A must-read for pastors, church leaders, and anyone who cares about the future of vocational ministry.
What you'll learn in Silent Alarm...
We've outsourced the pipeline.
Now it's empty.
For decades, churches leaned on seminaries, job boards, and word-of-mouth to fill their staff benches. When a pastor left or a role opened up, someone would show up. The system wasn’t perfect, but it worked—until it didn’t.
Today, that pipeline is leaking. Fewer leaders are stepping in. Candidates are harder to find. And churches that once hired in weeks are now waiting months—with little to show for it.
Silent Alarm doesn’t just name the problem. It explains why the system is breaking and what churches can do to build something better. It’s not just a diagnosis—it’s a blueprint.
Practical. Hopeful. Urgent. And long overdue.
Who should read "Silent Alarm"?
You’ve likely felt it—staff roles taking longer to fill, the quality of candidates declining, and the creeping sense that the bench just isn’t there anymore. Maybe your team is stretched thin. Maybe you’re carrying more than you should. Or maybe you’re quietly wondering if anyone will step in when you step out. Silent Alarm will help you understand what’s really happening in the staff pipeline and give you a hopeful, strategic lens for rebuilding—not just reacting. This is the book you wish you had before your last search. Now you can have it for your next one.
If you’re part of a search committee, board, or team responsible for making hires, this book will be a game-changer. It’s easy to feel like you’re the only church struggling to attract candidates—but you’re not alone. What you’re experiencing is part of a bigger shift, and Silent Alarm pulls back the curtain on why great candidates are harder to find—and what to do about it. You’ll walk away with clarity, a new framework for building your team, and permission to stop chasing “the perfect hire” and start investing in the right ones.
When one church struggles to hire, it’s a challenge. When dozens—or hundreds—are coming up empty, it’s a crisis. If you’re leading at a macro level, you need to know what’s happening across the staffing landscape. Silent Alarm offers the data, stories, and systems perspective to help you lead churches through this moment with wisdom and truth. Whether you’re resourcing pastors, building pipelines, or trying to keep churches staffed and stable, this book will give you the vocabulary and urgency you need to lead well.
You’ve dedicated your life to shaping future ministry leaders—but the path they’re walking now looks nothing like it did ten or twenty years ago. Silent Alarm shines a spotlight on the cracks forming between calling and deployment, and why so many gifted graduates are quietly stepping away. This book will help you reimagine formation in a way that’s deeply rooted in theology but responsive to the real-world shifts happening in churches today. If you’re training or mentoring the next generation, this is essential reading.
If you’re sensing a call to ministry—or walking alongside someone who is—Silent Alarm will give you a clear-eyed, hopeful perspective on what that calling looks like today. It’s honest about the challenges: burnout, unclear paths, and unrealistic expectations. But it’s also deeply hopeful, offering a vision of ministry that is sustainable, formational, and worth saying yes to. If you’ve ever wondered, “Can I really do this—and survive it?”, this book will help you answer that with courage, wisdom, and renewed clarity.
Silent Alarm isn’t a warning about what might happen someday. It’s about what’s already happening in churches just like yours. Roles are staying open. Candidates are disappearing. Teams are burning out. And no one’s talking about it. This book changes that.
About the author...
Todd Rhoades has spent the last two decades at the intersection of church leadership and staffing. As the co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, he’s helped hundreds of churches across the country navigate the complexities of hiring well, building healthy teams, and staying aligned in seasons of transition and growth. A former pastor himself, Todd brings both strategic insight and pastoral empathy to conversations about church health and leadership.
He’s been in the search trenches—reviewing thousands of résumés, coaching church boards through impossible decisions, and listening to weary pastors who love the Church but are quietly burning out. That front-row seat to the staffing crisis sparked this book.
Todd lives in Bryan, Ohio, with his wife Dawn. They have four grown children and a deep love for helping churches and leaders thrive over the long haul.
Purchase your copy of Silent Alarm today!
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