Subscribe to the Network4 Red Flags Before You Make the Hire
Been thinking recently about some of the processes of hiring a new team member. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve been tracking on to help our high school ministry make the right hire. 4 Red Flags to look out for:
RED FLAG 1 – bouncing all over the place. This is a big warning sign to me – consistency is a huge issue in youth ministry. If you’ve made it more than 5 years at a place, it means you’ve seen the good, bad and ugly of church work. Youth workers that bounce from church to church too often miss out on the pains and the rewards of long-term ministry. A person with multiple positions over the course of the past few years doesn’t automatically disqualify them, but it concerns me right off the bat.
RED FLAG 2 – glowing references from everyone. If the person is perfect, we don’t want them here because we’ll ruin them! While I appreciate good references, being able to hear about a candidates weaknesses or tendencies is a big deal. References that love you but also know you all around are more helpful than the ones that say nothing less then stellar things.
RED FLAG 3 – lack of personality. This is a tough one to see in a resume, but easy to spot in person. Not everyone has to be like me – people-crazy to a fault – you don’t have to even be a people person for that matter, but please show me a pulse. Show me that you’ve got some passion. Show me that there are some things you get excited about, you get angry about and that you dream about.
RED FLAG 4 – little evidence of their relationship with God. You don’t have to use Jesus in every other sentence, but your walk with God should be clearly evident. If a walk with God isn’t showing up somewhere day one, move along to someone else.
JG
If I were hiring, I’d want to see competence in laying out biblical truths without jargon too. It’s so big a part of my job as a youthworker, that I can’t imagine anyone being effective if they aren’t able to do that.
ED…