Six Ingredients In The Church Staffing Mix

by Rev. Mark E. Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader

How do we structure our church staffing, given our mission, vision, and current situation?

This question rolls multiple questions into one… representing the kinds of questions we receive about church staffing. Whether small, medium, or large, questions about church staffing seem to be in the air these days, considering how often the questions arise in our consulting work. Sometimes, churches request a consultation specifically around their staffing. At times, this is either due to missional and numerical growth, needing to expand. Other times, this is due to financial strain and organizational shrinkage, needing to contract. Besides specific requests for staffing consultations, the issue of church staffing always arises during visioning processes. Once the vision is identified, along with strategic pathways, then it is very natural for churches to seek alignment between their staffing and their newly discerned direction. In each of these scenarios and more, churches are looking for guidance toward healthy and effective staffing models and patterns for their particular situations.

To that end, we have noticed seven specific dynamics which influence staffing patterns. These are becoming part of our approach when consulting on church staffing, since they are clear influencers. I’m hopeful we can develop an online survey to help assess these influencers, yet in the meantime, I’m glad to share them for churches who may find them useful while reflecting on their staffing situation.

Average Sunday Attendance Numbers

The old rule of thumb was one full time clergy or program staff position for every 100 in average Sunday attendance (Alban Institute, pre 2000). Now, given shifts in worship attendance patterns (active people are there less often), I’m adjusting this number down to one full time clergy or program staff position for every 70 in ASA, perhaps even 65 or 60. BUT, don’t get fixated on this rule of thumb number, because the remaining six factors described here significantly influence a church’s approach to staffing. Were it so simple as a number guide, that would be nice. At the same time, this number guide does contribute to staffing considerations.

Congregational Culture Around Church Staffing

Expectations, Roles, Responsibilities… What are the roles of pastors and church staff persons in your congregation? Every church has a culture around this. Some churches expect staff to be leaders, facilitating ministry by equipping the church to serve. Others, frankly, expect staff persons to be doers, direct service providers, so to speak. Most carry a mix of these expectations, yet every church has real culture with powerful influence around the role and expectations of pastors and staff persons. When gaining clarity on this, if the realization of what a church’s culture is turns out to be embarrassing or spiritually incongruent with theology, then this is a pinch point worth tending to.

Spirituality and Discipleship

Speaking of theology, what does your church model and teach about what it means to be a Jesus-follower? Do you use the word “volunteering,” or “serving?” Allow me to generalize… when spiritual vitality declines in a church, along with mission-drift, then participants in those churches tend to see serving as optional. They look through the lens of volunteerism, sometimes available and participating while other times not, sometimes outsourcing the need to serve to staff persons. When spiritual vitality increases, disciples in churches tend to see serving as part of their identity. This is what disciples do; serve. In these churches, pastors and staff persons have the opportunity to lead and facilitate ministry with a cadre of disciples who serve, rather than providing ministry themselves.

Affluence and Generosity

These two dynamics significantly influence church staffing models; and what is possible. Congregations composed of more affluent persons who are generous, have financial resources that can be directed toward staffing. This is the ideal when affluent persons are part of congregations… affluent disciples who are generous. At the same time, less affluent congregations typically don’t feel as if they are missing out. Many less affluent congregations don’t carry expectations that their church have large paid staffs. They find other ways to accomplish the mission, with different cultural expectations to support their approach to church staffing. There are infinite ways to staff churches, wonderfully so!

Budget Priorities

I was talking with a younger minister recently, describing the approach to church budgeting being promoted way back when I was a college student in 1985. The recommended allocations in church budgeting was one third going to each of three priorities: property and facilities, programming and mission, and staffing. Now, here in 2025, that approach seems foreign to most churches. Staffing along with property and facilities typically are the vast majority of the church budget. Too many factors to count influence this reality, yet reality it is among many. Every church prioritizes its church staffing in its budget mix in its own way. Though not an issue of right or wrong, this is a dynamic worth examining, considering what meaning is embedded in how your church prioritized staffing in your church’s budget.

Clergy and Staff Availability

Have you run into the clergy shortage yet? Leaders in every denomination have been aware, and now the majority of church search committees or teams are aware. There are fewer seminary students all the time, while there are also fewer going into local church ministry. I’m concerned. This is an outcome of the demise of the traditional church paradigm in this USA. I hate to say it, but isn’t this what we should expect, given what’s happening in churches? The primary way to change this dynamic is to become vitalized and robust expressions of the body of Christ. That’s when more among us will respond to the call to serve God’s church in vocational ministry. Stepping off that soapbox, the practicality is that fewer clergy and staff persons are available to serve, complicating church staffing. This is currently part of the staffing mix.

So again, church staffing is such a significant part of church life that no one dynamic explains nor provides sufficient guidance for decision-making. Instead, enough complexity is involved that it is helpful to consider each of these six dynamics, and the others not even mentioned in this article. Of course, we are glad to explore services for assisting your discernment and decision-making. In the meantime, may we live into the best expression of church we can be, using all the insights and information available to us for faithful movement.