Should We Hire a Full Timer or Launch a Residency?

We get a question often from church leaders who are facing a dire issue. They have been looking for months for a staff leader and not found anyone. Sometimes, they’ve even hired a staffing firm to help and still face dead ends and see no way forward.

Then they engage us and ask: “Should we hire a full-time pastor leader or should we get a couple of residents to do this for the near term?”

Our answer is “yes.”

Yes to both. You must hire a full-time leader for that full-time leader role that is vacant. You cannot give up you must learn to think like a recruiter.

You also must launch a residency program so that you are not back in this situation in the next three years. Residency answers your staffing issue for the long game, but perhaps a quick hourly part-time person is needed for the quick fix.

So these leaders have two distinct issues. These are two different conversations.

Just don’t get them confused.

As always, we’d love to talk.