Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

Hiring is more art than science. That’s what one mentor told me years ago.

Is it?

It depends on who you ask.

At some point, you will walk through a hiring process as you look for a new employee or volunteer (if you work at a church or non-profit). Many pastors have no idea what they are doing regarding hiring.

And make no mistake, a bad hire can cost you, personally and as a church.

How much?

Some estimates range from 30% of the person’s salary to one that says it can cost $240,000. After one bad hire, I went back and calculated as best as possible and found that it cost (just my estimate) over $200,000. That was simply a financial look.

Once you throw in the time and emotional energy that you, the employee, or anyone who helped train them or dealt with them in the meetings that led to them leaving and then throw in the loss of momentum at your church and the loss of trust people have in you, and the loss of people leaving your church.

The cost is enormous.

And while there is no foolproof plan when it comes to hiring, there are some things pastors and churches can do to raise the likelihood of success.

Here are 7 hiring mistakes churches and pastors make:

Talk themselves into a hire. This isn’t just a church issue but one across the board in hiring.

But churches are notorious for talking themselves into hire for many of the reasons listed below. While there is a leadership mantra of “Hire slowly, fire quickly.” Churches tend to “hire quickly and fire slowly.” Is one right or wrong? No. Is one more “Christlike?” No.

Almost every frustration I’ve ever had with an employee was something I saw in the interview process and chose to overlook. Now, that doesn’t mean you are looking for a perfect hire or that your team won’t frustrate you (or that you won’t frustrate your team). But it does mean that you need to pay attention to those things.

Just like you can’t get everything you want in a job, you will also only get some of what you want in a hire. So, you must be clear about what you need versus what you want.

Assume culture and theological fit. It is easy to assume agreement on church culture and theological fit. Churches hear a candidate talk about a certain church or stream and think, “They fit us.” Or, if the candidate is a fan of ____ podcast, they must fit our church.

But not always.

The other aspect comes into play when you think about the layers of theology. If you are a charismatic church, how open does a candidate need to be to the gifts of the spirit to fit you? If you are a cautious but open church, how much is too much for you theologically in this area?

You cannot assume fit and match simply because you want to.

This means that you need to articulate your church culture clearly, what you do and don’t do, what it takes to be successful at your church, and what your goal as a church is. You must also know your closed-handed and open-handed theological stances to find someone who fits you.

Context mismatch. Every church is in a specific context and culture, and that context and culture determines the kind of staff you are looking for. Not everyone fits in a suburban, rural, or urban context. If your church is in one of those, you need to know who would fit best with you.

The same goes for the region of the country. Even if someone is a good fit in Texas, will they still be a good fit in Seattle and vice versa. There are many differences between Arizona and New England.

When we started a recent hiring process, I talked to someone who has been a part of hiring for 30+ years in New England, and he told me, “The most successful people here have lived in New England, have a family connection to New England or is from the pacific northwest or Minneapolis.” He said, “Almost everyone else struggles to fit here and understand the culture.”

The same was true in Arizona. Many church planters from the southeast struggled to understand and reach the culture.

Now, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but churches often overlook the context in which they live. This is because they live in the water and don’t see it. It is just normal to them.

Ask questions about your context. Does the person understand what it means to live and work in your context? Do they understand the history and what determines the culture of your people?

Hire quickly because you’re desperate. This isn’t just something churches do but are guilty of. Each time I have made this mistake, I have paid dearly for it.

A few things might happen: you suddenly lose a leader, your ministry grows, and you need someone to jump in. No leader is better than the wrong leader.

But just because you need someone doesn’t mean you should hire just anyone.

Take time, check their references, and ask questions about their character and abilities. Listen to any checks in your gut or pushback those on the interview team give. Everyone sounds amazing in their interviews and on their questionnaires, but are they being truthful about their experiences and abilities?

One practice a mentor told me that has proved helpful is when you are narrowing in on a candidate for a job, have a meeting all about why you wouldn’t hire that person. Take the other side.

It is easy to talk yourself into hiring someone, but taking a step back to ensure you get all the information is helpful.

Write a job description for someone instead of what you need or want. Too often, churches write a job description to fit someone instead of doing the work to determine what they need or want.

What will often happen is you have a volunteer who is there and doing a great job. So, you offer them the job. But what makes someone a great volunteer might make them a mediocre staff member.

What churches do, though, is they want someone who is a visionary leader, a great counselor, a great teacher, and a great manager with some administrative gifts. That person does not exist. You can get one or two of those things, so you must decide. This can be hard to discern, but you need to decide upfront what you are looking for to find it. 

Hire for the season you’re in instead of the one you’re going into. What season are you in as a church? What season are you going into? Do you need a builder, a maintainer, or someone to turn the ship around in an area or ministry? The answer to these questions determines what kind of person you hire. 

And make no mistake, one size does not fit all. 

Many churches now find themselves in a place where it takes a lot of energy to do ministry, more than in 2019, and many of the people in ministry don’t have that kind of energy. So what do you do? This is where it is important to know where you are in the life cycle of your church. 

Make a hire based on feeling instead of data. This is a very common one for churches because we make it spiritual. We hear someone say, “God called me here.” Or “This feels right to me.” While those are important, you need to test that out.

The best thing you can do is determine at the beginning what kind of data would make someone effective in this role: how much experience in leading teams, teaching, worship leading, making graphics, etc. do they need to have? In 12 – 24 months, what will make this person successful or unsuccessful? Then, find data to support candidates and ask questions about these things. If there is one thing I wish churches would change in their hiring processes, this would be it. This one switch has made all the difference for me. 

Lastly, throughout the process, keep pulling up what you say you want and ask, “Is this the person?” The person you are interviewing might be the best candidate out of everyone you interview, but that doesn’t mean they are who you want. 

Will this guarantee you find the right person? No. 

But doing these things will increase the chances that you will find the person you need for the next season of ministry.