Category Archives: Church Staff Articles

How the pastor can learn (and remember) people’s names

Posted on by
1

“The (shepherd) calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out” (John 10:3).

The evangelist had held a revival in my church one year earlier, just before I arrived as the new pastor, and it had gone well. Since we had known each other in seminary and the congregation had appreciated his ministry, I invited him to return a year later for a repeat engagement.

He walked in and began calling my people by their first names.

I was floored.

I said, “James, how many meetings have you been in since you were here last year?”  The answer was something like 36, as I recall.

I said, “How in the world can you remember the names of our members?”

Continue reading →

Lack of integrity in a pastor is a deal-breaker

Posted on by
Reply

I was the student minister in a fine church many years ago.  We had a wonderful ministry. The single negative about the entire experience was the pastor. You never knew what he would do next.

Case in point. One night in a church business meeting, the pastor announced that the property the church owned, including the former pastorium, was being offered for sale. At the time, my wife and I were living in that house! And now we learn they’re selling it. This was the first we had heard of it.

That night, my wife was angry because she thought I had known about it and not told her. But that was the way this pastor worked.

Staff members were nothing to him. Just pawns to be manipulated.

I sat there listening to longtime friend Will tell of that experience from some years back and thought once again that the number one trait a staff member is looking for in his/her new pastor–employer, supervisor, and hopefully  mentor–is integrity.

Without integrity, nothing matters.

Continue reading →

Yes, it does matter who gets the credit!

Posted on by
2

Sitting in front of the television as Hollywood was handing out its annual Oscars, I wondered something.

Who decides who steps to the microphone to acknowledge and receive these coveted awards?

When a movie’s name is called as the winner of “best picture” or some other category in which a number of people have collaborated, who decides which member of that crowd stands, walks to the front, accepts the kiss from Penelope Cruz, and addresses the billion people who are tuned in?

Do they work this out in advance? Is it spontaneous? Do people get their feelings hurt when the wrong person steps up and takes credit?

Michael Curtiz directed “Casablanca,” the incredible movie which took home several Oscars from the 1944 prom. He was named best director and the movie best picture of the year.  The film was done by Warner Brothers.

There were three Warner Brothers–Albert, Harry, and Jack. It seems to be the universal assessment that  Jack was the rascal in the bunch. Once Jack talked his brothers into selling the studio to a Boston firm, then the next day repurchased it so it would belong exclusively to himself. The rest of the family never forgave and never forgot.

An executive who worked on “Casablanca”–I’ve forgotten his name–tells  what happened at the awards ceremony when “Casablanca” was announced as best picture of the year.   “I was rising to my feet when I noticed Jack Warner already on his way to the front. He accepted the Oscar like he had had anything to do with this movie. It was my movie. I’m the one who made ‘Casablanca’ happen!”

A generation later, the man still had not forgotten the offense or forgiven Jack Warner.

A line attributed to Ronald Reagan says, “There is no limit to what can be accomplished if you don’t care who gets the credit.” (Other people, including Walt Disney, also get credit for saying that.)

Continue reading →

You’re not really the boss until you fire someone. True or not?

Posted on by
2

On Blue Bloods, the popular CBS series about law enforcement in New York City, a co-worker tells Erin Reagan, Assistant DA, “You’re not really the boss until you fire someone.”

So she did.

The show didn’t say whether she enhanced her position with the team by that act. It’s only a one-hour program and they have multiple storylines.

I’ve wondered about that ever since, whether it’s true that  one is not really the boss until someone is canned.

I think the idea is something like this:  The new boss notices an employee who is shirking his/her duties.  The other employees watch to see how the boss deals with it.  If the boss lets it ride and does nothing, the message goes forth that quality work does not matter, that you can get by with less than your best.  But, if the boss deals promptly with the unfaithful employee, co-workers see that he expects excellence and will deal with ineptitude.  And that’s a good message to convey.

Over six pastorates and one five-year stint in denominational work, I’ve hired a lot of people. And fired several.  But firing them did not make me the boss.  I was already that.

Continue reading →

How the large church can help the small church, whether it wants help or not

Posted on by
Reply

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  — Romans 15:1  (Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. –From The Message, a paraphrase)

I wrote on Facebook something like this:

Sometimes one of our churches is bigger than all the others in their town or county combined.  When that happens, the church leadership has to make a decision.  One, they can say, “We don’t need you small churches.  We’re number one.”  Or, two, they can turn around and help the smaller churches.  One of these choices is Christlike and the other carnal.

The comments came in, in a predictable manner, opting for the obvious second choice.  Someone said, ” Yes, but sometimes the small churches do not want your help and resist any attempt to encourage them.”  True enough.

So, the question is what to do when a large church is willing to assist and encourage the smaller churches but are rebuffed in the attempt? Are there ways for them to show Christlike care and compassion even when the smaller churches are not receptive?

