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Transcript

A Shepherd After His Own Heart · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The most important number in your church isn't your attendance.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't your budget or your giving either.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the one person standing behind the pulpit and what's actually in their chest.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes, and I am one of the co-founders over at ChemistryStaffing.com, and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to shift our focus a little bit.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked the last two days, today's the last day in this series, about staffing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to talk specifically about the senior pastor and a senior leader.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: We've spent the past two days in 1 Samuel 16.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So crack open your Bible and follow along if you want to today.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: But we're going to talk today about how God picks a leader, the heart over the outward.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about that yesterday.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the promise underneath all of it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to hop out of 1 Samuel here for a second and go over to Jeremiah chapter 3.15.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: The word there it says, I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's not a suggestion.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's God on the record, and he intends to give his people leaders who match his own heart.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: But let's be honest about what's at stake here when you're hiring a senior pastor.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm going to contradict myself just a little bit with what I said in the last sentence.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: A senior pastor isn't really a hire.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot more.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a decade of somebody's life braided into yours.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it, preaching every week.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: This person's probably going to marry your kids, bury your parents, maybe sit at the hospital with you or a loved one at 2 a.m.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And whoever stands in that pulpit sets your church's spiritual weather for years.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was having a conversation with my wife last week, I think it was, and just talked about all the churches I get to work with.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell the whole DNA of a church by their pastor.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the senior pastor that you hire, if you're in the midst of hiring a new senior pastor, has the likelihood over time, if it's the right person, to change the trajectory of your church and maybe even your community, either up for the positive or down on one hire, on one decision.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So get this right and it could compound for a whole generation.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So here's where it gets a little bit personal, though, for everybody that's listening, whether you're on a search committee or you're a staff member, not just the search folks, okay?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: If the Lord looks at the heart when he hires, think about this.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what he looks at while you're serving?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not your platform, not your numbers, not how last Sunday went.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: God is looking at your heart.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the most freeing thing I can say to a tired staff person or a staff member.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You've been grading yourself on the outward.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And God never has graded you on your outward appearance.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's always looked at your heart.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So question for you.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: When did you last tend to your own heart, not just your output?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: The platform is loud, the heart is quiet.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Guess which one we let go untended.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Shepherd after God's heart isn't first a better communicator, he's a tended soul.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the same for you.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your best ministry flows out of a heart that somebody's actually paying attention to, and that person has to be you.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your bottom line for today.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: God looks at the heart when he hires, and he looks at the heart while you serve.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to tend the thing that God is actually watching.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so this week, two things if you're hiring.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Pray Jeremiah 3.15.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Write that, write down that verse right now.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Pray Jeremiah 3.15 over your search out loud.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's God's promise and hold him to it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever your role, block 30 minutes this week for your heart.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not your to-do list, your heart.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: The soul under care, the soul under the work is the actual work.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so that's the series.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: God has already picked, he looks at the heart, and he keeps his promise to send shepherds after his own.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if your church is in a search, or you just want to partner with someone who does this all the time or screens for the heart, that's really us.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's my team that we've assembled at Chemistry Staffing.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's any way that we can serve you, any way that I can serve your church, please reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, if these three episodes in this series helped, share them with other members maybe of your search team or other people on your staff.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe they will help them as well.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And hit subscribe so that you don't miss what's next.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: We are here every weekday, Monday through Friday, with uh a short five to seven minute episode that hopefully will teach you something.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll laugh together, sometimes we'll cry together and lament a little bit.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's all part of the journey as well.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I enjoy everybody that I get to talk with, everybody that reaches out to me at podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you all for listening, and I will be right back here again tomorrow.