“We’re not a corporation; we’re a church. Do we really need to hire a search firm?” In a word, “Yes.”
As the only retained executive search firm in the county focused exclusively on identifying and recruiting leaders for all types of faith-based organizations, FaithSearch Partners has seen first hand just how valuable a search firm can be to a church as it seeks to find its next leader. Corporations have retained executive search firms for decades, yet many ministries are hesitant to adopt this highly effective method of recruiting leaders. Why? We did some research and asked church members, deacons, elders, pastors and other leaders why they were so reluctant to retain a search firm. Based on their answers, we created a list of the seven most common myths surrounding the search process.
- “We can’t afford to hire a search firm.”
- “Our church is big enough to survive a long transition.”
- “We certainly have the talent and resources within our church to do this ourselves and avoid paying a fee.” OR “We have members of our church who are professional people. I’m sure they could help us.”
- “We have access to the same pool of candidates you do.”
- “We don’t need to spend the money donated to the church on a job we are supposed to be doing. It’s bad stewardship.”
- “Hiring a search firm will just add more process, more layers and more time to the search.”
- “We’re just a church. We don’t need some fancy corporate search process to find a leader.”
Do any of these sound familiar? In our video, Myths, FaithSearch Partners President, Ed Fry, elaborates on each misconception and discusses the benefits of retaining a search firm.
