Latest / The Healthy Church Staff Podcast / What Your Staff Is Replacing With Their Phones (And Why It Matters)

Transcript

What Your Staff Is Replacing With Their Phones (And Why It Matters) · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier this week on the podcast, we've been talking about accountability and accessibility and how that is changing with the technology that's happening.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about this today because I found uh we talked about this earlier.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um relevant magazine article that says that the average person is now spending about nine hours a day on screens.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nine hours.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I don't want to shame anybody or pretend that I've got this figured out because I'm probably on my computer because I work online.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably on my computer for my phone for nine hours a day, but keep me out of it, right?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I want to talk about, though.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the screen.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that the screen time itself is a problem necessarily, it's what the screens are replacing because something's gotta give when you're starting your day staring at a device for half of your waking life.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're on a church staff or you lead a church staff, you need to know what's disappearing and why it matters more than maybe what you are thinking.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders at chemistry staffing.com, and your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast every weekday.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, before we get started, talking about accessibility and technology and how things are changing in the church staffing world, we just opened up our 2026 church staff health assessment.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love for you to take it, take about 10 minutes of your time.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely free, but it gives us a pulse on what is happening in the church.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: It helps fuel the content for this podcast, it helps fuel our work at chemistry staffing, and your help would really help us out.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I would take it as a personal favor if you could fill that out for us after this podcast, or if you're not driving, push press pause.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Head over to church staff assessment, churchstaffassessment.com.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's what I think we need to be aware of when it comes to screen time and how things have changed.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: For a large part of our staff in our congregation, they've stopped reading.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's what I mean by that.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not articles, not posts, not captions.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're still reading all those actual books, long-form thinking, deep ideas.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I believe there's an author that calls that deep thinking.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've gotten away from deep thinking.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your staff used to read theology, leadership books, biographies.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe take it a little deeper.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you used to read theology or leadership books or biographies.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what we do, a lot of us anymore.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're scrolling snippets.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the deal: you can't lead people deeper than what you've gone yourself.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you or your team isn't reading, if you're not doing that deep thinking, chances are you're not growing, you're just trying to keep up, you're treading water, you're recycling the same thoughts, the same sermons, the same strategy.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not just your mind that suffers, it's also your physical health.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Phones and computers are sedentary.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been trying here lately to get up from my computer because all of my work is computer-based.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I have a team of about 50 people that are on our chemistry staffing team.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is in the office here with me.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here in my office all by myself.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone is spread out all over the country.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we run a virtual company.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So almost all of my work time is spent online or looking at a screen.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So your staff who used to take walks and hit the gym and play pickup basketball or play foosball in the church in the church staff lounge, if you have one, they're now sitting.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're sitting at their computer all day long.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then when they're not at their computer, they're sitting in meetings, they're sitting in cars, scrolling between appointments.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then we wonder why we're tired and anxious and burned out.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: See, physical movement isn't just about health, it's about mental clarity and emotional resilience as well.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when your body is stuck, your soul gets stuck too.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here in the last six months, I've been doing a really deep thinking project.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's been online, it's been on my computer, but I found that man, I get zoned in and a couple hours go past, and I've not moved.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: My body is stuck.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And after a longer period of doing that, over day after day, my soul kind of got stuck too.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, and that's something that we just don't talk about, is that we just need to get moving.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: We need to get off our devices, get off of our off of our butts at our desk, and just actually move.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we used to do, and we just don't do it anymore.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one other thing that we don't talk about.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's I think it's important just to mention here.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: We've stopped eating together.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Meals used to be where teams connect, where you'd just kind of get away from everything.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: You'd laugh, you'd vent, you'd process, you'd bond.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And now what I find in many church staff, if I was to walk through around lunchtime, lunch is at the desk, you've got your fork in one hand, you've got your phone in the other.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's a quick drive-thru alone in the car scrolling Instagram as you're going through the drive-thru.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm afraid that we're losing one of the most ancient and sacred rhythms of human connection, and that's breaking bread together.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just nice, particularly for people on your team, your staff team, it's just absolutely formative.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's formative.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the trust gets built.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you actually see each other as humans, not just as roles or somebody on the org chart.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's where you get to laugh and cry.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's where you get to share intimate details about what's going on in your life and in your family.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's one other area.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is a fourth area I want to talk about.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's really important.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we don't go outside near as much as we used to.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that sounds small, but it's not.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've read some recent research that says you should get, I think it's 10 or 15 minutes, or maybe it's 30 minutes, of sunlight every morning as you start your day.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sunlight, fresh air, trees, silence without your phone.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Go do that without your phone.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: These aren't luxuries, they're necessities.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're actually the way that God built us.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: God literally put Adam in a frickin' garden, not some fluorescent lit office with Wi-Fi.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if your staff spends all day indoors staring at screens, something in them, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but over time, will start to wither.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Their creativity will dry up, their perspective will narrow, their anxiety will climb.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So nature resets us in ways that we don't even realize until it's gone.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't misread me here, okay?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I'm not saying.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't even say, Todd, you said this.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying this.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying phones are evil.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying your staff is lazy.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're not scrolling because they don't care.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're scrolling because we all are.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is a cultural drift.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a character flaw, okay?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: But as a leader, you can't just hope it gets better, right?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be intentional about what you're rebuilding.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what you can do.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I know every time I tell you, this is where you start.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta name it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But you do.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have to name it.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have to say, this is something that I see happening.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna call it out, I'm gonna name it, and then in your next staff meeting, saying, just having a conversation.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: What are our phones replacing?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: What have we lost?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: What do we lose by sitting in front of our computer and not being out with congregants?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: What do we lose by not going outside?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: What do we lose by being on our phone instead of eating together?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not to shame anyone.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Don't shame anyone.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: That will get you absolutely nowhere.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just put it on the table and then build it one small rhythm at a time.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a monthly staff book club where you do you take some time to do some read something that's gonna cause you to do some deep thinking.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be but it should be consistent.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's blocking out one lunch a week to eat together.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: No phones, just people.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's ending meetings ten minutes early so people can take a walk before the next thing.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a quarterly outdoor retreat, or even if it's just a parked pavilion for a few hours.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not trying to ban phones.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're beyond that point.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're trying to reclaim what matters.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the truth: your staff won't do that on their own.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: They need you to lead it and to model it and to make space for it.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Think about Jesus and his team.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: They walked everywhere, they ate together constantly.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were outside all the time.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: You'd say, Todd, that's the culture.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: That was the culture in Jesus' day, and that's exactly what I'm saying.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was the culture in Jesus' day.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the culture in our day.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: They had deep conversations, not just quick check-ins.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't accidental, it was formational.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want us to do is try and get back to that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: If we want to form healthy, spiritually alive teams, we need rhythms that actually form people, not just meetings and tasks and Slack messages and phones and computers and our desk.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your bottom line for today.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Your staff's screens aren't the enemy, but what they're replacing might be killing your team.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for today.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Your team is more than their output, and the rhythms that you build or the rhythms that you don't build will shape the kind of humans and leaders that they become.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So go lead them well.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this has been helpful for you today.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can reach out to me anytime, podcast at chemistry staffing.com if there's any way that I can help your church with hiring, firing, anything healthy staff initiative related.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And speaking of that, hopefully right after this, if you've not done it already, head over to churchstaffassessment.com and take our free 2026 Church Staff Health Assessment.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: It will help me out so much, and I'll be so grateful.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.