In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper talk with William Vanderbloemen, the founder and CEO of The Vanderbloemen Search Group, an agency that helps churches and Christian organizations with their staffing needs as well as consulting. They work with may of most influential churches and Christian organizations in the country (including LifeWay).William is a former pastor and cares deeply about the local church and is the co-author of Next: Pastoral Succession that Works with Warren Bird.

BEST QUOTES

“For churches and pastors it’s not the typical employer/employee relationship. It’s much more like a family.”

“Every pastor is an interim pastor.”

“One of three things will happen at the end of your ministry; You’ll run your church into the ground and it’ll close, you’ll be the pastor when Jesus returns, or someone is going to come after you.”

“Millennials are the largest segment of the U.S. work force and no one has any idea what to do with them.”

“Every day of my life I get less flexible. It’s true of everybody.”

“Every day your organization is alive it’s going to calcify unless you do something about it.”

“The main point of emphasis for our leadership team in building a system that will last is culture.”

“If you don’t match our culture no one is going to be happy.”

“Culture is a buzzword, but it’s a buzzword for a reason.”

“My annual review is one question: ‘Did you make yourself less essential to the growth and running of the firm?’”

“I work on broken things and new things.”

“What’s the next lid and how do we remove it before we hit it?”

“I don’t ever use a personality test to say yes or no to hire, but as a communication tool.”

“Parenting is a daily exercise in the art of learning to let go.”

“The tragedy of life is that we age too quickly and get wise too slowly.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

The Vanderbloemen Search Group

Vanderbloemen Leadership Podcast

Next: Pastoral Succession that Works by William Vanderbloemen & Warren Bird

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson