10 Ways To Be A Better Church Department Ministry Leader
Thom S. Rainer
After about a quarter of a century of church consultations, I have dealt with a plethora of church leadership ministry staff matters. I continue to hear many of the same theses since I left church consultation.
Today I present the top 10 issues from the pastor’s perspective. My desire in writing this is to offer a positive framework and to allow church ministry staff to have the best possible work relationships.
1. Have a strong work ethic. This encouragement expressed by pastors about the staff was pervasive. Ministry leaders need to do their jobs.
2. Be loyal. Pastors do not expect blind loyalty, but they do want to know that a department staff member has his back.
3. Execute well. It’s great if the staff member is full of ideas and dreams, but he or she should also be excellent at accomplishing a task.
4. Work on personality chemistry. Sometimes the chemistry is just not good. Most pastors understand that this issue is two-way, and both parties need to work at liking each other.
5. Champion the same vision. Make certain that any vision you may have at the church complements and does not conflict with the vision of the pastor.
6. Do first the work you were asked to do. Church ministry staff persons typically are recruited with specific job descriptions. Make certain those ministries and tasks are accomplished first.
7. Be careful about accepting a position that had no pastoral input. Few churches allow ministry leaders to recruit individuals without full pastoral permission. Accepting any position without pastoral approval can be problematic. When it happens, the pastor now has a ministry individual he did not have input on, nor did he request. Conflict is highly common in these situations.
8. Work to have healthy relationships with other staff members. Unity among the church ministry staff members is vital.
9. Work to have healthy relationships with church members. The pastor is usually the person that gets involved if these relationships are not healthy.
10. Attend all staff meetings if possible. I’ve been surprised how often I’ve heard this one. My advice to church ministry staff members: Don’t miss staff meetings.
Most churches have ministry leaders with very healthy relationships. Is it my prayer that this list of 10 items form several pastors’ perspective will help.
Thom S. Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. This post originally appeared at thomrainer.com
From: http://ministrytodaymag.com web site. July 2013.
The above article, “10 Ways to Be A Better Church Department Ministry Leader,” is written by Thom S. Rainer. The article was excerpted from http://ministrytodaymag.com website, July 2013.
The material is most likely copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
