Tag Archive - pastor

Staff Talk: Practice Accountability

September 14, 2011 in Ministry with 0 Comments

You’re making it happen on your staff.  With those you lead, those you work with, and the people you follow; you have figured out what you want and you are doing it.  But there’s more.  It’s the dreaded time to Practice Accountability.  Are you really doing what you’ve defined?  Are you really making it happen?

The truth is that you can only expect to change those things you are willing to evaluate and hold accountable.  On this step, it will look drastically different depending on what level you are practicing accountability.  Pay close attention and don’t mix these up!

Those I Lead -> You have the strongest role here for holding your team accountable.  You’re the leader, it’s on you to evaluate and manage.  However, I’ve learned it’s so important that you let individual accountability happen in an individual setting.  The flip side of that is to only let team accountability happen within a team setting.  Don’t confuse these two!

Those I Cooperate With -> I’m going to encourage you to get inward-focused on this one.  Evaluate yourself from time to time with these questions: Are you being the person you want them to be for you? Are you being the friend you want them to be for you? Have you invested the time necessary to build the peer atmosphere you expect?  Practicing accountbility at this level is all about personal accountability.

Those I Follow -> Accountability at this level becomes even more inward focused than it does with our peers.  I’ve found the easiest way to practice accountability at this level is to put myself in the position of the people I report to.  From this perspective I can evaluate myself, but I have to be willing to look at myself honestly.

To skip the step of holding accountable what you’ve said you want, and what you say your willing to do; is to skip actually seeing it completed.  Take the time to let it happen in a real way, by practicing personal and individual accountability in all of your staff relationships.

How do you practice accountability when you’ve set a plan?  Let us know in the comments below!

Staff Talk: Move Where You Want to Be

September 12, 2011 in Ministry with 1 Comment

Navigating the dangerous, yet rewarding waters of Church Staff Relationships takes a certain kind of courage.  It first takes the courage to figure out what it is that you want.  Then it takes even more courage to take the next step of actually moving in the direction you want to go.  Again, it sounds silly doesn’t it?

What is it going to take for things to flourish in your staff relationships?  What are you going to have to DO to make things get healthy and stay healthy?

Those I Lead -> This should be the easy one, right?  As the leader it falls on us to ACT on those things we have defined.  You’re the leader, implement with honor and integrity what you want to see in your area of responsibility.  One way to do this is to encourage feedback in individual settings, as it pertains to the team as a whole. As the leader you are the standard bearer, act like it!

Those I Cooperate With -> It’s upon you as a coworker to CHANGE what you can about your relationships to bring about what you defined.  Change yourself first, then act patiently to change others. (Knowing they might now!)  I’m sure you’ve heard the famous Ghandi quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  It’s especially true in the peer staff relationships at our churches!

Those I Follow -> In this hard place of moving in the direction you want to move with your own leader, it falls on you to INFLUENCE your leader in creative ways to help bring about the defined goals.  Do not, I repeat, do not walk into your bosses office and tell them exactly what you are doing to improve your relationship.  That would be a relationship-killer!  Instead pray and act honestly and openly with your senior leadership.  It’s imperative that you prove you can be trusted, before being completely honest and open about your goals.

So you’ve defined the goals, and now you are acting to make it happen.  Let’s all agree that it’s hard to move when you’ve grown comfortable (even when unhappy), but let’s also agree that moving is what has to happen for things to change.  I believe in you!

What are you willing to change to make it happen?  Dare you to leave a comment and tell me!

Staff Talk: What Do You Want?

September 7, 2011 in Ministry with 4 Comments

Learning to navigate staff relationships so that you are healthy and happy can be a difficult road.  However, it is a road that is possible to navigate.  It all starts with defining the culture and atmosphere you want to work in.  That sounds too simple, doesn’t it?  It sounds simple, because it is simple.  Before you can ‘work on it’ you need to know WHAT you want.  Don’t be afraid to be specific.

For example, you might say that you want your work environment to be one that is fun, or respectful, or harboring trust, or where accountability is practiced.  Whatever you want, you need to sit down with a pen and paper and figure out what it is that you want.

I think of it like this: If someone were to walk into your working environment and observe your team; what would they tell you it looks like?  It may seem silly to say this, but the time taken to define what you want is often put off.  But it’s worth your time to figure this part out.

But what does it look like within the context of the three working relationships we have at work?

Those I Lead -> What would you want people to say about the department you lead, or the department you manage?  One key thing to remember for those I lead: involve them in helping to define what this should be.  I’m not saying that you let them define it, but you let them have a voice in the conversation.

Those I Cooperate With -> If someone evaluated the relationship between you and a staff peer, what would you want them to discover?  As I cannot make those I work with do what I want, this becomes inwardly focused.  I have to ask myself these questions: What could I learn from those I work with?  What could I offer to those I work with?  What could happen if I got along with those I work with?  Invest the time necessary to see what you want from those you work with.

Those I Follow -> How would you define a healthy relationship with your senior leader?  Much like those I cooperate with, this one is inwardly focused.  I’ve talked to so many people at churches that are unhappy with their relationship with their Senior leader; but few of them can tell me exactly what they even want out of their senior leader.  What is it that you want.

