Top 5 Posts from December

Tag Archive - pastor

Top 5 Posts from December

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

December was a busy month on Helping Churches Make Vision Real! There was a lot of engagement on social media on these posts. So thank you for making these the Top 5 Posts from December of 2012 on Helping Churches Make Vision Real! If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one nice tidy little spot!

#1 How much should we Pay our Pastor?

This post became very popular, very quickly. It’s a question I get frequently there are a lot of people are wrestling with the question. This post will give you some good resources to answer that question.

#2 Why Telling People What to do makes them Stupid

The title of the post says it all. While telling people what to do may get your goals and tasks accomplished it will deflate your team and undermine any leadership culture you’re trying to build.

#3 Ministry Trends for 2013

This intriguing info-graphic got a lot of traffic as people are wrestling with what the significant issues affecting ministry and the local church are going to be in 2013.

#4 I’m Starting a New Coaching Network

I love helping churches make vision real. That’s why I’m offering another Leadership Coaching Network for church leaders beginning in March of 2013. I love seeing leaders and churches take steps to get unstuck and move towards accomplishing God’s plan for their church! There are still a few spots left in this network if you’re interested!

#5 Out of the Box

At Sun Valley we discovered that there are 82,000 families in Maricopa County who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. So this Christmas we decided to do something about it. We went after a social justice campaign of filling 5,000 boxes with food to care for local families. This post tells all about it.

Posted in Leadership

Leadership Coaching Network Starting Soon!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A couple of weeks ago, we opened applications for the new leadership coaching networks that will begin in March through TonyMorganLive. The deadline for applications is January 31, but applications have already been coming in and these new coaching networks will probably fill up before then.

Still on the fence about whether or not to participate? Here’s what others have said:

“Paul Alexander is a natural leader and a great coach. He’s strategic, constantly learning, and has been very helpful to me in my ministry leadership and management.”
– Mike Work, Executive Pastor of Mission Community Church in Gilbert, AZ

“When I have a leadership question Paul is always one of my first calls. He is a gifted leader and strategist. Paul knows how to ask the right questions to properly diagnosis current systems, and the unique capacity to help teams formulate a plan that is both practical and attainable. Working with Paul has been an encouragement and has stirred in me the desire to be a better leader.”
– Aaron McRae, Senior Pastor of Hillside Community Church in Alta Loma, CA

“Paul Alexander is simply brilliant when it comes to helping pastors and churches get laser-focused on their purpose, process and values. I believe he is one of the top strategic thinkers in the church today. After connecting with him, you will be encouraged, inspired and equipped.”
– Kyle Wall, Senior Pastor of Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, VA

“Paul is a very talented leader who knows how to form and implement strategic plans, while encouraging and building leaders in the process. He is methodical in planning his approach, and builds his processes to include appropriate goals, steps, budgets, and measurement for completion. During my time working with Paul, he demonstrated how to focus on projects and refocus when scope changed or obstacles rose up. While learning from Paul, he made things “reproducible” which has allowed me to keep my teams on task and lead them to do the same.”
– Kerry Dodd, CFO of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA

You can get more details about the next Coaching Network on our website.

What’s next?

Complete the Coaching Network Application. The Phoenix Leadership Coaching Network that I’m leading will be limited to no more than 10 leaders and begins in March 2013. I’d like you to consider joining us. The deadline for applications is January 31, 2013.

Questions? Contact me

Posted in Leadership

How much should we Pay our Pastor?

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

How much should we pay our Pastor? It’s a question that gets sent my way quite frequently. Unfortunately the question beneath the question is usually, “How little can we pay our staff to get them and keep them?” You’ve probably heard the old adage “Let the church keep the Pastor poor and God keep him humble.” There seems to be some general fear that if a pastor makes a good or comfortable livelihood that they will somehow be worse at their job. In taking a quick look at national numbers though you’ll see that few pastors are actually paid an unreasonably high salary. But what is reasonable?

When coming up with a salary for your pastoral staff, make sure you consider the size and location of the Church as well as the education and experience of the Staff Member. Other factors that come into play are longevity in the role and overall value to the Church. An overlooked concept that should factor into the salary is the “replacement cost.” If that staff member left, what would it cost to replace them? Another way to think about this is by considering the mean income of the congregants in your church or the mean income level of the board of the church. It would also be worth considering what the income level is like at a similar organization (size, operating budget, number of staff, assets, impact, non-profit) that offers similar services or is under similar circumstances.

Here are three resources that may help along the way:

1. Leadership Network: Large Church Salary Report

2. National Association of Church Business Administration: Ministry Pay Church Salary Survey

3. LifeWay: Southern Baptist Convention Compensation Study

Interested in a customized report for your church? The Vanderbloemen Search Group and Leadership Network would be happy to help you with that project.

Posted in Staffing

a large multisite church in phoenix is hiring a jr. high pastor

Sunday, August 19, 2012

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. Sun Valley Community Church, the church I have the honor of serving at, is beginning a national search for a Jr. High Pastor to serve on our Tempe Campus. Sun Valley began as a church plant in 1990 in Chandler, Arizona. Over the years Sun Valley has grown into a large mult-site church in the Phoenix area. Currently there are three campuses located in Gilbert, Tempe and Casa Grande with a total weekend attendance of 5,000 people. The Tempe campus was the result of a merger in October 2011 with Bethany Community Church. In the merger, Sun Valley acquired a 16-acre, 8-building campus with over 100,000 sq. ft. under roof. At present, the campus attendance is about 1,000, but when fully utilized, the campus capacity will accommodate about 7,000 people. Sun Valley was recently featured in a new book by Leadership Network about church mergers: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. To learn more about that story click here Part-1 and Part-2.

Interested in learning more? Continue reading below: