How Many People should your Church have on Staff?

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How Many People should your Church have on Staff?

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Before you buy into the idea that you need another staff person at your church, think again. That just may be the worst decision you make at your church this year.

It’s not uncommon in churches that I work with to hear them say, “We need to add more staff.” After all if there are problems or areas where the church is stuck then throwing staff at that problem will surely fix it…right? Well, not always. In fact the opposite may be true. In fact the most effective churches that I see have a tendency to hire fewer staff not more staff. They hire more competent team members who have the ability to turn attenders into volunteers, volunteers into leaders, and build teams. Instead of paying people to do ministry they pay people to lead others to do ministry.

At the Unstuck Group we encourage churches to staff to a ratio of 100:1. As you can see in the chart above the average ratio of attendance to staff in most churches is 86:1. In other words for every 86 people in attendance at the church (including adults and kids), there’s typically one full-time staff person.

This number includes all paid staff at the church. That means administrative staff, support staff, ministry staff and pastors. This number also includes both full-time and part-time staff. We calculate the full-time equivalent (FTE) number by adding the total average number of hours part-time staff work and then dividing by 40. That number is added to the number of full-time staff to get the FTEs. For example, if there are 5 full-time employees and 10 part-time employees working a combined average of 200 hours per week, that makes for a total of 10 FTE’s.

Over staffing is a big deal in churches because it’s usually an indicator that:

1. The church has become Insider Focused

Typically an overstaffed church is paying people to do ministry and run programs to keep long-time people in the church happy.

2. The church has a Poor Culture of Volunteerism

There is a direct connection between staffing and volunteerism at churches. Generally the more a church spends on staffing the less likely attenders are to serve.

3. The church has Stopped Growing

There is also a direct connection between staffing and church growth. What we’ve discovered in our research at the Unstuck Group is that the more a church spends on staff the more the rate of attendance growth slows.

In other words the more staff your church has the more likely your church is to become insider focused, have a low level of buy-in and volunteerism by attenders, and to be plateaued or in decline.

Interested in learning more? Download the ebook “Vital Signs: Meaningful Metrics That Keep a Pulse on Your Church’s Health” or consider engaging the Unstuck Group to do a Ministry Health Assessment with your church.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing, Volunteers

Should your Church go Multisite? An Interview with Tony Morgan and Jim Tomberlin

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Recently I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Tony Morgan and Jim Tomberlin about multi-site strategy in 2015. Here are a few of the highlights:

There are now 5,000+ multi-site churches in our country.
37% of all multi-site churches start through mergers.
Most multi-site churches (85%) never grow beyond three total locations. Jim says most still act like a single-site church by not re-structuring to handle more campuses. But trying to add a 4th campus without changing your systems and structure rarely works.
Multi-site is not a growth engine. It will accelerate growth in a healthy church, but if you’re not already outreach-driven, multi-site probably won’t work to help you grow.
The average size of a church that adds its first multi-site campus is 1,200.

If multi-site is part of your focus this year, consider joining me for The Unstuck Group’s first-ever Multi-Site Leadership Coaching Network. It starts in April, but the deadline to apply is March 6. We only have 12 spots for this network, and they go quick. Find out more and register at TheUnstuckGroup.com.

Posted in Leadership

Big News for Leaders Who Want to Grow their Churches

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Are you ready to push your leadership ability up a notch? If so, we want to help you. In April, our brand new coaching networks will fire up. We always get excited about the start of new coaching networks, but this year, we are more excited than ever.

The team has introduced two new types of coaching networks, and these are designed specifically for leaders who want to grow their churches — either with a multi-site strategy or by taking intentional steps to reach the milestone of 500 in weekly attendance. All groups meet once a month for six months, and focus on giving you practical, applicable coaching. With that said, all participants are expected to be actively engaged and ready to tackle real issues.

Here’s what we have going on:

1) Leadership Coaching w/ Tony Morgan | ATLANTA or DALLAS
Leadership Coaching includes training on a variety of ministry strategy topics including staffing, leadership development, communications, financial stewardship, volunteer team development, weekend services, ministry structure, discipleship, multi-site and more.

2) Multi-Site Leadership Coaching w/ Paul Alexander | PHOENIX
Our Multi-Site Coaching Network is designed for leaders of multi-site churches, to help them grow in leadership and succeed in addressing the unique challenges they face.

3) GrowthSolutions Coaching w/ Mark Meyer & Chad Hunt | OMAHA or INDIANAPOLIS
Our GrowthSolutions Coaching Networks will help leaders of smaller churches take intentional steps towards growing their church to 500 in weekly attendance.

In our coaching networks, you can expect a relational experience built around simple and practical systems and tools to help you take your next steps as a leader. We take a look at best practices in growing, healthy churches, and we press into tough conversations to help you get unstuck in your leadership and ministry impact.

