as
Ministers on Staff
I’ve posted some tips to
seniors on getting jobs (or getting into graduate school) so I thought I’d
cross over and work the other side of the street this week—giving tips to
churches on how to recruit the best seniors for jobs on staff. Here goes:
1. Realize you have to
compete for the best.
Some churches (especially
large ones) imagine there are scores of highly talented seniors antsy to get a
chance to be youth pastor at their church. They are stunned when they get only
a few tolerably talented
applications. They wonder where all the talent went. The answer
is, the talented ones had jobs in January. In a few
more years (when the number of college students begins collapsing) it will be
even worse so churches need to learn now—there is a new day arriving when
you’ve got to recruit to get the best. If you are still operating under the
assumption that there are scores of talented graduates
competing to get your job you will need to shift your thinking soon. I have
some talented students who have already been recruited into jobs as Sophomores—they already have an offer waiting for them in
two years when they graduate. These talented kids won’t even be sending you a
resume. Sure, there will be applications coming this summer—but the best students
may have accepted a job offer before you even advertised your opening. (I
actually know two students who were offered jobs when
they were still in high school—and they went off to college to prepare
for those church staff jobs waiting for them when they graduate.) If we want
the best we must get ready to compete to get them.
2. They are picky.
This is the pickiest generation I’ve ever seen. They eat only three
kinds of cereal and simply refuse to eat any at all if you don’t their kind.
They drink diet Barque’s Root Beer and turn down a
diet A & W if that’s all you have. Their personalized picky
tastes in music is what made the iPod a success—they seldom listen to a song
they don’t like. When they chose a college they visited several campuses and
“compared offers” of financial aid, looked at swimming pools, dorm rooms and gauged
“the feel” of the campus before they selected the exact one that appealed to
them. They are picky about who they intend to marry
too—they totally reject the “just choose one” approach and expect the get an ideal
mate. They are accustomed to being catered to. All
this reminds us of why they are picky about jobs. This
frustrates me and I tell them so but I have little affect
on them. They know life has given them the best clothes, the best schools, the
best medical care, the best transportation and best college experience, so life
will also give them the best spouse and best job if they wait long enough.
Whether we boomers like this or not doesn’t matter—it is a fact and we need to
know this when we recruit. Make no mistake—we are recruiting them.
They are quite willing to work at Starbucks a few years until the “right job”
(and the “right mate”) turns up—they’re confident “God has plans for them—to
make them prosper.” They are the “Prayer
of Jabez generation.”
3. They care as much about
who they work with as what they’ll do.
Today’s students want to be a
part of a dynamic unified team of loving-caring people who work
together and have fun together. They are not impressed with “independence”
or getting a job where “the senior pastor pretty much leaves me alone.” They
want to be a part of a larger staff. They want to be in on decisions for the
whole church. They think a church staff should be like “Jesus and the Twelve” or
a “band of brothers” and sisters working together as a team. They despise the
“subcontractor method” of Boomer church staffing where they are supposed to
come in and hang drywall and pay no attention to the
plumbing or electrical work. They want to participate in church life across the
whole spectrum. To recruit the best, you’ve got to let
them experience the loving-caring-sharing community of your church
staff. One student put it this way after
turning down a job, “They were great teens and the church offered high pay, but
there was no unity and caring among the staff-they all did their own thing and
ignored everybody else, so I said no.” To get the best graduate show your candidates
they will join a staff who works and has fun together
as a team.
4. They want to be
developed.
I know this is crazy and I
tell them so. After all, you are paying them to mentor others—not get mentored. But this is what they
expect. They don’t expect to be fully ready until they are about 30-33. Even the very best students are committed to
growing and developing even more. They want a church who will commit to their
growth—not just use them discard them later like a Kleenex tissue. If
you want the best graduates you’ve got to show them
how you will help them develop in mentoring with other staff and you and even
to help them get further education. You can still get a mediocre graduate
without these things, but you won’t get the get the best ones.
5. Understand how they
have redefined “success.”
To recruit the best in the
emerging generation, boomers can’t use the same prizes that worked for us—money,
fame, power, prestige, freedom and a step up the ladder of success. To us it
appears this emerging generation doesn’t even want to “get ahead.” They appear casual about success because they
define it differently. Doing “something great” or being
famous or top dog or someone who has a conference and tells everyone
else how to do it doesn’t appeal to them much. They want to be a part of
something worthwhile even if they play a small role and never get famous for
it. Being in charge of something “big” doesn’t impress them—even the finest
graduates are willing to work with a youth group of 25 if they can “really
minister and develop those teens.” They are more interested in quality than
quantity, meaning than fame. To get the best aim your pitch at being a part of
a loving staff who works and plays together and does something worthwhile where
they can play a role bringing the group’s success.
Of course churches can ignore
all these tips and still get staff people. They just need to be willing to take
the leftovers and not the best students. And when the coming downturn in
college students appears in the next few years—even these mediocre students
won’t be there.
So what do you think?
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