Podcast Episode #277
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Healthy churches have healthy church staffs, but unresolved staff conflict can harm a church staff and keep a church from realizing her full potential. Today, we discuss how to handle 12 causes of staff conflict.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- I have seen too many pastors go into a church and get eaten alive because they had no relational skills.
- Focus on how you can be the best leader with the staff you have been given.
- A pastor should have a major role in selecting incoming church staff.
- Chemistry is often bad when someone is in the wrong role for his/her skill set.
- Regular staff meetings are needed to check the ministry alignment of the church.
- Make certain your church staff is philosophically aligned and that action reflect that alignment.
- Staff should be held accountable for their work ethic.
- I would like to see churches be more consistent in showing appreciation to their pastor and staff.
The 12 reasons for staff conflict which we discuss are:
- Many church staff persons are woefully trained in leadership and relational skills.
- Often the church staff involved did not have a role in selecting their team.
- The chemistry among the staff is bad.
- The priorities among the staff are not aligned.
- There is jealousy and insecurity.
- There is clear insubordination.
- Church staff have formed unhealthy alliances.
- Communication is poor.
- There are work ethic divergences.
- The staff spend time pointing blame at each other.
- Solutions are frustrated or thwarted.
- There is a consistent lack of appreciation.
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Feedback
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Great podcast as usual! Just one follow up question: you addressed inferior work ethics, but how should one deal with the workaholic, whether that be the senior pastor or even yourself? If we have genuine concern for another’s wellbeing or even our own sanity, how do we encourage others (and prevent ourselves) from being buried by an insurmountable workload?
Didn’t have time to hear the podcast because of time restraints on my part. But the bullet points are excellent. I have experienced all of those situations as both a senior pastor and as an associate. I’m not proud to say that I was part of the problem at times as an associate. Had to backtrack and ask forgiveness…
I would add one more thing…which may have been said in the podcast… When dealing with negative issues within the staff and if you are the senior, make sure that your board stays informed and will back you. Keep a paper trail if you suspect there may be “drama” ahead. Keep a paper trail – both positive and negative – anyway.
My board did not back me and my tenure at a church ended very painfully. Keep them informed and get them on your side. It may require some face-to-face, one-on-one time with your leaders.
Be careful about confidentiality issues and don’t manipulate. Do not neglect to cultivate understanding, support, and loyalty from your board members.
Thanks, Bob.
You mentioned Staff Meetings as being vital, but there is more to it than that.
* Center Staff Meetings on the purpose of the church. If there is a Purpose Statement, review it regularly, at the beginning of a Staff Meeting, as a way of bringing everything that comes later into proper focus. Perhaps this could be worked into a 2-3 minute devotion brought by rotating Staff members to begin each meeting.
* Know the various personality types represented on your Staff. Take a formal survey, if you haven’t, perhaps on an annual Staff Retreat, and discuss how best to relate to each one’s strengths and weaknesses. Ask each one to review this conversation at least once a month in the coming year, praying for one another and for wisdom to know how best to encourage and build up others on your Staff.
* Knowing that clear communication is vital and that some Staff are likely less organized, have someone take appropriate notes in Staff Meeting, and send them to each person present as friendly reminders of what took place in that meeting.
* In a Staff Meeting, cut to the chase. Don’t mess around with lesser things that might best be handled individually, but don’t ignore opportunities for feedback and collective wisdom, either.
* Be careful to include reports and/or questions from each Staff member present. Don’t let one person do all the talking, even if it’s the Senior Pastor. (Granted, there may be Staff “huddles” at times when one person needs to “call the play” with little comment from the rest of the team.)
* Senior Pastor, group Staff Meetings are vital but insufficient. Each week, schedule at least a few minutes with each Staff member privately.
* When one Staff member is having a particularly big event or effort, the main comment from other Staff should be, “Great, how can I help?”
(“How To & How NOT To Have Staff Meetings” might be a good topic for a separate blog, or even series of blogs, since doing them right can go a long way to avoiding the staff conflict and forced terminations that so plague our churches. )
Thanks for raising the important issue of conflict in the church which is often swept under the carpet. The first step to dealing with conflict is to admit that it exists. Prevention is always better than a cure and the points you raise are helpful ways of reducing the risk of harmful conflict in the leadership team. Working through conflict – whatever the cause – when not done well often leads to more conflict that affects more people. I encourage people to handle harmful conflict by getting everyone to own it as a shared problem that is at odds with how they know Christians should behave. From this sense of shared values and common goals it is possible to build agreed ways of resolving the conflict.
I’m up to my eyeballs in conflict.
Church Board is split 50/50 on every issue.
The church body is aware of the division.
The odd thing is ~ the board generally agrees in principle but differs on personality.
Seems to be a holiday season syndrome.
Starts around “Pastor Appreciation Sunday” and runs out of gas after the 1st of the year.
Its exhausting but (a) faithfully preach the Word; (b) don’t swing at pitches in the dirt ~ some comments are empty and intended to draw a response that can be used against you ~ pray for wisdom and guard your tongue; (c) don’t quit ~ Galatians 6:9
G’day Shane, very sad to hear about your conflicted situation. Sounds like your Board members don’t accept that this kind of ongoing division is a big negative for the mission of their church. Sorry, but different personalities is not an excuse. But the good news is that using contemporary consensus building practices, based on sound Christian principles, can end these sorts of deadlocks.