Most groups are limited to 12 participants, so if you want in, you should consider signing up soon. Click here for more info and to register. The deadline to apply is March 6, 2015.

Here are what some of our past participants have had to say about the experience…

The insights and practical wisdom that came from Tony not only revolutionized how we do ministry and build healthier teams at Breakthrough, but quite honestly, gave me exactly what I needed in a season in which I was ready to call it quits! Tony’s knowledge of systems and strategies is amazing, but it is his heart for YOU, the leader, that is most impressive. Don’t miss out on this opportunity it will change you.”

— Nate Hill
Lead Pastor at Breakthrough Church | Asheville, NC

This coaching network with Paul was one of the most beneficial experiences of my ministry life. The network gatherings were fun, challenging, and full of leadership exercises that provided me with tools to lead more effectively and move people towards a focused goal. I highly recommend this experience!”

— Ira Towns
Executive Pastor at Atlantic Shores Bible Church | Virginia Beach, VA

Posted in Leadership

Launching Multisite Campuses is the Easy Part

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Jim Tomberlin, a strategic partner of the Unstuck Group and the nations foremost leader in the multisite movement recently said to me that, “Launching multisite campuses is the easier part of multisiting. Managing the inter-campus relationships and the restructuring necessary to accommodate a growing multisite strategy is the more difficult part. Multisite is not for the faint-of-heart!”

He’s right. Every parent knows that the process of making a baby is fun, but once the kids arrive on the screen everything changes. It’s one thing to start a new campus or two. That’s the exciting part. But multisite changes everything. That’s why only a handful of multisite churches ever get past 2 additional campuses. In fact, in their research, Leadership Network discovered that:

“Only 15% of multisite churches get beyond 2 additional campuses.”

You can’t launch new campuses and expect everything to stay the same. It takes courage to restructure and adopt new systems to accommodate a growing multisite strategy. Successful multisite churches are willing to live with the tension between their campuses being both centralized and decentralized at the same time. Decentralization doesn’t mean complete autonomy, and centralization doesn’t mean complete control. It’s a both-and solution.

1. Decision Making

Effective multisite churches push strategic decisions up and implementation decisions down.

2. Accumulation & Transference of Organizational Knowledge

You’ve already paid the dumb tax of learning and leveraging your “ministry best practices.” Great multisite churches take the time to write them down and replicate them.

3. Efficiency

Multisite churches that get past 2 additional campuses learn how to cut out the redundancy in the organization and develop “central service teams” that serve all campuses (for example: one centralized business department, among other things).

4. Innovation

Multisite is an innovation rich undertaking. It’s a nimble and flexible approach to “new markets” where innovation can take place in the smaller risk embracing culture of a newer campus and then learning passed along to more established campuses.

Interested in learning more about multisite? Join the first Multisite Leadership Coaching Network that starts in April!

Photo Credit: JustinJensen via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership

6 Symptoms your Church has Ministry Silos

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Ministry Silos are one of the most common symptoms I find in churches that are stuck. Most churches don’t want to admit that they have silos. But admit it or not, the majority of churches have silos. It’s actually a natural easy drift that most churches make towards ministry silos. I wrote about this in a post: “What if Home Depot Functioned like a Church?”

Ministry Silos = multiple independent ministries operating under one roof

But how do you know if you have ministry silos at your church? You probably have ministry silos at your church if…

1. Each Ministry has their own Vision & Values Statements

If each ministry is chasing it’s own vision and developing it’s own organizational values; then you’ve got ministry silos.

2. You Frequently hear the word “My Ministry” in Meetings

If you hear the words, “my ministry, my budget, my volunteers, my rooms,” etc.; then you’ve got ministry silos.

3. There is no Coordinated Calendaring Process

If every ministry has their own independent calendar and there are consistent conflicts when it comes to using facility space, announcements, and other church resources; then you’ve got ministry silos.

4. No one is Sharing Best Practices

If each ministry is building their guest experience, discipleship process, missions experiences, and volunteer process (among other things) uniquely and independently from one another; you’ve got ministry silos.

5. There is no Coordinated Budgeting Process

If each ministry is coming up with their own budget independently of each other instead of working together and sacrificing for what is best for the vision of the church; then you’ve got ministry silos.

6. Each Ministry has their own Brand

If each ministry has it’s own cool name, logo, t-shirts, websites, and promotional material that look like their from different organizations instead of from the same church; then you’ve got ministry silos.

What else would you add to the list?

Your team can use this list at your next team meeting to begin evaluating where your church is at when it comes to ministry silos. Then use this post: “Tearing Down Ministry Silos” to help you begin taking your next steps.

Want help addressing the dysfunction of ministry silos at your church? At the Unstuck Group we’ve helped some of the fastest growing and most innovative churches in the country get unstuck. We can help you too.

Photo Credit: dawn_perry via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership