Every growing church hits the same two questions: when can we hire, and who do we hire first? Most of us answer both the wrong way. We hire when the pressure gets loud, and we hire for a department.
When to hire: when the budget allows
Not when you’re tired. Not when a ministry is loud. Not when a good person happens to be available. You hire when the budget can carry the role at a thriving level for at least 24 months, and staff costs still sit near 45–50% of the budget after the hire.
Before any hire, I want all five of these to be true:
- We can pay at least the basic-needs floor for this person’s household, plus benefits.
- We can sustain that for 24 months, even if giving dips.
- Personnel will stay within our budget target after this hire.
- We have a candidate we’d be excited to keep for five years, not just someone available now.
- The role has clear outcomes and will lead volunteers, not replace them.
If you can’t check every box, the answer is “not yet.” The honest moves are a high-capacity volunteer for a season, a bigger role (and a raise) for someone already on staff, or a giving trigger the whole church can see.
That can feel slow. It’s faster than a hire you can’t keep. SHRM’s 2025 benchmark puts the average non-executive cost per hire at about $5,475, and a miss means paying it twice, plus the months of salary, the volunteers who leave with the wrong leader, and the trust you spend.
Who to hire: stop thinking in departments
Most churches still staff like a school district. We picture the org chart as a row of departments, kids, students, worship, groups, guest services, and argue about which one gets a staff member first. Kids usually wins, because the parents are loudest.
That’s the wrong question. A department doesn’t need a paid doer. It needs a high-capacity volunteer leader who runs it, and a staff member above it who raises up, coaches and multiplies those leaders. Hire a kids pastor first and you’ve funded one department. Hire a multiplier first and every department gets a leader.
| Department thinking | Multiplier thinking |
|---|---|
| “Which department gets the first hire?” | “Who will raise up a leader for every department?” |
| One paid staff member per ministry area | One paid multiplier, a volunteer director for each area |
| Staff do the ministry | Staff build the people who do the ministry |
| Measured by programs run | Measured by the five growth numbers |
| Admin eats the week | AI and Engage carry the admin, so the week goes to people |
Your first hire: the multiplication pastor, plus AI
For most churches, the first hire after the lead pastor is the multiplication pastor: a young, bright, highly relational leader whose whole job is getting more people onto teams and into groups. He recruits and coaches a volunteer director for kids, students, worship, guest services and groups. He owns five numbers, each with a 90-day target:
- Visitors: how many new people came in the door?
- Engagement: how many went from visitor to engaged within 90 days?
- Groups: how many went from not in a group to in a group?
- Teams: how many went from not on a team to on a team?
- Giving: how many went from not giving to giving?
Because AI drafts the communication and Engage surfaces who needs a call, who declined and who isn’t connected yet, his week goes to people instead of a laptop. The executive pastor was the innovation that helped the last generation of churches scale. In the age of AI, the multiplication pastor is the next one.
Three very nice people doing tasks aren’t worth one multiplication pastor who fills five roles with volunteers. A staffer who personally supervises 40 kids every Wednesday night is busy, but he isn’t multiplying anything. A staffer who builds a team of 12 volunteers to run Wednesday night is.
Hire for the church you’ll be in two years
My friend Eric Smith, founding pastor of Hope City Church in Southwest Florida, asks a different question before he adds a role: who are we going to need in about two years? Then he goes and gets that person now. As he put it on our Ask a Megachurch Pastor webinar, “If we do this or if we do that, what does that mean five years from now?”
Most churches hire for the gap they feel today. By the time that person is trained and trusted, the church has moved on and the role is already too small. Hiring two years out flips that. The person grows into the role while the church grows into the person.
- Picture the church two years from now. Attendance, groups, teams, services, maybe a second location. Write it down.
- List the roles that church will need. Not the departments. The leaders who will multiply people at that size.
- Pick the one role that gets you there. Usually it’s a multiplier, not a specialist.
- Fund it at a thriving level, then hire. If the budget doesn’t allow it yet, raise up a volunteer for the role and set the giving trigger that funds it.
- Ask the question again every year, at budget time, before you approve a single new line.
The order for most churches
Lead pastor at a thriving level first, because his pay is the ceiling every other role gets priced under. Then the multiplication pastor, with AI and Engage. Then the next role your two-year picture calls for: often a next-gen pastor, then a part-time creative or worship leader. Departments get volunteer directors all along the way.
| Annual budget | Staff budget (45–50%) | Lean team plus AI |
|---|---|---|
| $300,000 | $135,000–$150,000 | Lead pastor at a thriving level, plus a part-time ops coordinator |
| $600,000 | $270,000–$300,000 | Lead pastor + ops pastor, both thriving; part-time worship or creative leader |
| $1,000,000 | $450,000–$500,000 | Lead pastor, executive or ops pastor and next-gen pastor, all thriving, plus a part-time creative director |
Starting models, not rules. A thriving family role costs about $121,000 all in, in a middle-cost state like Florida. From Pay to Thrive, Part 4.
An open seat beats a wrong hire. But the right seat, filled early, beats both.
