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God Already Picked the Person · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: If your church is in the middle of a senior pastor's church right now, stop me if this sounds familiar.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've got no senior pastor, you've got no obvious candidate, your committee's tired, everybody's a little frantic, everybody's a little bit scared, and it feels like hunting for a needle in a haystack.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing God already knows where that needle is.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at ChemistryStaffing.com.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a topic that we do this all day, every day, chemistry staffing.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We help churches find candidates, whether it's a senior pastor or a worship pastor, a kids pastor, or whatever.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We help you find that needle in the haystack.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: But what I said in the opening is absolutely true.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you're on the search side, when you're on the search committee or you're a senior pastor or an executive pastor looking for a new staff person, sometimes it feels like it's you're just hunting for a needle in a haystack.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what I said at the beginning is absolutely true.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: God already knows where that needle is in the midst of that haystack.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: How do I know?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look at 1 Samuel 6.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's in your Bible, by the way.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel 16, I believe last time I checked, it's in the Old Testament.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: God sends the prophet Samuel.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: He goes out to find the next king of Israel.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a vacancy, there's a town, there's a family full of candidates, a big family.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And one guy sent to find the right person.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that as the search committee.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Samuel is the search committee.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's out there looking for the right person for this vacancy.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: 3,000 years ago, maybe this is, I don't know, maybe this is the first search committee.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a committee of one, and it's Samuel.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever your church is walking through, this is not new to God.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's run this play before.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really interesting in that passage that God has already chosen one of the brothers in that family, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Watch the very first thing that God says.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Before Samuel meets a single person, he says, I have chosen one of his sons.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And just think about that just for a second.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: The pick already exists.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Samuel's job was never to invent a match out of thin air.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's our job of chemistry.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Our our job when you hire us to help you with a team search, staff search, or if you're doing it on your own, work of your search committee.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Your job is not ever to invent a match out of thin air.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is really to discern the one that God already had in mind.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens a lot of time, uh a lot of times, is that churches act out of desperation.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: They get panicked and they settle.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Versus churches that are patient and they wait, knowing that God knows exactly where that person is.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: They don't fret, they don't make rash decisions because they know that God has the right person.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: It just takes sometimes a little bit of time to surface that.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I get it, when a church loses its pastor or a staff member, it feels like starting from zero.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: You've got no leader, no plan, no idea where to turn.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm here to tell you, and maybe this is the encouragement you need if you're doing your own search right now.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You are not starting from zero, and you never were.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere out there, God has a person for that rule.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're not manufacturing an answer.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're uncovering one.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, that's where churches get in trouble, is where they try to manufacture the answer rather than uncovering the one that God has.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different pressure and a very different prayer.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here's honestly what I've watched for years, and I've been doing this for a long time.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Search committees usually don't pick the wrong person because they're dumb.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've although I've met a couple of search committees that I think maybe test that rule a little bit.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding there, or maybe I'm not, I don't know.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of times search committees aren't dumb, okay?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But they pick the wrong person because they're scared, or they're tired, or, and this is a big one, they just want it to be over.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Fear makes you settle, fear makes you rush, fear hires the warm body in the room, and a church that actually believes God already chose someone, those are the churches that are able to wait, and they can afford to wait for that someone to show up.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because if God has that person, they will show up.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thing is, we just don't know when it's that person will show up, whether it be today, tomorrow, or in six months.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So here's your bottom line for today.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your pastor search, your church staff search is not a talent hunt.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a discernment process.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're not looking for the best option you can find.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking for the one that God has already picked.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're doing a search right now, change the way that you're praying.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Stop praying.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: God help us find someone and start praying.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: God lead us to the one that you've already chosen.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then give yourself permission not to settle out of exhaustion.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Today is part of a three-part series.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow we're going to continue.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Today was part one, so obviously tomorrow is going to be part two, and we're going to talk about the candidate that looks absolutely perfect on paper and why he might be the most dangerous person in your resume stack.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: If your church is in transition and you want a hand, you need a hand, you just want somebody to talk to, to get some advice from, that's what we do all day long.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you can reach out to me anytime.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear from you, love to hear your story, see if there's any way we can help.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And just remember, hang in there, you are not starting.