Podcast Episode #429
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Staff issues can derail a church. And when a pastor doesn’t know how to lead a staff, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Today we discuss six issues pastors often struggle with when they have a staff to lead.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- When a new pastor comes to a church, cleaning house with the staff is not always needed.
- You have to set expectations with staff—especially inherited staff.
- Being a lifelong learner is important in ministry because ministry paradigms are always changing.
- If a staff member has lost his/her passion for ministry, it’s likely the result of a personal discipleship issue.
The six staff issues we cover are:
- How do I lead them?
- What should I do with inherited staff?
- How do I deal with a lazy staff member?
- What if a staff member is no longer competent or passionate about his or her ministry?
- What if a staff member refuses to follow my leadership, but he or she has a lot of allies in the church?
- What is the next staff position I should hire or call?
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Feedback
If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Becoming a Welcoming Church.
Alignment with an inherited staff member has been the toughest issue that I have faced. Though I did all that was mentioned in the podcast, it still ended in disaster. Though the personnel team agreed that his performance was subpar and I had all kinds of evidence of him sabotaging me (I kept a log because I knew it was going to be tough) they still refused to help. I wasn’t trying to fire him. I knew I couldn’t because he had a boatload of favor because he stood by the church during a nasty split. I knew that he was considering returning to public education where he had been prior to coming on staff. (Interestingly, he was fired from his public school position.) When I asked the committee if they would encourage him to look, they told me that it was none of my business. Interestingly, when tables were turned and I was looking, they insisted that I inform the deacon board and then the church which, in effect, forced me into resigning before I had a position to go to. A real horror story.
On the other hand, I’ve had a little more success in my current situation. I inherited a worship guy that does not at all have the skills to do the job. I know. I was a worship pastor for 30 years. It set up a very tough situation because I crossed boundaries and started taking leadership in the music and worship. You might think that was terrible, but you can hardly imagine how bad it was. Obviously, that caused a lot of trouble between him and me. He blew up at me, which was very inappropriate. Enter the personnel team which put him on notice to control his anger and they told me that I needed to spend more time getting to know people. They were right in that but they never really dealt with the issue. Fortunately, my associate realized that it would best if we worked together and he has given me permission to work with the music. I’d rather not, but there is no other choice. (We’re a church of under 100.) But the neatest thing about this whole deal is that we have become good friends and I’ve been able to release and direct him into missional endeavors where he is significantly gifted and where our church is going. A very good thing.
I’ve now been in three senior pastor positions. One was a 1-year interim. I feel like I shoulder the responsibility for the church but I don’t have the authority to do what needs to be done. It is very stressful and I’m considering retiring. For the first time in my adult life, I think I feel released from the call of local church pastoral ministry. I think. I’m not sure. I’m trying to discern. And, of course, there is the question of what I will do if I do retire. I’ve got seven more working years till 70. Anyway, one of the hardest things about being a senior pastor is not having the authority to do what you have been given responsibility for. The lines of authority are very fuzzy.
Hello Pastor Meyers, thank you for sharing the importance of Gods timing and staff interrelations. Great appreciation toward you and your wife enduring decades of ministry.
An old saying – a Pastor never retires just Retreads.
Many Blessings in Christ
What you really suffer from is being involved in a unbiblical government set up church. A Board controlled church is unbiblical. Yes there needs to be accountability board but a Pastor should never have to walk on egg shells when you stand in the pulpit or lead the church
Hi everyone,
Bob Myers: Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. They were helpful to me to better understand the many local pastors that I know.
Best,
Gary
Southern NH, USA
Friday morning ruminations:
1. The making of a wonderful lasting marriage requires the bride, the groom, and the Lord. And, an effective marriage counselor oftentimes. Wonderful lasting marriages do not merely happen–instead, they basically result from wise strategic steps taken together OR lessons learned from years of agonizing conflict (if a divorce does not occur first).
2. Church work: the Lord is the Lord, the bride is the congregation (but that bride is to be a working woman!), and the pastor might be thought of as the groom–AND as the marriage counselor.
3. In nonprofiit leadership, EDs/CEOs everywhere actually are midlevel managers who usually must train their own supervisors (i.e., trustee boards) how to be their bosses, while also overseeing the other staffers assigned to them. The same is true for senior pastors (congregational polity: the entire membership is the board, though the church might choose to supervise operational matters via a sub-board of elders or a deacon fellowship–and pastors might suggest that approach simply as a way to ensure important things can get done in timely ways). In healthy/functional work-related organizations, nobody has more than one boss–and everyone is assigned both the responsibility for a job AND the authority required to do it successfully (volunteers should insist on it or not take on the role; often, employed workers have more authority than it seems–they simply have not tested the boundaries to find out where they start/stop [even more authority can be gained by a person–employed or not–volunteering to do the jobs no one else wants to do; senior pastors already do that [public speaking; pastoral care; soul-winning; etc.]!–so they probably have much-much unrealized authority now]).
4. Research: Only the work of “high performance teams” (or any synonymous term for the same) can sustain achieving exceptional results (the kind God and people He loves deserve)–and they possess all 6 of these characteristics to a high degree:
Common purpose
Clear roles
Accepted leadership
Effective processes
Solid relationships
Excellent communication
That’s all. Just 6. Simple to understand, easy to measure for, specific to seek to develop over time, and worth celebrating as progress is made. The list can be used as a report card, today/this weekend. (Cf. Triaxia Partners of Atlanta for more related info: https://triaxiapartners.com.)
5. I inherited two staffs as a senior pastor, and was inherited as an associate staffer at other times. My view: God called each pastor to the congregation both in spite AND because of the other clergy present–and the collective IQ of the staff team in place was critical to the congregation’s success. I was willing to work with any other staffers willing to work with me–and sought to develop the ones (including senior pastors, as their associate pastor) who were not willing :-)) (As an associate staffer, I raised my voice during discussions with a senior pastor or two because it was the right thing to do at the time AND I possessed not only biblical convictions about the matter discussed but also the courage that should accompany those convictions; as a senior pastor, I never raised my voice to another staff member–instead, I aimed to develop them more fully if that was the need.)
6. Employment matters: hire for willingness (i.e., intrinsic motivation; personal passion to serve–and to serve here), and train for skills (academic training, work-related experiences; etc.). Willingness cannot be given to workers, but skills can. Positive staff morale is combustible, and it propels the organization forward; no positive morale = not going anywhere now (senior pastors are responsible for maintaining positive staff morale).
7. Pastoring is not easy. Mature and emotionally-secure pastors (senior and associate alike) can state what it is that they primarily stand for biblically, work daily to achieve those things (church growth-related things), and re-state the same to whomever when it is necessary.