Bill Easum - Staffing A Growing Church
Staffing A Church Is Like Sailing A Ship
How And When To Add Staff
- 0-100 - Pastor & unpaid Worship Pastor
- 100 - Begin to staff the office
- 125 - Begin hiring Worship Pastor (most important hire)
- 200 - Full-time Worship Pastor (avoid Associate Pastor if mainline)
- 600 - Full-time Business Manager (avoid hiring generalists)
- 800 - Executive Pastor
- 1000 - Divide staff into hubs of four (only four people should ever report to lead pastor)
- See Wayne Cordiero
Needs Constant Course Correction
- Every ship is off course 99% of the time
- Pastor must be able to fire (lovingly)
Staff Is The Pastor’s Most Difficult Responsibility
- Aligning staff around the mission
- Most pastors aren’t equipped
- Most churches don’t understand
How Ships Reach Port
- The captain is in charge
- To question the captain is mutiny
- Only one destination
- The captain sets the waypoints
- The crew works in concert
- each one depending on the other
- each one complimenting the other
Basic Staffing Issues
- Pastors should be responsible for hiring and firing
- Hire on basis of passion for the mission
- Primary role of staff is to create a culture of multiplication, reproduction, and leadership.
Basic Staff Decisions
- Advantage to hiring from within
- Demonstrated credentials
- You’ve seen them in action
- Don’t have to advertise
- More likely to have the right DNA
- Already have relationships
- Tend to be more in touch with the world
- More likely to fit in with staff
- Disadvantage to hiring from within
- Lack of specialized training
- Lack of ideas from the outside
- May have myopic vision
- May have too many family relations in the congregation
How To Hire Staff
- Develop a clear Mission Statement for the position
- Look at a minimum of ten people if looking outside and select two
- If looking within, look at only one person
- Interview all day
A Great Selection Process
- “Describe for me your spiritual journey.”
- “How do you feel about our mission statement?”
- Don’t give them a job description
- “What gifts do you bring that will add value to our mission?”
- “How would you go about adding this value?”
- If team based, then have all of the team interview the person
Basic Staffing Mistakes
- Hiring based on credentials
- Hiring generalists like Associate Pastors
- First hire is a youth pastor
Most Common Mistakes
- Hiring someone when in doubt
- Assigning your best people to fix problems
- Putting off terminating paid staff
- Having someone on staff who IS a mission
The Lead Pastor And Staff
- Below 150
- Pastor recruits and equips
- How to hold accountable
- Above 150
- Pastor learns how to staff
- Laity don’t understand the need
- Pastors can’t give up control
- Does not know how to coach people
- By 350 staffing is the key challenge
- More time required
- Different skills required
- Ability to allow others to shine
- Only takes one bad apple
- Around 800 staffing issues begin to spread out
- Several staff begin to hire
- Business Manager
- Executive Pastor
- Campus Pastor
The Four Primary Roles Of Paid Servants
The Primary Roles of Staff
- To create an environment of multiplication and reproduction
- Staff doesn’t do ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12)
Equipping Staff
- “Who will I mentor today?” (not “What must I do today?”)
- “Who will I discover today?” (not “What is my job today?)
- “How many others can I equip?” (not “What can I get done today?”)
The Primary Roles of Staff
- To model and add value to the Mission Statement
- To be an extension of the goals of the pastor and church
- Hopefully they are the same
- To support all of the paid and unpaid staff
The Basic Staff Roles
Declining Churches
- Pastor for the congregation
- Youth Director
- Programs and out of town trips Admin Lay
- Part-time Music Director Mobil
- Prepares the choir
- Secretary Team
- Bulletin, phones, gossips Leader
- Education Director
- Sunday School and VBS
Worship Out
Reach
Farm System
Realize There Are Levels Of Leadership
- The Lead Pastor
- Leaders of leaders
- Leaders of systems
- Leaders of major ministries
- Leaders of programs
- Leaders of committees
- Leaders in training
Scouts And Coaches
- What if all of your staff functioned this way?
The Example Of Jesus
- Jesus asked people to join him on a journey not perform a task
- His entire ministry was reproducing his DNA in a small, diverse group
Mentor the 3 Disciple the 12 Facilitate the 70 Shepherd the Multitudes
- He chose people on the basis of character and giftedness
- He singled out individuals to take under his wing and disciple
- He taught us the mentoring rule of ten to twelve
- He was more concerned with multiplying his DNA than with making converts
What Does This Mean For Our Leadership
- Lead Pastors don’t pastor the church
- They pastor the leaders
- Leaders need leaders
- Lead Pastors need to carefully select the key leaders
- Lead Pastors set their own agenda
- Models the type ministry desired
- Assists the core staff in becoming and effective team
Miscellaneous Issues
- Hire for seven-year minimum
- Lead Pastor and staff should never disagree in public
- Give program/ministry staff a months vacation after first year
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