things you just need to look at. So you have to kind of have this evaluation period, really, where you’re really trying to look and see, okay, can we do this? Should we do this? Why do we need to do this? And that’s the first thing

Dick Hardy 2:57
Well, and on that, Jonathan, what do you recommend in terms of, do you staff for growth? Or does the staffing follow the growth?

Jonathan Hardy 3:06
Well, I’m a proponent of the staffing following the graph. No, I think churches can get into dangerous place, when they staff for growth, and then it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, then all of a sudden, now you’ve got an extra obligation or they’re bloated, and you’re talking about people’s livelihood. They’re talking about and you’re talking about supporting their family financially. And so the last thing you want to do is staff for growth, and then you realize the growth didn’t count like you thought, and now you’re stuck, you’re actually in a bad place. You might have to leave and let that person go.

Jonathan Hardy 3:36
Let’s not commit that is miserable. Yeah, that’s not committed to people financially, that you’re going to support them as that as an employee, until you know that you absolutely need it. So that’s why I’m a proponent of, let’s wait and stretch the current staff we have if you have staff, or if it’s just the one pastor, stretch by doing the volunteers again. Check out the episode 56 on the segment idea, because that’s a way to kind of help, you know, stretch things out further before you have to take the plunge and hire someone full time.

Jonathan Hardy 4:08
So you evaluate the need, then right on the heels that number two is to check these key metrics. So you have to be looking at the money. How much money do you have in the bank? How much money is coming in on a monthly basis? Do you have the margin from a percentage wise to be able to support another person? What would be the return on investment? This is one of the things we don’t talk a lot about, but we need to. If I’m going to spend X number of dollars a year on a new employee. What is that? How is that going to help us as a church get further ahead how we need to be ahead.

Dick Hardy 4:42
That’s exactly right. In fact, I had a buddy of mine one time back in Ohio and he was talking to me and he said, man, you know when he thinks about paying for staff members, he says sometimes staff members, you know, get a sense of entitlement that I just automatically get this raise or money. He said I feel like I want to start paying him on commission, because I want to see are you returning on my investment, is what you’re doing making the return on investment? That’s probably a whole couple of episodes.

Dick Hardy 5:11
You know, another thing to put in here. And I’m going to mention it here, not that it’s third on the list, but it’s to pray for wisdom. And sometimes pastors say, “Okay, yeah, I got that part.” But I’m talking about literally stopping long enough to pray for wisdom. Sometimes we can think that this is just a human decision. It’s a mechanics. It’s a human resource issue. And it is, but it is first and foremost a spiritual decision. Yeah, you know, if you’re going to… you know, Jonathan referenced, you know, you’re going to, you’re going to bring somebody on who is going to work alongside you. We get the human resource part of that. But it’s a spiritual connection. It’s a spiritual journey. And you need to have this thing absolutely covered with God’s wisdom, no offense, friend, you’re not that smart, I’m not that smart. He’s not that smart. We need the Lord, you need the Lord to go before you, when you’re going to contemplate a hire, so you’ve got to pray for wisdom.

Jonathan Hardy 6:10
Yep. The fourth thing is to look for the right person. And, you know, you want to find a person who feels called, not just someone who’s looking for a job. And there’s a difference, there is someone who’s called and someone who’s looking for a job. And so it’s very important for us to make sure we’re finding people who have that passion and desire to serve the local church on a vocational level. And not just because they’re desperate for a job and like, oh, I might like to try ministry, or something different, you know, there’s a difference in there. And so you want to make sure you look for that. And then of course, you want to make sure they’ve got the skills and competency and all those different components that are important for this particular role that you feel like you need to fit exactly.

Dick Hardy 6:54
You know, and at the end of the day, you know, we talk about these things you need to do, but at the end of the day, guess what you need to do: make the hire!

Dick Hardy 7:01
You know, once you’ve got your metrics in place, you’ve prayed, you’ve identified a called person, you know that this is gonna, this is going to create a good return on investment, all these things we’ve talked about, you got to make the hire! You can’t be paralyzed by analysis. You’ve got to act.

Dick Hardy 7:21
And I will tell you that churches and pastors are notorious for not doing this well. Set your expectations. Don’t go into this like Oh, yeah. Wow this is gonna be great. I’m glad to have you blah, blah, blah. No! Set the expectations. Yes, it’s a spiritual hire. Yes, it’s a partnership in that way. There’s also the component of what you expect. So set the expectations, expect the return on investment, and you’re going to watch God do some very, very good things.

Jonathan Hardy 7:48
That’s right. So let’s do a quick recap. There are five things we just talked about. First, you evaluate the need, then you check your metrics, then you pray for wisdom, you also look for the person and then make the hire. And when you do these things, you’re going to be positioned for finding the right people putting the right people in place at the right time. Not too early, not too late, just at the time that you need in order to move the ministry forward.

Dick Hardy 8:10
Yep, that’s good. You know, we encourage you as a pastor, while we talk about these things, and they can feel mechanical and spiritual. There is a role that you have as a leader, to get better as a leader. That’s good. And we really encourage you, Jonathan created here a few months ago, the Four Secrets Masterclass. And we encourage you to just go to leaders.church/secrets. And you can sign up for the masterclass just a few minutes shy of an hour long, but you can walk through four different secrets that are going to help you be a better leader. Because as you’re a better leader, your church is going to be able to set the stage for growth.

Dick Hardy 8:48
Yeah, growing churches are led by growing pastors. And if you’re not growing, the church is not going to grow. So all these things we talked about, aren’t going to work if you’re not growing as a leader. So go to leaders.church/secrets and jump right in there. Also, certainly go subscribe to the podcast platform that you like and enjoy and on YouTube. And if you would be willing to rate and review us we’d be honored that you would do that.

Dick Hardy 9:15
We have a review here from “PD pastor” who said, “Dick and Jonathan have a way of making complicated things simple. Their tips and principles work for any leader or church excited about this podcast.”

Dick Hardy 9:27
Well, thank you, “PD pastor” for writing that review. If you write a review, who knows, we may read your review in the days, weeks or months to come. Anything else to add, Jonathan?

Jonathan Hardy 9:36
That’s it!

Dick Hardy 9:36
I think we’re good to go. Thanks so much for spending some time with us today. Make it a great one, and be blessed.

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