Flourish Case Study
Strengthening Pastoral Hiring and Leadership Health with PDP Global
Company Overview
Industry: Faith-Based Non-Profit
Location: Irving, TX
Employee Size: 10
Instruments Used
ProScan®
TeamScan®
JobScan®
ProScans
JobScan Models
Churches Supported
The Challenge
- Pastoral burnout driven by role pressures and energy drains
- Limited hiring expertise and difficulty assessing role fit
- Misaligned expectations and communication gaps among leadership
The realities of church leadership often place significant strain on churches and their communities. Flourish, a ministry resource organization serving a nationwide network of more than 450 churches, supports pastors, elders, and leadership teams responsible for the health and sustainability of local churches.
Many churches rely on volunteer-led pastor nominating committees to make critical hiring decisions, yet limited hiring experience makes it difficult to objectively assess role fit and leadership wiring. At the same time, pastors often carry unspoken behavioral pressures and energy drains that can lead to disengagement or premature transitions. Leadership teams and elders may also internally struggle to communicate effectively or agree on the type of leadership their church needs for its current season. These challenges underscored the need for a more intentional approach to leadership health and long-term sustainability.
The Solution
- Clear, data-backed, and repeatable hiring process
- Effective communication structure
- Aligning behavioral role fit to long-term goals
PDP Global provided Flourish with a shared framework for understanding behavioral wiring and served as a practical leadership team development and hiring solution:
"There are plenty of tools that tell you your strengths, but PDP goes further. Being able to see priority environments, energy drains, and behavioral pressures. There’s really no other tool like that. We’ve found it extremely helpful and continue to rely on it."
Dana Allin, Lead Coach at Flourish
Teams used ProScan side-by-sides to strengthen communication and align around shared goals. JobScan models (role-specific behavioral job models that improve hiring fit) were built collaboratively with pastor nominating committees, surfacing critical conversations around pace, change tolerance, and leadership expectations early in the process.
"Pastor nominating committees are often made up of people who’ve never hired a pastor and have never been one themselves. PDP helps us say, ‘You can do this. You don’t need a $50,000 search firm. What you need is a clear, well-supported process.’ Churches are able to make strong hiring decisions at a fraction of the cost by using PDP Global."
Dana Allin, Lead Coach at Flourish
Over time, PDP became a scalable system woven into Flourish’s broader approach to church health, equipping leaders with the insight they need to serve sustainably in roles where they can truly flourish.
The Implementation
PDP Representative Debra Schottelkorb supported Flourish as they first used PDP Global as an internal tool and rolled it out to pastors. From there, PDP expanded to regional leaders across all 22 regions of Flourish’s ECO network and to churches beyond the denomination, building familiarity and confidence in the system. PDP Global currently plays an integral role in Flourish’s approach to congregational health, now supported by a train-the-trainer model led by Flourish’s Dana Allin who equips individual churches to implement PDP within their own organizations.
Pastoral Search and Job Modeling Integration
PDP tools were embedded directly into the pastoral search process, particularly through JobScan as a structured hiring assessment tool. Pastor nominating committees were guided through collaborative job modeling to clarify the behavioral demands of each role based on church size, culture, and season. While Flourish often had a general sense of what a role required, involving committees in the modeling process helped align expectations early and foster ownership of the final hiring decision.
"Job modeling helps us surface the right conversations early. One group may want a lower Pace because the church has been through so much, while another knows they need urgency because they’ve been declining. PDP helps clarify those expectations upfront. And while it’s not the only thing you look at, you still assess preaching ability and spiritual maturity, JobScan brings critical behavioral alignment to the process."
Dana Allin, Lead Coach at Flourish
Leadership Team Development Through Side-by-Sides
Beyond hiring, PDP became a cornerstone of team and elder development. TeamScans and side-by-side comparisons helped leadership groups understand communication differences, decision-making styles, and behavioral pressures. In many cases, teams used PDP to reset expectations after staff turnover or leadership transitions, creating clarity and cohesion early in the process.
PDP Certification and Scalability
In 2015, Rev. Dr. Dana Allin and John Terech became certified PDP Professionals. Shortly thereafter, Dana advanced to a Train the Trainer facilitator and coach, enabling Flourish to build internal capacity for applying the PDP system. To date, more than 30 individuals have been certified under Dana’s leadership, creating a distributed network of coaches serving churches in various aspects of discipleship and organizational health.
The Results
ProScans
JobScan Models
Churches Supported
Clearer Team Alignment and Communication
PDP has helped leadership teams align more quickly by creating a shared understanding of expectations, communication styles, and decision-making preferences. Elders and leaders gain visibility into where they are similar, where they differ, and how those differences impact the way they work together.
In one instance, a church completed a JobScan for a newly hired pastor and used it to clarify not only collective expectations, but how individual elders envisioned interaction style and balance within the role. Both the elders and the pastor reported that, within a single one-hour session, they achieved significantly greater clarity and cohesion as a group.
Personal Growth Aligned to Role Demands
Beyond improving team dynamics, PDP supports individual growth by helping leaders understand how to adapt their natural behaviors to meet the demands of their roles. Pastors and staff gain insight into where they may need to increase or moderate behaviors based on what the role requires. Such clarity allows individuals to grow intentionally, distribute responsibilities more effectively, and step into leadership with greater confidence, supporting long-term effectiveness and sustainability.
Healthier Transitions with Clearer Role Fit
PDP has helped leaders identify when a role or individual is no longer the right fit, whether due to changes in the person, the position, or the organization. With conversations grounded in objective behavioral data, PDP enables leaders to address misalignment earlier and navigate difficult transitions with clarity and compassion. In many cases, this has allowed teams to part ways more intentionally and healthily, reducing prolonged tension and resulting in better outcomes for both the individual and the organization.
"I hate seeing situations where a pastor and a church are simply not a good fit. With the churches that have used JobScan, I’ve only seen one true hiring mismatch, and that was when the data was completely ignored. It became the fastest-declining church in our denomination. That experience reinforced just how important this tool is. When PDP is used as intended, I’ve never had to look back and say it was a bad match."
Dana Allin, Lead Coach at Flourish
Stronger Pastoral Retention and Hiring Satisfaction
Churches that use PDP as part of their pastoral hiring process consistently report stronger retention and higher satisfaction with new placements. While retention is a long-term metric, Flourish estimates that approximately 90% of churches within their network that use the PDP process have retained pastors longer than average. Pastor nominating committees report greater confidence in their decisions, smoother integration of new pastors into leadership teams, and a markedly better experience compared to prior searches conducted without PDP. They often describe the process as “immensely better” than past approaches.
"The side-by-side comparisons are incredibly helpful. When pastor nominating committees ask, ‘What interview questions should we be asking?’ PDP gives us a strong starting point. We can tailor the interview questions to the role, but it helps committees ask the right kinds of questions and feel confident in the process."
Dana Allin, Lead Coach at Flourish
Flourish’s experience with PDP Global demonstrates how behavioral insight can strengthen leadership decisions and support long-term organizational health. As PDP became part of everyday hiring and practices, leaders gained clearer expectations, stronger communication, and a deeper understanding of role fit.
Across hundreds of organizations, PDP has supported healthier teams and more confident leaders. Every organization depends on people working well together.
Contact PDP Global to learn how our tools can support meaningful change in your organization.
