The Hard Work Of Hiring

This is part of a series that provides examples of how you can manage different details of church leadership, including how we handle church membership, why we don’t pass an offering plate, and why we have boring annual reviews.

Hiring for your church staff is a high-stakes game.

The people you choose to have on staff will have a big impact on the effectiveness of the ministry. Hiring them represents a significant stewardship of kingdom resources. It affects your own life, as these are people you will interact with daily. And if you trust someone who ends up being untrustworthy, their moral failings can hurt people and cause many to lose trust in the ministry.

Because of this, a lot of work goes into choosing our workers at Watermark Community Church. We hire slowly (or, if we can’t find the right candidate, don’t hire at all). It is not a perfect process, but here is an overview of how we hire:

What We Look For

First and foremost, we look for someone who is already doing the job that we are hiring for.

Now, that doesn’t mean that they already have that job title somewhere else, or even that they work in ministry at all—in fact, that is rarely the case. Instead, it means that the candidate should show that they are passionate about ministry by already choosing to serve faithfully where they are. It helps that we already empower lay members to lead in all our ministries; bringing someone on staff allows them to focus their attention to it full-time.

In terms of deciding whether such a candidate would make a good addition to the team, we evaluate them based on what we call the “five Cs”:
- Calling. Has God called them to that particular area of vocational ministry? Or are they just excited about the possibility of being on the church staff, and this is the position that was currently open?
- Culture. Are they a good fit to the existing church culture? For example, we as ourselves the “staff retreat test,” which is “Would I want to ride in a car with this person for two hours on the way to a staff retreat?”
- Chemistry. Are they able to work well with other team members and leadership? (This is similar to the culture question, but is more specific to the people they will be directly working with the most.)
- Competency. Will they be excellent in the work that they are tasked to accomplish? We want someone who will be good at the job, not merely passionate about the job.
- Character. Do they live a life of faithfulness and authenticity? Although competency is important, the Bible talks more about character than competency when it comes to selecting church leaders (1 Timothy 3:1-13).

You can hear more about the five Cs in the Church Leadership Podcast episode “Hiring the Best.”

What We Ask
The goal of job interviews is to determine whether they meet those standards. We especially ask questions related to each of the three trusts. You can see a sample list of those questions, and a general outline for job interviews, here.

We start the interview by having the candidate share their testimony and asking questions to clarify whether they are trusting in Christ for salvation. If they are not sure about salvation, the interview turns into a pastoral conversation; we share the gospel with them, but don’t hire them as ministers of the gospel.

One other key question we ask: “Is there anything in your life that, if it were to come to light, would be a surprise to us, an embarrassment to you, or a discredit to our ministry?” Everybody has a past that we are saved from, so there is no past sin that could disqualify someone (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). However, we do want to know about that now, so they can live in the light (1 John 1:5-10) and we can properly respond to anyone who might bring up their past. More importantly, we want to know that there is nothing disqualifying in their present; that they are struggling well against sin tendencies and not actively embracing them (Romans 6:1-14).

What We Require

Every person on staff at Watermark must be a member of our church (or, if not yet a member, be willing to become one). They need to be connected to the church body and under the spiritual authority of the Elders.

Every person on staff is also a pastor, regardless of what their job title might be. Watermark is a large enough church that there are people on staff who specialize in things like IT, or who work as administrative assistants. But even if their job is to work at a computer all day, they are still Christ-followers and disciple-makers. The same thing is true for all church members; church leaders are to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12), not do all the ministry work on their behalf. If you are a church member who works in IT for a corporation, you should be equipped to make disciples—so that definitely applies to someone who does the same job but is on the church staff.

One practical way that plays out is through having most staff people take turns being a “pastor on call” certain weeks of the year. (We’ll have more on that in a later article.)

Checking References

If we think someone is worth hiring, before we make an offer, we will email all current staff members to get feedback (positive or negative) from anyone who already knows them. It’s a way to widen the circle and seek the counsel of many (Proverbs 11:14 and 15:22). Some people are just really good at selling themselves through job interviews, but the façade comes down in their everyday life. We talk a lot about the three trusts, but we also think there is wisdom in the saying, “Trust, but verify.”

When Someone Isn’t Hired

When someone doesn’t get the job, we still want to care for them and serve them in a loving way.

One way to do that is to simply let them know that they are not getting the job. Don’t leave them wondering, and potentially putting other plans on hold, because they think they might be getting a job offer from your church.

Giving feedback can also be loving. If there is something the person could work on to make them a better candidate in the future, we let them know. It’s a form of discipleship. There are people on our staff who were initially rejected for a job, but then took our feedback to heart and were enthusiastically hired for a different position a couple of years later.

Fools Rush In

With so much at stake, we want to get each hire “right.” That means taking our time—sometimes a lot of time—to find the best candidate.

There is pain in waiting to fill an open position, especially when the job still has to be done in the meantime. But the pain of waiting is less than the pain of rushing and hiring (and, later, firing) the wrong person.

So, don’t rush. Trust that God is in control and will resource you with the right people at the right time. Patiently disciple candidates along the way. You’re not “wasting” or “losing” time in your ministry; you are being faithful with what God has given you.