Plus/Minus Staffing
Posted on 24. Sep, 2009 by Steve Swisher in Other
Recently I got to talking with some other church planters about the things to consider when adding staff. We had a healthy debate about the concept of Plus/Minus staf positions. I think someone said that Bill Hybles used the term in one of his books. The concept is that some staff that you add will end up bringing more people in to the church which in time will more than pay for the additional salary cost the position created.
For instance, a good youth minister will bring in more youth and probably more families with youth age children. So in the long run adding a youth minister is a Plus Position. Other staff positions are necessary to keep all the Plus people going, but the position itself is a Minus. In other words, it will cost money to bring them on staff and it’s unlikely that more people are going to join the church to offset the cost of hiring them. Such is the case with an administrative assistant or a graphic design person. While they are necessary to sustain the ministry and keep it growing, it is unlikely that adding them to the staff will result in such an increase in attendance that it would offset the hire.
The classic plus positions in a church are: pastor, worship leader, youth minister, and children’s minister. Other positions can be plus positions if from the start there is a focus on the Plus aspect of the position. For instance a small group pastor could be a Plus or and Minus. If the small group pastor is merely brought on to manage the small groups of the church and handle the administrative end of things, then the position probably will turn out to be a Minus. On the other hand if the job of the small group leader is to focus on assimilation and closing the back door, then the position becomes a huge Plus. If that small group leader is able to increase the number of people who visit the church and join a small group then the position will more than pay for itself in the long run.
Another factor in this equation is who the person is. Even though the position of worship leader is a Plus, the person might be a Minus. If you’ve been in ministry at least ten years you’ve seen plenty of examples of a Minus person in a Plus position. It’s the youth leader that is poor at planning events and activities, the worship leader that sings off key and has zero enthusiasm, or the pastor that is so moody and egocentric that it pushes people away.
From now on one of the questions I am adding to my reference checks on a potential hire will be something like, “Do you think more people will join our church just because they are on staff?” or “DO you think that this person would help us maintain our current growth or cause it to spike?”
In my ten years of ministry I’ve hired both. Usually I can tell whether they are a Plus or a Minus within the first month or so. Some people coming on staff just create an electric buzz throughout the church and motivate people to invite their friends to come to church. “You gotta come to my church this week, the new worship leader is awesome.”
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