7 Keys in Hiring Pastoral Staff
One of the greatest constants in my ministry as a pastoral coach is walking with young ministers who are in transition, aka hiring or being hired.
It is possible that the single most important decision a lead pastor makes is in the hiring of staff pastors: a poor choice can add dead weight, obstacles, or poison to a pastoral team and church. A wise choice can multiply mission, ministry, and life.
So who to hire? How do we reach out into the sometimes challenging concept of “God’s will” and pull out the person who just belongs on our pastoral team and in our church?
Here are seven keys to consider.
1. Identify the real need.
Do not hire someone because he or she needs something, be it a job, a season of healing, or even the opportunity to learn from you. Believe, me you’ll hear these reasons offered by people who want to join your staff. Instead, hire someone because they meet a need. Think first not of the hire, but of God’s mission, of His church, of your city, and of the world. All of these have a need too: the will of God.
2. Is he or she complimentary?
As a lead pastor, it is important that you identify your strengths and weaknesses – in personal character and in ministry ability.
For the character weaknesses, enlist a solid pastoral coach and an inner circle of peer mentors who will hold your feet to the fire of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying process. Do it or be prepared not to make it in ministry, or even worse, to break others with your ministry.
For the ministry weaknesses, continue to walk transparently with your coach and peer mentors. And have the personal security to hire complimentary staff pastors.
Not those who flatter you, but . . .
People whose strengths match well with your strengths and weaknesses,
They compliment or round out your ministry, giving your team a more complete pastoral ministry package.
Warning: you will have to be a secure individual to accept that subordinates are superior to you in some ministry aspects. Get over this by referring back to Key #1.
People with whom you get along well
So much of pastoral staff work is relationships: how well you get along with your team sets the limits or the releases multipliers of your team’s pastoral ministry. When people who work together like each other, so much more is accomplished and with much less effort. A pastoral team of friends just makes for effective pastoral ministry.
Icing on the cake: your church will sense it, feel security in it, and embrace it for themselves and their relationships. Win, win.
People who buy into your vision and plan.
Many ministers are Type As: they know who they are and they know where they are going. And that’s good. To a point. It becomes bad when they cannot join who they are or where they are going to the journey of others. If you hire someone like this, he or she will be on but not of your team.
Carefully read the potential hire for a joyful buy-in and a genuine celebration of your church’s vision and ministry plan. Back this up with clear evidence of a servant’s heart.
People who are not already looking for the next position.
Odds are that each staff member will one day move elsewhere for ministry. This is a given in church ministry. But the potential staff member who brings a stepping stone attitude with him will have little, or worse, negative effect on your team and in your church.
Accept that each staff member will one day move on, but expect that they are making a deep, long term and personal commitment to this position and church.
People who blend well with your local church and city.
Just as a man and a woman can individually be wonderful, even exemplary people, and yet not be well-suited for marriage together, so it is for an individual pastor (lead or staff) and a church.
Be sure that the potential staff pastor and her family fit well with your church AND that they will love your city or town as a place to live, build a life, and minister for a lifetime.
3. Is his or her heart big enough?
Does he or she have heart big enough for your city and the world?
Following along with the previous though, hire staff pastors who see their pastoral duties taking them beyond your four walls or campus. Hire people who see themselves as pastors of the city and evangelists to the world. These pastors will change the world one life at a time.
My wife and I once pastored a church in a small town. My first experience as a senior pastor, I saw myself as pastor of my church, and those outside the church as the people we wanted to reach. While this sounds correct, I will argue that I was mistaken, as demonstrated by my successor, a Paul Bunyan Tennessean who was a bit rough around the edges, but pure love for God and people at the center of his being. Along with his perfectly matched wife, my successor faithfully led that church in its ministries AND actively, personally, lovingly pastored the entire town of 2000 people. If you lived in that town, they were your pastors. Not as in you belonged to them, but as in they belonged to you. Did they change the world? No, but they changed the world for a lot of people who would otherwise have never been touched with the love of Jesus.
4. Prioritize character over charisma
Our media-driven culture places a huge premium on charisma, physical looks and personal appeal. Oh, to be one of “the beautiful people!”
To adapt the words of Jesus in Matthew 20.26, this should not be so among us.
As is true with God, we should look more on the heart than the outward appearance of a man or woman. For the glory of God, the good of His church and the sake of the world, in hiring staff we must hire Christian virtue over the attractiveness of personality or charisma. How much does he or she remind you of Jesus is a far better measure of a minister than how he looks on your website or podcast.
Is she teachable and faithful? Does his life flow with love and joy, peace and patience, gentleness and goodness, faithfulness and meekness, self-control and the general character of the Holy Spirit? Does she care for the weak?
Here’s a great test: does he treat “little people” the same as he treat “great people? (FYI: Trick question there)
5. Hire attitude over aptitude
When it comes to people I’m going to consider inviting to be a part of my inner circle, I am looking like a laser for the evidence of what I call a Philippian Attitude:
Philipians 1.3-7: Thankful – thankful to God and thankful for people.
Philippians 2.5-11: Not concerned with reputation; a servant; humble; selfless.
Philippians 3.12-16: Pride-free; lives seized by Christ; not bound by the past; optimistic.
Philippians 4.8-9: Attitudes are defined by the truth, the noble, the just, the pure, the lovely, the positive, the virtuous, the praiseworthy.
Aptitude can grow weary and weak, and some abilities can be taught.
But Christ-attitudes grow, and will grow within the person, pastoral team and people of your church.
6. Seek heaven and earth
Allow me a little liberty here. A heaven and earth minister is one who is heavenly and earthy minded.
A “heavenly minister” is:
- A spiritual individual;
- A worshipping and thankful individual;
- A Biblical individual;
- A holy and consecrated individual.
An earthly minister:
- Loves and accepts people;
- Hurts for and with people;
- Invests in people generously and with joy;
- Sees and responds to the needs of people.
7. Can you mentor this individual?
Hire someone whom you can mentor – for now and for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry.
I am convinced that the most important and effective ministry of any pastor is his mentorship of his pastoral team.
In fact, after prayer and study, a lead pastor should regard staff mentorship as his primary ministry in his local church, even before general preaching, administration, or pastoral care. As the pastor builds each team member, he multiplies leadership and ministry to his church and community, today and for years to come.
This value is seen in the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. Though he talked to thousands, he walked with just twelve. And the closer he came to the Cross, the less time He spent with the thousands, the more time He spent with the twelve. Why? To prepare them for leadership, to multiply ministry through them to multiplied thousands now and for the rest of their lives.
Let me give you one more reason, Pastor, to focus on mentorship: your own growth. As you invest yourself in your pastoral team members, you’ll find you are the one who receives the lion’s share of growth, strength, encouragement and more. You’ll find find that their passion for God, love of people, vision, creativity, questions and answers, and more will fan the flame of your own walk with Jesus and ministry for Him.
Last Thoughts
Hiring staff members can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Take joy in the fact that Jesus Himself “hired” twelve staff members and, with the exception of one, he did pretty well. Those eleven individuals turned the world upside down one life at a time.
Why should this give you joy in your hiring process? You and your church belong to Jesus, and Jesus said that He would build His church. It is Jesus who will faithfully lead you as you seek the right people to help you in pastoring His people and in leading His church.
Journey Pastoral Coaching provides pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.
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