--- title: "\"We're Understaffed\" Is Not a Strategy: Why Your Church's Empty Chair Is Actually a Choice" description: "Is your church chronically understaffed? Learn why \"we'll hire someone soon\" is sabotaging your team and what to do about it today." image: https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hubfs/blog-images/featured/featured_209.png --- [Skip to content](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/we-re-understaffed-is-not-a-strategy-why-your-church-s-empty-chair-is-actually-a-choice#main-content) [![cropped-chemistry\_logo\_homepage-342x95](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/cropped-chemistry_logo_homepage-342x95.webp?width=342&height=95&name=cropped-chemistry_logo_homepage-342x95.webp "cropped-chemistry_logo_homepage-342x95")](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/) - [How We Help](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/what-we-do/) - [How We Help Candidates](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/candidate/) - [How We Help Churches](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/church/) - [Our Team](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/team/) - [Our Mission & Strategy](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/what-we-do/) - [Churches](https://chemistrystaffing.com/church) - [Hire New Staff](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/2021-churches-new-staff-hiring/) - [Free 30-Minute Church Consult](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/lets-talk/) - [Chemistry Solutions – You Don’t Have to Do Ministry Alone](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/solutions/) - [Final Fit Assessment](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/final-fit-assessment/) - [Senior Pastor Succession](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/succession/) - [Job Seekers](https://chemistrystaffing.com/candidate) - [Add My Resume / Profile](https://chemistry.fyi/kwq) - [Current Openings](https://chemistrystaffing.com/jobs) - [Free Resume Assessment](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/free-resume-self-assessment/) - [Step-by-Step Job Search](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/cjb) - [How Chemistry Can Help](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/candidate/) - [Resources](http://www.chemistrystaffing.com/candidate/) - [Free Playbooks & Downloads](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/resources/) - [Chemistry Blog](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/) - [2024 Youth Pastor Compensation Survey](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/resources/2024-yp-compensation-survey/) - [Contact Us](http://www.chemistrystaffing.com/lets-talk/) - [Candidates](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/candidate-contact-page/) - [Churches](http://www.chemistrystaffing.com/lets-talk/) - [Find a Job](https://chemistrystaffing.com/jobs) - [My Church is Hiring](https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/lets-talk/) # "We're Understaffed" Is Not a Strategy: Why Your Church's Empty Chair Is Actually a Choice Is your church chronically understaffed? Learn why "we'll hire someone soon" is sabotaging your team and what to do about it today. ![](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hubfs/blog-images/featured/featured_209.png) It's there again. Line item seven on this month's board agenda: "Discuss hiring for \[insert role here\]." 🎧 Listen to this episode: The same line that appeared last month. And the month before that. In fact, you're pretty sure this conversation has been happening for nearly a year now. Meanwhile, your worship leader is also running the youth group. Your admin is covering facilities management. Your children's director is somehow also planning all your outreach events. Three people. Four jobs. Maybe five. You call it a "stretch season." They're starting to call it Tuesday. If this sounds painfully familiar, I need you to hear something important: **You're not in a staffing season. You've created a staffing strategy.** And that strategy is chronic understaffing. Hi, I'm Todd Rhoades, co-founder of [Chemistry Staffing](https://chemistrystaffing.com). I've spent decades helping churches navigate staffing challenges, and I need to lovingly call out one of the most common—and most damaging—patterns I see in church leadership today. ## The Empty Chair Strategy Here's what's happening in too many churches: You know you're understaffed. Everyone knows you're understaffed. But month after month, you're making a choice. Not the choice to hire. Not the choice to cut the work. You're choosing the third option—leaving the chair empty and letting the people who stayed cover it. That's a strategy. You're just not calling it one. Every board meeting, it's there in the minutes: "We need to hire someone." But there's no job posting. No timeline. No date. No decision to stop anything you're currently doing to make room. You're just divvying out the work to whoever won't let it drop. ![Episode visual summary](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hubfs/blog-images/whiteboards/whiteboard_209.png) And you can see exactly who's paying for it. ## Three People, Four Jobs It's always the same people, isn't it? Maybe it's kids ministry, worship, and admin. They get all the leftovers. They get the role you say you're going to fill "eventually." "Can you just cover this until we hire someone?" "This is temporary—just until we bring someone on board." But that season? It's been going on for quite a while. And it doesn't seem to have an end date—at least not one your staff can see. They can see the empty chair. They also know that Sunday still happens regardless. So they take the extra. They're good soldiers. And you put "hire someone" back on next month's agenda. ### What Scripture Says > "Moses' father-in-law replied, 'What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.'" — Exodus 18:17-18 Now listen—this isn't the role creep that comes from "other duties as assigned." This is something much worse. **This is an unfilled seat you're using as a person.