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What Gen Z's Church Exodus Means for Your Hiring Strategy · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: You just posted a job for worship pastor.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's 25 years old loves Jesus as the gift.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: But when they see your church website, they click away.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not because your theology.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not because of the salary, even.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's because they're reading between the lines of your culture that they see on the website.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And what they see scares them off.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I came across some research recently from a religion news service that said that nearly half of Gen Z feels alienated from church because of political associations.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And whether you agree with that or not, it matters.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why it matters the pipeline of young leaders you're counting on, they're hesitant these days.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't understand why, you're going to struggle attracting them and hiring them to your church team.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about that today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders at chemistrystaffing.com.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a perception problem that maybe you didn't even create, you didn't even know existed.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to suggest to you today that you probably still have to think about solving this one.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing: you might not be political at all.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Your church might not be political at all.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your church might not even ever mention politics from the stage.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But younger candidates, job candidates, are coming in from a narrative that's already up in their head.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's stuck there.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they've watched the news and seen the memes and they've heard all the stories, and they're assuming that your church is like that church.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that could be fair, that could not be fair, but that's the perception gap that you're starting with a lot of Gen C potential staff members.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And here's where it gets even a little bit more tricky for hiring.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're wondering why you're not getting younger applicants or why the ones you do seem to get are seem really guarded in the interview.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, they're asking questions you've never heard before.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: How does your church handle disagreement?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's your culture around diversity?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do your staff feel safe to ask questions?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you think maybe they're just being a little picky, but actually, they're being careful.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: They've seen lots of friends get hurt.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: They've seen their mentors get hurt.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases, they've seen their parents and their siblings get hurt in church staff roles.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: They've watched leaders burn out and they don't want to walk into a toxic situation.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't mean that you have to change your theology or compromise your convictions.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But what I think it does mean is you have to change your hiring strategy a little bit.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It means you have to be a little bit more explicit about your culture, the culture of your church than you've ever been before.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So put it on your website, talk about it in the interview, and don't assume that they know that they're going to be safe at your church.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: You need to show them.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you do that?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Highlight stories of staff disagreeing respectively or respectfully and still being valued.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: During the interview, talk about how you handle conflict.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about how you care for mental health.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Show them examples, give them examples that you're not fragile when people ask hard questions because the truth is younger leaders they don't care about perfection.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: They know perfection doesn't exist, but they are looking for honesty and above all, they're looking for health.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you actually attract younger staff right now?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: First thing I think you can do, number one, is rewrite your job descriptions with your culture in mind.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just list out different tasks.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Really paint a picture, even in your job description.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, in your job description, paint a picture of what it looks like to live there.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not live there, we'll live in your community, but how it paint a picture of what it's like to actually work at your church.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: We you could say something like, hey, we value curiosity, we make space for rest, we don't expect you to have it all figured out.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that's number one, rewrite your job descriptions with that in mind.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, let your younger staff, if you have any, speak into the process.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them if you were job hunting right now, what would make you want to work here?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then listen, their answers might really surprise you.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number three, in the interview, ask the candidate what they're afraid of.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, hey, what's your weakness?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's a question from ten years ago.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But what kind of church culture would you run from?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's more in their language.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what they say and then address that directly.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can say something like, hey, I've heard that concern before.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how we've tried to build something a little bit different here.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's number three.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here's number four.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Be willing to lose the ones who aren't the right fit.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not every young leader is right for your church, but don't write off an entire congregate generation because a few don't align.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And here's another clue.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just a Gen Z problem.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't only about age.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Plenty of older leaders are asking the same questions these days.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's things like, is this a healthy place?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Will I be heard here?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Can I grow here?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The churches that answer those questions well are the ones that are gonna win.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that are gonna hire really good staff members.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you ignore them, you'll keep wondering why nobody applies.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So here's your bottom line.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to hire younger leaders, you have to make your culture visible, not just your doctrine.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you do that on your church website, you do that in your job descriptions, and you do that in your interviews.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: As we close out here today, this is really uh an interesting topic.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And in my work at Chemistry, I get to see the broad range of every type of candidate from every tribe, every background, every age.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, the next generation of ministry leaders is out there.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times people say there's nobody really coming into the ministry.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that's wrong.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's wrong.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: There is a good group, good crop of ministry leaders from the next generation out there.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you something.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're different, but they're gifted.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're gifted, they love Jesus, they want to serve, but big butt here.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're being careful about where they land.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I don't think that's a bad thing.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It just means we have to be more intentional.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for today.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you've run into this, I'd love to hear your story.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: If there's any way that I or anybody on our team here at Chemistry Staffing could come alongside your church, we'd love the opportunity to do.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be right back here tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.