Stop Filling Positions. Start Building the Right Team.

I talk with pregnancy center leaders across the country almost every day, and lately I've noticed a common theme emerging in our conversations.

Many centers are struggling to find and keep the right staff.

This certainly isn't a new problem, but I believe we're now seeing the effects of decisions that were made years ago. As longtime leaders retire, staff move on, and organizations experience leadership transitions, many centers are discovering they never developed a strong succession plan or a thoughtful strategy for recruiting future leaders.

When those transitions happen unexpectedly, the pressure to fill an empty position can become overwhelming. Instead of searching for the right person, organizations often feel forced to hire the available person.

That's where the real problem begins.

The staffing challenges many centers are facing today didn't start when an employee resigned. They began long before that, when leadership development, succession planning, and intentional recruitment weren't given the attention they deserved. That mindset may solve today's staffing shortage, but it often creates tomorrow's leadership problem.

The Leadership Landscape Has Changed

Pregnancy centers have evolved dramatically over the past two decades. Today's centers operate medical clinics, manage complex client care, navigate legal and regulatory requirements, oversee sophisticated fundraising strategies, and provide professional counseling, education, and community outreach. These ministries require more than willing hearts, they require capable, spiritually mature professionals who possess the knowledge, experience, and gifting necessary to navigate both the business and ministry aspects of the center.

The days of filling positions simply because someone loves the ministry or has extra time are, for many roles, behind us.

This doesn't diminish the incredible value of volunteers. Volunteers remain the backbone of many pregnancy centers and play an indispensable role in accomplishing the mission. But staffing decisions should begin with a different question:

Who has God uniquely equipped for this role?

• Not who is available. 

• Not who has been around the longest.

• Not who has expressed interest.

• Not who is willing to work for what we would prefer to pay

Rather, look for the person hand picked by God who possess  the right combination of spiritual maturity, professional competency, personal character, and natural leadership gifting to thrive in this specific position?

That distinction changes everything.

Stop Hiring Out of Urgency

One of the greatest mistakes organizations make is hiring from a place of desperation.

• A vacant Development Director position suddenly gets filled by the friendly volunteer who loves people but has never raised major gifts.

• An Executive Director role goes to the person who's been around the longest, even though leadership isn't their gifting and other key stuff roles end up empty leading to a major crisis.

• A Client Services Director becomes whoever happened to be available after someone resigned.

These decisions are rarely made carelessly. They're usually made because ministry must continue. But every position has a unique purpose, and every role requires a unique combination of strengths. The goal is not simply to place a passionate believer into a position, the goal is to place the right believer into the right position.

Passion without proper preparation often leads to frustration for both the employee and the organization. Healthy organizations understand that ministry calling and professional competency are not competing values, they're complementary ones.

What Should You Be Looking For?

For years, boards have hired based primarily on spiritual maturity and a perceived calling to the ministry. While both are important, they are not enough on their own.

We would never hire a nurse simply because she loves the mission but has terrible people skills and poor attention to detail. Yet when it comes to leadership, development, operations, finance, communications, or marketing, we often lower the standard in the name of ministry or because we have a limiting mindset that top level professions “won’t work for the peanuts we are able to pay them”. (someone recently said this to me)

Passion should never replace proficiency. Let me say that again, passion should never replace proficiency. The strongest candidates will possess both.

So many centers limit their search to candidates who have previously worked in pregnancy help organizations, ministry, or even the pro-life movement. Some of the strongest leaders may come from healthcare, nonprofit leadership, business, education, communications, or other professional fields. Leadership skills, strategic thinking, operational expertise, and many other professional competencies translate exceptionally well into pregnancy center ministry. When paired with spiritual maturity and alignment with your mission, these individuals often bring fresh perspective, proven experience, and a level of excellence that strengthens the entire organization.

Here are three steps to take when evaluating potential staff:

1. Begin by asking whether they have the professional knowledge, experience, and demonstrated ability to succeed in the role. Have they led teams? Managed budgets? Built donor relationships? Overseen complex operations? Solved problems in environments similar to yours? Every position requires a different set of competencies, and those competencies should drive your search.

2. Once you've identified candidates with the necessary professional qualifications, then evaluate their alignment with your mission, values, and statement of faith. Do they demonstrate spiritual maturity? Humility? Integrity? Are they teachable? Can they represent your ministry well?

3. Finally, consider whether this role aligns with their natural strengths and God-given gifts. The question isn't simply, "Do they feel called to pregnancy center ministry?" The better question is, "Has God uniquely equipped this person to excel in this specific role?"

   
   

When professional competence, mission alignment, and individual gifting come together, you've found someone who is positioned to serve your organization with excellence for years to come.

Your Hiring Process Matters

Finding exceptional people rarely happens by accident. A thoughtful hiring process communicates that your center values excellence and intends to steward its mission well.

