Hiring Part 2

Got an email wanting to know how the typical hire happens at Ridge Stone so I thought I would share with you how we ended up with our crew:

Tim - Tim is our worship pastor. I met Tim while on staff at West Ridge Church. Every one told me I should look at him for the slot so we met, got to know each other and I offered him the job. He turned me down. He then came back and wanted the job. I turned him down. We started Ridge Stone and he was just there. I had worship leaders lined up for the first 4 weeks and on the 5th Sunday I let Tim lead. He never stopped. Tim and I are as probably as close as you can get between a pastor and a staff. We are GREAT friends. We do everything together. We complete each others thoughts sometimes and it freaks us out. I can’t fire the dude because he is literally my next door neighbor.

Preston - He showed up our 5th or 6th week. He was the youth pastor at a pretty large church in the town west of us. He resigned, heard about us and started coming. We hit it off instantly and became good friends. He stared working very part time with the youth and we discovered Preston gift mix was not the best for starting something from scratch. However, I KNEW he was the right person for the staff and we moved him to our children’s area when we had a need and he took the already established but small team and took it to the next level. He is one of the best team builders I have ever seen. Preston handles close to 100 different volunteers in his ministry area and does a great job. He is perfect for kids because he is a 6 foot 7 inch kid. Love the dude.

Cheri - Cheri was in our church since about the second month. We hit it off so we hired her. She is the only every day woman in the office so she puts up with a lot and does a good job. If you ask Cheri to do it, it WILL get done.

Christine - We brought her on in January part time to do video. She has been with us since before we launched. She worked at a mega-church in Cobb County doing video and had been off their staff due to an illness with her son for about 5 years. It was literally a God thing. We had X amont of dollars and she need X amount of pay. She was way behind the learning curve being out for 5 years in the video field but she has stepped up and done a very good job. She gets better every week. We call her the staff boomer and surbanite. She doesn’t like that.

Erick - I went to college with Erick and we have been friends for about 10 years. He started a church in St. Louis and God showed him he was not a senior pastor. When we were looking for a youth guy, I called, he moved. I never even thought of hiring someone else. I knew he could do the job. Erick has never been part of a church like The Stone before but I don’t care. He is sold out to our vision and because I know him, I know he will do a great job.

We have never looked at a resume, we have never posted a job opening, and we have never sought after someone. So far we have had needs and I have hired people I knew either in the church or from friendships.

It has served us well.

I’m not sure our people realize how blessed they are with the staff God has given us. I thank God for them every day. Seriously, I could not imagine doing this without them. I couldn’t do it and I wouldn’t want too.