A common cause of stress among church staff members is the role of staff spouses.
Some churches hire a staff member with the unspoken expectation that they’re hiring two people (husband and wife) – the key word being “unspoken.”
I’ll share how we handle staff spouse expectations at The Journey in a moment, and whether you agree with our approach or not, please take this advice:
The key to avoiding issues with spouses (like so much else on a church staff) is 100% crystal clear communication from the beginning.
In other words, no matter what you expect from the spouses of your staff, they need to know that before they’re hired.
That being said, here’s how we handle it:
- We interview the spouse during the hiring process and make sure they understand the expectations of their spouse. We don’t do job descriptions, we do expectation lists (see The Staffing Workshop for examples).
- We take a laissez-faire approach to the spouse. He or she can be as involved or not involved as they want.
- We expect the spouse to fulfill the requirements of membership (see the appendix of my book Fusion for our members covenant – attend, serve, give, etc.)
This means that we don’t expect the spouse to be at all church events, with their staff spouse every time the doors open or to act like a paid staff member (with no pay).
We expect the spouse to be a fully contributing member – some will be more involved, some less involved depending on their own personality.
And as I mentioned before – be sure that you’re 100% clear up front.
P.S. For nearly six hours of practical, comprehensive teaching on all aspects of church staff, check out The Staffing Workshop (Available for Immediate Download).
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