Let’s say you’re the pastor of a growing church. The church has just brought in a new minister to assist you in leading the congregation. He/she might be a worship pastor, minister of music, student minister, or in charge of education or pastoral care. Or a hundred other areas. (They keep finding new titles and creative assignments for staffers!)
One of the best things a pastor can do with the incoming minister is to make them aware of your expectations. You will want to think them through and write them out, then share them after you both have agreed that God is leading him/her to your church. Give the person the printed copy and don’t lose your own. This will be important if the time comes when you have to deal with a difficult or uncooperative staff member.
I suggest you share these graciously, not dictatorially as though you are going to be looking over their shoulder all the time.
You might even follow this by asking for their expectations concerning you. I guarantee you they have them. They will expect you to deal with them as ministers of the gospel, to give them room to do their job, to pay them well and protect them on their off days, and to support them when the criticism is unfair. If the new staffer expects something which was neither spoken nor implied, you need to know that before you get too deeply into the employment process.
What follows are things I shared with our staff members in six churches over forty-two years. Some of them evolved, while some of them were there from the first. The list is not complete, but only things I recall at the moment…
–You are a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. I promise to always treat you that way, and not as a “hired hand.” I will go out of my way to magnify your ministry from the pulpit.
–But you must conduct yourself as a God-called minister of the Lord Jesus. You will have no private life in which you may do as you please without it being a reflection on the Lord or the church. (I once knew a church pianist who moonlighted in a bar. She insisted her private time was of no concern to the church.)