We could sum up this opening principle by saying that before you get to the DOING part of navigating staff relationships, you DEFINE what you want.

So here’s the question to you: What do you want from those you work with?  Comment NOW!!

Navigating Staff Relationships

September 6, 2011 in Ministry with 16 Comments

I remember my very first day at Trinity Church in Lubbock.  I was taken across campus to fill out some HR and tax paperwork, and after I finished I found myself all alone in someone’s office that was far from my own.  I asked where I needed to go next, and was told that I should go to my office and start the adventure.  However, there was one problem.  I didn’t know where my office was!  I spent the next 30 minutes walking around campus looking for my office.  In fact, it wasn’t until a week later that I discovered that the lady working outside my office door actually worked for me.  Amazing, I had an assistant and it took me a week to figure it out!

Now things have gotten much better at Trinity for new employees, but it’s still proof that being on a church staff can be quite the adventure.  Guess what I hear when I talk to people in church ministry?  Few want to talk about their ministry, but a good deal of people want to lament their pastors, peers, or volunteers.

Why is this so?

Because the most challenging and most unprepared aspect of working in church ministry is how we work within our staff structures.  Let’s be honest, how many of us ever dreamed that working with others would be so hard…at a church?!?

This week I want to talk about something that has consumed my life as of late.  Learning to navigate all the different staff relationships we deal with inside of a church-staff setting.  Before we get started, let’s look at defining the three main categories of all staff relationships.

Define the Three Main Categories of Staff Relationships:

  1. Those we Lead
    1. Subordinates = Staff that reports to us directly.
    2. Volunteers = Those that serve in our areas and depend on us for leadership.
  2. Those we Cooperate with in accomplishing the Greater Vision of our churches
    1. Co-Workers = Peers that work on our same level within the organization
    2. If you’re the Kid’s Pastor, here is your Youth Pastor
  1. Those we Follow
    1. Managers = Direct Reports
    2. Executive Leaders/Pastors = Lead those we report to, or lead us directly.
    3. Senior Pastors = Leader of entire organization
Somewhere in the realm of all three of these we operate.  People we lead, people we cooperate with (or should be cooperating with), and people we follow and serve under.  As we start to identify the 4 principles of navigating through the sometimes treachrous, but always rewarding church staff relationships, I’d like to hear from you.
How many do you lead?  
How many are considered your ‘peers’ on your church staff?  
Who leads you, is it an executive pastor, department pastor, or do you sit directly under a Senior Pastor?  

5 Things Orange

May 2, 2011 in Ministry with 6 Comments

I had a great time at the Orange Conference last week.  It was my 4th time to attend, but the first time I’ve taken my entire team along for the experience.  I was abel to make the normal Orange Conference connections that I’ve made each year, meeting new friends and reuniting with old ones.  Because these Internets love a good list, I’m going with a top 5 things I took away from this years Orange Conference:

  1. The Team: Taking my senior pastor, executive pastor, college pastor, student ministry pastor, and connections pastor was quite the experience.  When you add me to the mix, that creates 6 different personalities living within close proximity with each other for 5 days.  I’m proud to say that nobody was killed.  :)
    • They all had different takeaways from the conference, and I’m looking forward to reaping a harvest of action from all the ideas planted within them.
  2. The Friends: I had breakfast each morning with some serious Family Ministry big-timers.  It was a great experience to get up early so I could eat, talk, dream, and pray with those that I share my life with.  Easily one of the best takeaway experiences of the entire conference, was the breakfast me and some others had with Jim Wideman.  I realize I don’t have enough Jim’s in my life right now, and the time I had with him; and the answers to my questions that he had were a blessing to me.
    • <rant beginning> And if you attended this conference or any other conference, and don’t make the time to connect with those that don’t work at your church…then you are missing it in a serious way.  Build it into your schedule to take someone from another church out to dinner, breakfast, or coffee when you have them in your view.  Don’t think they have the time?  Well, maybe you just haven’t asked yet. <rant over>
  3. The Word: Listening to Andy Stanley, Jud Wilhite, Perry Noble, Gordon MacDonald, and Doug Fields speak in the Main General Sessions were life changing.  I was recapping some of what they had to say to a friend this morning, and I realize that the words from those brothers in Christ were just what I needed to hear.  Love the time I have to experience the teaching of God’s Word when in the company of like-minded people!
  4. The Breakouts: Breakouts are a tricky thing.  Will you get some great content, but a bad presenter?  Or will you get some great humorous person with great delivery that doesn’t really say anything of value?  It’s sort of a crapshoot.  This year I batted about .900 in picking breakouts; and it may be the best year yet for me.  Easily the most inspiring one was from Chap Clark on turning a church Orange.  Listening to him give a church history lesson on the use of overhead projectors, was insightful and challenging.  This is the one breakout that I wish everyone in my team had been in on!
  5. The Sleep:  Oh wait, there wasn’t any.  Every year I go to Orange I tell myself that I’m going to sleep more than the previous year, and yet every year I stay up til 1am, and find myself waking up at 5am to head out to breakfast somewhere.

It was a great year at Orange, and if you were there would you do me a favor?  Leave me a comment and say hello.  I miss you already!

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