Continue reading →

Twenty questions for ministers only. (Copy and answer).

Posted on by
Reply

Have you ever been cussed out?  Ever been a hypocrite?  Ever had to go for marriage counseling?

Come on, ‘fess up!

Here are twenty questions for you to answer, then share with your world.   Don’t fret over it; just have fun with it.

You have my answers to the right.  Copy the page and post on Facebook, your own blog or email, then delete my responses and post your own.

Continue reading →

The pastor’s principles of staff leadership and team management

Posted on by
1

From time to time, pastors run situations by me for my response.  Often it has to do with a conflict with a staff member. Particularly if either the pastor or staffer is new, conflict often arises.  That’s why…

I suggest that pastors have some tried-and-true principles to govern their relationships with ministerial staff and the office staff. That is–to clarify–some bedrock rules you go by in your dealings with your team.  In most cases, you have acquired these the hard way, by breaking them or being broken upon them.

Anyway.   Here are a few I have lived with, just to get you started….

One.  No leader  likes surprises.

That’s why we have weekly staff meetings, to talk things out, to plan the calendar, etc.  Once on a Sunday morning, the student minister announced to the church that the mission trip for next Summer would be to New Hampshire.  Next morning in staff, I said, “At what point did we decide the youth would go to New Hampshire next summer?”  He turned twelve colors, swallowed hard, and said, “Uh oh.”  We had a head knocking–in love, actually–and he learned an important lesson.  And yes, he took the youth to New Hampshire.

Continue reading →

Too toxic to keep, too popular to fire: What to do about that difficult staff member

Posted on by
Reply

“Shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

I once asked a pastor friend, “Are you afraid of (a certain member of his staff who was causing him grief)?”  He said, “No, I’m not afraid of him.  But I fear  the damage he could do if I were to fire him.”

Therein lies the dilemma:  What to do about a team member  too powerful to fire but too difficult to keep.

Read on.

I’ve been reading H. W. Brands’ The General vs. The President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War. Dr. Brands is a highly respected professor of history at the University of Texas. Back when Brands taught at Texas A&M, Stephen Ambrose brought him to New Orleans for the 1998 conference on the Spanish-American War. My son Neil and I took in the conference and have been big fans of Professor Brands ever since.

In April 1951, Truman fired the most popular general in American history, becoming in one act the most reviled President in memory. During this period of his presidency, historians agree that Truman had become  one of the most unpopular presidents in history.  Interestingly, however, history vindicates Truman in his decision to dismiss the egotistical and out of control general.  You will search long and hard to find a military historian who thinks that MacArthur should not have been fired.

Someone asked Dwight D. Eisenhower once, “Didn’t you serve under General MacArthur?” (Ike had been his right-hand man in the Philippines in the 1930s.)  He answered, “I studied dramatics under him for eight years.” He is quoted as saying, “MacArthur could never see another sun, or even a moon for that matter, as long as he was the sun.”

Continue reading →

What a sharp staff member looks like

Posted on by
6

(Sometimes when a church staff member comes across as unmotivated and directionless, it’s because no one has taken him/her under the wing to mentor them in how to be sharp and do their work well. We send this little piece forth to encourage staffers to seek out mentors and veteran pastors to become such.)

Sometimes a visiting preacher can tell the pastor something about a staff member he was too busy to notice.

We were hosting an evangelist friend for a weekend of meetings. That Saturday night, we had bought  20 huge pizzas for a hundred young people.  After the meal, my friend would address them about their relationship with Christ. As  they were eating and fellowshipping, the evangelist took me aside to point something out.

“Joe, look at your student  minister.”

Continue reading →

Longevity in ministry: How to stay as long as God wants!

Posted on by
2

“Certainly, I will be with you” (God to Moses in Exodus 3:12).

Poor Moses.  He served the same congregation for forty years.

During all that time, Moses had no opportunity for advancement. And instead of getting easier as the years came and went, the work seemed to never let up.  One challenge after another.  It was enough to age a fellow prematurely.  Which is why, perhaps, the Lord chose a fellow who was already old–like eighty!–at the start.

Think of that.  Just at the time most people are getting fitted for a rocking chair and ordering their walk-in bathtub, Moses took on a new assignment.  Clearly, the Lord did not ask a committee of Israeli leaders what they wanted in the next shepherd.

Not only was Moses’ congregation the largest one around, it was the only one!

During those forty years, Moses did not receive a single raise.  And not the first award or recognition.  Well,  other than from God, which as it turned out, was more than enough.

The writer of Hebrews said we should ‘consider Jesus “who endured…” (Hebrews 12:3).  True. But we may also want to “consider Moses.”  He was a lot like us and demonstrates a hundred lessons on how to hang with a difficult job through good times and bad until you get the people of the Lord to the promised land.

Here are a few of those lessons.

Continue reading →