Before You Hire That Staff Person: 8 Red Flags

Before You Hire That Staff Person: 8 Red Flags

As staff recruiting in ministry world continues to evolve and become more competitive and sophisticated in recent years, churches and recruiting firms have developed a keen sense of red flags during the recruiting process that relate to whether a candidate is a good fit for your church or not. Those red flags may be a bit different from church to church, but there are many red flags that are fairly consistent across the board.

Now a red flag doesn’t necessarily mean that a church should stop recruiting a candidate, even though that’s very possible, but it is a cause for concern and gives reason to hit the breaks on the speed of the process and dig deeper with the candidate.

So after being on both sides of recruiting, both being recruited and recruiting a number of hires, here are some of the biggest church staff recruiting red flags.

Candidates That Are Overly Concerned With the Opportunity to Teach

If teaching is really important to the candidate and you’re not hiring them to a teaching role then don’t hire them. Let them go plant or pastor their own church.

Candidates That Are Indecisive

If they need to go date other churches then let them. Just don’t marry them.

Candidates That Freely Speak Negatively of Their Current Church

If they talk badly about their current church, they may have a difficult time taking personal ownership and as a result have a low E.Q. And by the way, if they talk badly about others, they’ll probably talk badly about you. 

Candidates That Don’t Ask Good Questions

If they don’t ask good questions, they’re not going to be a very critical thinker or strategic and will have a hard time moving the ministry forward at your church.

Candidates That Treat People They Have Nothing to Gain From Poorly

If they only treat people with perceived power and influence well (those they seem to gain something from) and overlook others, or even worse treat them poorly, then they have a serious character defect that will hurt your team.

Candidates That Are Too Eager

If they are too eager to jump ship and join your team then they’re probably running from something or chasing something; either way they’ll have a hard time leading in the here and now if they join your team.

Candidates With an Overbearing Spouses

I know you’re not hiring their spouse, you’re hiring them, but sharp people typically marry sharp people. If their spouse is overbearing, you’re probably going to want to pass.

Candidates That Change Jobs Too Often

If they have a track record of changing jobs every few years, chances are they’ll leave you soon too.

Paul Alexander, a ministry consultant at the Unstuck Group and has more than 20 years of experience serving in the local church. He has served on the Sr. Leadership Teams of some of the nation’s leading mega-churches. Currently, Paul is serving as the Executive Pastor at Sun Valley Community Church, a large multi-site church located in the Phoenix area.