--- title: Why Your Church Staffing Search Isn't Actually a Search (And How to Fix It) description: "Is your church search stuck in \"we're looking\" mode? Learn why searching without calendar dates isn't a search—it's just hoping. Practical hiring advice for church leaders." image: https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hubfs/blog-images/featured/featured_229.png --- [Skip to content](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/why-your-church-staffing-search-isn-t-actually-a-search-and-how-to-fix-it#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/) # Why Your Church Staffing Search Isn't Actually a Search (And How to Fix It) Is your church search stuck in "we're looking" mode? Learn why searching without calendar dates isn't a search—it's just hoping. Practical hiring advice for church leaders. ![](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hubfs/blog-images/featured/featured_229.png) You've told your board you're searching. You've mentioned it to the staff. It came up in the elder meeting and again in the hallway: "We're looking. We're praying about the right person. It's in process." 🎧 Listen to this episode: But here's the question that exposes everything: When you open your calendar right now, what do you see? Is there a date when the job goes public? A window blocked off for interviews? A search committee meeting actually scheduled? A decision deadline marked on anyone's calendar? If your answer is no, then I need to say something that might sting a little: **You're not actually searching. You're hoping.** And there's a massive difference between the two. ## When "We're Searching" Becomes Permanent Furniture Here's what happens when a church staffing search has no timeline: the vacancy becomes like furniture in the room. It just sits there. After a while, nobody even notices it anymore. Three months pass. Then six. Then a year. And someone is still covering Sunday nights. Someone is still answering the parent emails. Someone is still running the ministry that was supposed to get a dedicated hire twelve months ago. Every time the board asks for an update, you say the same thing: "We're searching. We're being careful. We're waiting on the right fit." Look, I'm all for being careful when you're hiring. You *should* be thoughtful about who you bring onto your team. But waiting forever with no timeline isn't careful—it's drift with spiritual language attached to it. ### What Your Team Is Actually Thinking Your team heard you say "we're searching." Then they watched as nothing got posted. No interviews got scheduled. The person covering just kept covering. And they came to a simple conclusion: **You're not really searching.** You're either managing how it looks or hoping someone walks through the door with a resume, a calling, and a schedule that happens to fit yours. ## Hope Is Not a Hiring Plan I understand where you're coming from. You don't want to hire the wrong person. Maybe you've been burned before. You're genuinely praying about it, trying to be a good steward of the trust your church has given you. Those are good motives. Really, they are. But here's the problem: **The issue isn't prayer. The issue is a search that never becomes a project with actual dates.** When "we're looking" turns into a permanent status with no milestones, nobody buys it anymore. The person who's been covering that role for months? They especially don't buy it. They know the difference between a real search and a hope-someday approach. ![Episode visual summary](https://blog.chemistrystaffing.com/hubfs/blog-images/whiteboards/whiteboard_229.png) > "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." — Proverbs 21:5 Faith without a calendar is still just hope. Good stewardship puts dates next to that hope. ## The Three Dates Every Church Search Needs If you want to move from hoping to actually searching, you need three dates on your calendar. Not vague timeframes. Not "sometime in the next few months." Actual dates. ### 1. The Post Date This is when the role goes public. If you're conducting your own search, this is when you post the job opening. If you're working with a search firm, this is when it goes live with them. Pick a date. Put it on the calendar. ### 2. The Interview Week Block it off the same way you'd block off a staff retreat. This doesn't mean you'll only interview during one week—it's a rolling process. But you need dedicated time set aside for interviews, not squeezed between everything else. If interviews aren't on the calendar, they'll keep getting pushed. ### 3. The Decision Date When will the elders or lead pastor say yes, say no, or decide to reopen the search? If you can't name this date, you're not really searching yet. You're thinking. You're praying. You're asking someone else to keep covering while you hope. **Bonus:** Put your search committee meetings on the calendar like they're real meetings. Because if they're not on the calendar, they're not real meetings. ### Try This in Your Next Leadership Meeting Walk into your next elder meeting or staff conversation and ask plainly: "What's the post date, the interview week, and the decision date for this hire?" Then watch the room. If nobody can answer, you already have your answer. If the only response is "we're praying" with nothing on the calendar behind it, you already know what's really happening. ## Prayer Doesn't Replace a Timeline Let me be crystal clear: Prayer absolutely belongs in your search. Please don't hear me saying otherwise. But prayer doesn't replace a timeline. A search without dates isn't discernment—it's delay. > "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans." — Proverbs 16:3 Notice that verse says "plans"—not vague intentions, not perpetual hoping, but actual plans that you commit to the Lord. God can absolutely redirect your timeline. He can bring someone into the picture earlier than expected or ask you to wait longer than planned. But He works with our faithful planning, not our lack of it. ## What to Do Right Now Here's your challenge, and I'll admit it's a little uncomfortable: If you've been talking about hiring but don't have an actual plan for the role you keep saying you're filling, do one of two things this week: **Option 1:** Put three dates on the calendar—the post date, the interview week, and the decision date. **Option 2:** Be honest and admit out loud (to yourself, to your board, to the person who's been covering) that you haven't actually started searching yet. One of those options honors the people who are waiting. The other one doesn't. ### Discussion Questions for Your Team - For any open positions we've been discussing: Can we name the post date, interview window, and decision date? - If we can't name those dates, what's actually holding us back from putting them on the calendar? - Who on our team has been covering responsibilities that were supposed to be temporary? How long has it been? - What would it look like to honor both our need for wisdom AND the person who's been carrying extra weight? ## The Bottom Line If you've told everyone you're searching, but there's no post date, no interview week, and no decision deadline, you're not searching. You're hoping. And while hoping might feel spiritual, it's not fair to the person who keeps covering that role with no end in sight. So put the dates on the calendar, or stop saying you're searching. Your team—and the person who's been patiently waiting—deserves to know which one it is. --- *Sometimes hiring can stymie us. We get stuck, and I completely understand that. If you'd like to have a conversation about your hiring process and see if there's any way our team at Chemistry Staffing can help, I'd love to hear your story.* **Reach out anytime: [podcast@chemistrystaffing.com](mailto:podcast@chemistrystaffing.com)** *— Todd Rhoades, Co-founder, Chemistry Staffing* ### [![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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