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You Made Tithing a Job Requirement · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you told them the salary when you were ready to hire them, and then you also told them, hey, we expect everybody to buy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: So 10% of that salary automatically comes back.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not willing to do that, you're not gonna be a physician.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that today because I think that is not discipleship.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's a condition of employment letter.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Condition of employment that you probably should never put in the offer letter.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: They signed that letter for a salary number, but you added a loyalty test after the handshake.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: The givering report sitting on your desk, you're reading it almost like a review to see whether or not each staff member is tithing.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Does this sound familiar?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about it today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be an interesting one.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Buckle up, buttercup.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about it today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Todd Rhodes.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right, now let me get this straight.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is not gonna be an episode on how much you paid.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not gonna preach it to you on giving.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is about payroll that is also uh a loyalty test.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So when you were interviewing and when you made an offer to your staff member, you named the number that you were gonna give them salary-wise.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: They took the job, and then came another number, 10%, 10% back to the church, or that's one of the expectations.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the job description.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they saw it before they signed.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you pretty much say, hey, you tithe, or you're not gonna be a fit here.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the conditions in your employment.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You maybe didn't even put it in the offer, but you put it in the culture.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh in the look when their name is low on the list is that gets your ire a little bit.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're already living on a tight check.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now part of that check is an added test, not of their work, but actually of whether or not they're on board.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see how the latest test shows up, how that test shows up on a Tuesday.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody prints a list and puts it on your desk.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Staff name, staff gifts.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: You tell yourself you're watching Spiritual Health, they experience it as a spore card, scorecard, and but you're asking, hey, did they hit the number?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: A late gift becomes a character question, a thin month becomes a meeting.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: You would never write you must give 10% on the offer letter.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you still treat a missed month like a performance review.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is an HR rule with a holy label take to it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I get it, I know how you why you did it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Most of your hearts are great.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You try you're trying not to shake people down.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You want a staff that lives what you preach, and tithing is an important thing in many churches.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: You think required giving is how you form people, not how you police them, and you know that that's decent.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's also how a spiritual practice becomes a condition of employment.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Discipleship invites, job requirement, enforcement.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: If they luke and lose their job over how much they tithe or how much they give, you are not performing discipleship.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're running payroll with a bit of a loyalty clause, if you're really honest.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can still love generously, you can still model it, you cannot make their paycheck prove it.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Especially when the paycheck is already a lot of churches don't pay a whole lot.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is a tax you collect from the people who already said yes.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: The practice did not become the problem.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: The rule did.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a problem when you turn a practice into a rule.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Giving is a practice.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: A job is a contract, and you put those together, you glued those together, and now staff give because they need the job, not because they decided that's what they need to do biblically.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: A person who gives under threat is not necessarily on board.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're just employed.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted buy-in, but you got compliance.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the staff who cannot hit that 10% on this salary start hiding and they stop telling you the truth about money.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're they are not behind.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: They are under an HR rule that you never wrote down.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so what do we do with this?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be saying, Todd, we've done this forever.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: If I hire a staff person, I expect them to tithe.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a reasonable request.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's one of the things that comes along with just being a mature believer, right?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is that we are generous with our money.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: But making that a job requirement is a little bit different.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Making it a requirement.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: If it's a requirement, make sure you put it in the offer and write down what happens if they miss.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let them accept or walk before they unpack the office.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not a requirement, then stop treating the giving report like a performance review.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know some pastors that that say, I will not even look at the giving reports, particularly of my staff.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think you can delegate that to other people on your team if they need to be looking at the reports, but maybe not you.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Stop the whole are they on board talk that starts with just a number on a spreadsheet.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hope can be named.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: A hope cannot fire people though.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you will not put in the offer that this is a requirement, then it really shouldn't be a requirement and you shouldn't be using that as part of your job criteria.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So stop managing it like one.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a bottom line for today.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I've been especially clear here.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let me try and bring it all down here to the bottom line, okay?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: You told them the salary, then you told them 10% comes back, or they're not a good fit, or they're not a valued partner, or they're not on board.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's not discipleship.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's a conditional letter of employment that you never probably put in the offer letter to begin with.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I know this one feels like it's a fight with generosity.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that we need to let our staff off the hook and that they don't need to give.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that it's kind of a tough line when you put that as part of the job description, or you don't put it as part of the offer, but it's a part of the culture that you're going to judge them on.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: This really isn't a fight on generosity.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fight with the loyalty test that you attach to a paycheck.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Love to hear your comments.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Love to hear from you.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll be right back here tomorrow.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you'll join me on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Have a break.