You're sitting in the lobby after Sunday service. Almost everyone has left.
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A church member approaches you, gushing about the pastor's incredible new initiative.
You know—the one you spent three months developing. The one you pitched in the staff meeting. The one your senior pastor said "yes" to, then announced from the stage like it came to him in a divine revelation.
When they ask what you think about it, you smile and say, "Yeah, it's great."
If that scenario sounds painfully familiar, you're not alone. And the impact on your team might be more serious than you realize.
Here's what many people don't realize about credit-hoarding leadership in churches: it's not always about ego.
Before you write off your senior pastor as narcissistic or power-hungry, consider this: some senior leaders genuinely don't realize they're doing it.
They're not malicious. They're just wired to think in first person. Many senior pastors live so deeply in their own narrative that they forget other people wrote different chapters of the same story. In their mind, approving your idea is the same as having the idea in the first place.
They've conflated ownership with leadership, and nobody has ever told them otherwise.
Leadership expert Patrick Lencioni calls this "the genius with a thousand helpers" syndrome—where one leader becomes the sun and everyone else merely orbits. It happens unintentionally in many churches, especially those built around a strong teaching pastor.
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." — Philippians 2:3-4
But whether it's intentional or not, here's what it does inside your staff and your team.
When credit doesn't flow down from leadership, something insidious begins to happen in your church culture.
Your best staff members stop bringing great ideas.
Why would they? When there's no recognition for creativity, innovation feels pointless. Eventually, talented team members start doing the minimum required. They disengage emotionally but stay employed—at least for a while.
Then they leave. And you lose exactly the people you couldn't afford to lose.
The ones who stay? They build silent resentment. And that resentment doesn't stay contained—it leaks into everything. Into meetings. Into hallway conversations. Into attitudes on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, the senior pastor wonders why the team suddenly feels flat, why creativity has dried up, why the staff meetings feel lifeless.
This isn't just about hurt feelings. This is about the long-term health of your ministry culture. When contribution goes unacknowledged, engagement dies. When engagement dies, your church's mission suffers.
Now listen—I'm not suggesting your pastor is a narcissist or that you need to stage some kind of staff revolt. Please don't send me angry emails about how I told you to quit your job. That's not what I'm saying.
But here are four practical steps you can take if you're in this situation:
This is foundational, and it has to come first.
If your sense of purpose depends on applause, you're already in a fragile position. God saw the work you did. He knows who did it. And that's not a cop-out—that's the foundation of sustainable ministry.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." — Colossians 3:23-24
The question "Am I trying to win the approval of people or of God?" needs to be answered before you do anything else. Your identity cannot be tied to your visibility.
If this pattern really bothers you, schedule a one-on-one conversation with your senior pastor. Not in front of the staff. Not passive-aggressively. Just the two of you.
Try something like: "Hey, I'd love it if you could mention the team when you talk about this project from the stage. I think it would really mean a lot to them."
Most senior pastors will say yes. They honestly just didn't think about it.
If they get defensive? Now you know something deeper might be going on, and you have valuable information about your church's leadership culture.
You may not control what happens from the top down, but you absolutely control what happens within your sphere of influence.
If you lead a department, be the leader who names contributions. When your team has a win, publicly acknowledge who made it happen. Break the cycle. Be the antidote.
Even if you don't have staff reporting to you, you work with volunteers. Make sure they feel seen and valued for their ideas and contributions. Model the culture you wish existed above you.
Start each staff or team meeting with a 5-minute "wins round" where people share victories and explicitly name who contributed to making them happen. This simple practice can transform your team culture over time.
This one is crucial: if this is a pattern, not a moment—if it's systemic, not situational—you might be in a culture that simply won't change.
And if you stay too long in that environment, it will warp you. You'll either become bitter or invisible, and neither one is worth it.
There's no shame in recognizing when a ministry culture isn't healthy and won't become healthy. Protecting your calling sometimes means knowing when to find a new place to serve it.
Here's what a lot of church staff miss in this situation: your work doesn't need a spotlight to matter.
Jesus spent most of his ministry with twelve guys. Huge crowds came and went, but he invested in the few, in private. Most of what you do in ministry will never be publicly seen—and that doesn't make it less significant.
In fact, some of the most kingdom-shaping work happens in rooms nobody knows about and in meetings where crowds never gather.
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." — 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
If you're constantly needing to be noticed, you're not leading—you're performing. And performance always burns out.
Your work doesn't need a spotlight to matter, but your team does need to know they're seen.
If you're a senior leader reading this: please understand the power you hold. Your team is watching what you celebrate and who you acknowledge. They're listening for the word "we" when you talk about victories. And they notice when it never comes.
If you're a staff member living this reality: you are doing work that matters. It's kingdom work. Even when nobody is saying your name from the stage, it matters. And you matter.
So keep going.
Have you experienced this in your church? How did you handle it? What have you learned about creating healthy recognition cultures in ministry?
I'd love to hear your story. Email me at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com and let me know what you think.
Listen to the full episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast for more insights on building healthy team cultures. New episodes drop every weekday at chemistrystaffing.com.