** The vacancy has a workload. And because you haven't hired someone for that role, the work still has to get done. So you're assigning it to whoever has a hard time saying no or letting things drop. ## The Real Problem: You Won't Kill Anything Here's where it gets uncomfortable. The real issue isn't that you haven't hired someone yet. The real issue is that **you will not kill the thing that would make the math honest.** Every problem becomes "we need another hire." - A new idea in the elder meeting? "We should get someone for that." - A struggling ministry? "We need to hire a specialist." - An exciting outreach opportunity? "If only we had another staff person..." Meanwhile: - You won't sunset a ministry that stopped being effective three years ago - You won't combine two part-time roles into one honest job - You won't say no to the new thing - You won't stop anything Why? Because saying no feels like a lack of faith. Because starting something new is easier than holding a funeral for something old. Because you genuinely believe that with one more person, you could do it all. So the plan for the last 11 months has been "more people"—people you just don't have. And before you know it, "understaffed" stops being a season and becomes your church's identity. ## Staff Become the Shock Absorber Here's what you need to understand: **The empty chair doesn't absorb anything. People do.** Your staff members are absorbing: - The midweek program they weren't hired to run - The administrative tasks from the role you haven't filled - The coordination for the new initiative you just announced - The overflow from the ministry you refuse to sunset You say you can't hire yet, but you still announce new initiatives. That shock has to go somewhere. It goes into the same three calendars. The same three lives. The same three families. And they're not tired because they lack passion. **They're tired because you made understaffing the ministry model.** ### The Hard Truth A season has an end. A plan has an owner. "Until we hire" has neither. Staff members aren't a bridge to the hire. They've become the hire you refuse to name. ## What Changes This Week I want you to do something uncomfortable this week. Actually, I want you to do it today. **Pick one uncovered role and end the "until."** Either: **1. Post it with a real date.** Open the position. Create a job description. Set a timeline. If you need help, that's literally what we do at [Chemistry Staffing](https://chemistrystaffing.com)—give us a call. But give it a real date and a real owner. **OR** **2. Officially stop doing the work.** If you've been going two years without a youth pastor and keep saying you'll hire one, you've got to pull some plugs. Stop some programs. Sunset some initiatives. Make the math honest. Then—and this is crucial—**say it to the team. Say it to the board.** "The expectation is off the three people covering four jobs. We're either hiring for this role by \[specific date\], or we're officially stopping these three things. No more 'until we hire.'" "Until" is how you keep the labor and skip the decision. If you cannot post the job and you will not stop the work, you've already written your strategy. And it's chronic understaffing, with staff as the shock absorber and vacancy as identity. ## I Know What You're Thinking "But Todd, we don't have the budget." "We don't have the right person." "The timing isn't right." I get it. Maybe it is a budget fight. Budget conversations are genuinely messy and complicated. But I also know this: **You actually want a team that's staffed for the work you keep announcing.** You want a team that can sustain the ministries you're promoting. You don't want to grind good people into the ground. So make a decision. Post it or stop it. But end the "until." ### Take Action This Week - **Conduct a "Stop Doing" Audit:** Each staff member identifies 2-3 tasks or programs they could stop or significantly reduce in the next quarter - **Pick One Uncovered Role:** Either post it with a real timeline, or officially sunset the work associated with it - **Communicate Clearly:** Tell your team and board what you've decided—no more "until we hire" - **Get Help if Needed:** If hiring is the answer but you don't know where to start, reach out to us at [Chemistry Staffing](https://chemistrystaffing.com) ## The Bottom Line Having "we're going to hire someone" on the board agenda for 11 months is not a season. It's the plan. And that plan is costing you more than you realize—in staff burnout, in ministry effectiveness, in the trust of your team, and ultimately in your ability to fulfill your mission. This week, make a different choice. Post the role with a date, or officially stop the work. Your staff will thank you. Your church will be healthier for it. And you'll finally be leading with a real strategy instead of letting chronic understaffing make the decisions for you. --- *What's your experience with this? Are you in the middle of this right now? I'd love to hear your thoughts, your pushback, or your questions. Reach out to me at [podcast@chemistrystaffing.com](mailto:podcast@chemistrystaffing.com).* *And if you found this helpful, check out the [Healthy Church Staff Podcast](https://chemistrystaffing.com/podcast) for more conversations about building healthy, sustainable church teams.* ### [![Todd Rhoades](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/883a0d42581424e9bbe7c77dccfeed6b) Todd Rhoades](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/author/todd-rhoades) Todd has invested over 30 years in serving churches, having served as a worship pastor for over 15 years, a church elder for more than a decade, and in various ministry leadership roles in both the business and non-profit sectors. As the original founder and developer of ChurchStaffing.com, Todd fundamentally changed the way thousands of churches search for pastors and staff on the internet. Todd is a graduate of Cedarville University, and lives in Bryan, OH with his wife, Dawn. 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