Every application should help you understand more than an applicant's work history. It should begin uncovering who they are. The application should explore their professional experience, spiritual background, motivations, leadership style, strengths, weaknesses, and availability. Determine whether they understand your mission and whether they genuinely embrace it.

Interviews Reveal What Resumes Cannot

A resume tells you where someone has worked .An interview tells you how they think and respond.

Spend time understanding what motivates candidates, how they solve problems, how they respond to conflict, and whether they possess the emotional maturity necessary for ministry leadership.

Ask behavioral questions instead of hypothetical ones. Request examples of difficult situations they've navigated. Ask if they are willing to share leadership failures as readily as successes. Listen carefully for humility, self-awareness, accountability, and a willingness to learn. These qualities often predict long-term success far better than credentials alone.

Verify Before You Hire

Never underestimate the value of reference checks.

Former supervisors, ministry leaders, colleagues, and church leaders often provide insights that interviews simply cannot. Background checks, reference calls, and thoughtful follow-up questions aren't signs of distrust, they're responsible stewardship.

As you gather feedback, be careful not to let your own hopes or urgency cloud your judgment. When a position has been vacant for months or a candidate seems like the answer to your prayers, it's easy to dismiss subtle concerns or hear only what you want to hear. Listen with honest ears. Ask follow-up questions. Be willing to sit with uncomfortable feedback instead of explaining it away. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is protecting your ministry through the wisdom and observations of others.

The same principle applies when promoting from within. Don't skip this process simply because someone is already on your team. Seek honest feedback from those they lead and work alongside, you don't want to promote someone into leadership only to lose other valuable staff because they weren't a good fit.

Orientation Begins the Culture

Hiring doesn't end when someone accepts the position. A thoughtful onboarding process should intentionally immerse new staff in your ministry's culture, mission, values, and philosophy of care. Help them understand not only what your center does, but why it exists. Share the organization's history, explain how the ministry is funded, discuss your approach to client care, build meaningful connections with the team, and clearly communicate expectations for collaboration, professionalism, confidentiality, and spiritual leadership.

When people understand the "why" behind the work, they're far more equipped to carry out the "what" with confidence, consistency, and excellence.

Don't let onboarding end after the first week. Schedule a formal 90-day evaluation to discuss strengths, challenges, cultural fit, and areas for growth. This is an opportunity to ensure the employee is thriving in the role and to address concerns before they become long-term problems. Keep these intentional evaluations and touch points going throughout the year to encourage growth, provide feedback, celebrate successes, and ensure your new staff remain engaged, supported, and positioned to succeed.

Be Willing to Wait

Perhaps the hardest lesson for many organizations is learning that it's okay to leave a position vacant if the right candidate hasn't arrived. That's uncomfortable. It stretches your existing staff, delays projects, and often requires temporary adjustments. But hiring the wrong person simply because the position is open usually costs far more than waiting a few extra months.

Waiting doesn't mean doing nothing. Use that time wisely. Refine your job description so it clearly defines the skills, experience, leadership abilities, and measurable outcomes the position requires. Then ask yourself if you're looking in the right places. If you're only advertising within the pregnancy help movement or your supporting churches, you're likely missing exceptional candidates. Expand your search to professional networks, nonprofit job boards, Christian employment sites, healthcare organizations, and LinkedIn. Don't be afraid to recruit talented professionals from outside the pregnancy help movement. Strong leadership, business acumen, fundraising expertise, communications, healthcare, and operations experience often translate exceptionally well into pregnancy center ministry.

Be willing to have uncomfortable conversations about compensation, too. While most centers can't compete with corporate salaries, they should offer compensation that reflects the responsibility and expertise the position requires. Trust that if God is calling your center to a higher level of excellence, He will also provide the resources needed to steward that calling well.

I firmly believe God is still calling talented, experienced professionals into pregnancy center ministry. The challenge isn't that they don't exist; it's that many centers haven't developed a strategy for identifying them, recruiting them, and creating positions that attract them. The right leader is rarely an expense, they're an investment. Exceptional staff increase productivity, strengthen team culture, build donor confidence, and ultimately expand your ministry's impact. Sometimes the wisest hiring decision you'll make is waiting until God brings the right person.

The future of your pregnancy center will not be determined by how quickly you fill open positions, but by how intentionally you cultivate the people God has entrusted to your ministry. When you invest the time to recruit thoughtfully, hire strategically, and onboard intentionally, you build more than a staff, you build a healthy organization capable of serving women and families with excellence for years to come.

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If your center could use support in strengthening its staff and volunteer recruitment, hiring, or onboarding process, the RISE Program offers an affordable Staff Cultivation & Onboarding Excellence consulting package designed specifically for pregnancy centers. Together, we'll build the tools and systems you need, from job descriptions and recruitment strategies to applications, interview guides, onboarding resources, performance evaluations, and team meeting structure, so you're equipped to attract, develop, and retain the right people for the right seats.

 Reach out to schedule a discovery call. Email ehale@lifeadvancementgroup or fill out the discovery form.