Why Firing People who work at your Church Sucks

Tag Archive - recruit

Why Firing People who work at your Church Sucks

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Changing Church Staff can be a terribly painful experience. Exiting a Church Staff Member costs the church more than just money. Trust is often eroded; people frequently leave the church during these times, and ministries typically lose momentum. Firing a Church Staff Member should always be a last resort option.

Simply put, firing people who work at your church sucks. It’s no fun for anyone and there’s rarely a win, that being said, there are times when it is the right decision. When those moments come along here are some principles to keep in mind.

Most churches tolerate Poor Work Performance over Poor Moral Behavior

The church is one of those weird “industries” that seems to tolerate poor work performance as long as you’re a nice moral person. I’ve seen churches keep people on staff who are constantly low performers and who produce little to no results simply because they like them and the relational or political fall out would be too great to withstand if they were ever let go.

Sometimes People in the church are going to Freak Out

No matter what you do there are going to be some people in the church who just freak out because they think a church shouldn’t fire people. In those moments, I wish the church cared as much about people who don’t know Jesus as they do about their favorite Staff member being asked to leave the team. But I wish that about a lot of things people freaked out about at churches.

Ministry is all about Relationships & Trust

Keep in mind that if you let go of one of your Church Staff that there will be some relational loss and trust will be eroded between the leadership of the church and the attenders. No matter how poor a performer or how right the decision is to let them go, ministry is all about relationships and everyone has their fans. Be prepared to lead through this loss.

People aren’t Expendable

Your Church Staff aren’t simply cogs in a machine that can be easily replaced or interchanged. They’re people to be developed and coached. In a current church climate where the talent pool seems to be thinning in America the best way to have a talented Church Staff team is to build and develop them. It’s hard to develop people if you’re constantly churning through them.

Mission Trumps Everything

Even thought it’s difficult, it’s okay to let someone go who works at your church. If they’re not doing their job, if they’re not the right fit, if they’ve hit their leadership lid and you don’t have another role for them or a number of other valid reasons. Jesus started this movement called the Church for a reason, He intends for it to accomplish something very particular. We don’t get to pick our mission. And the mission of the church is too important to allow the church to be held back from taking Kingdom ground because you have the wrong person on the team.

Your Church Staff Lose more than their Job when they Lose their Job

When your Church Staff lose their job they lose more than their jobs. They are losing their spiritual community, friendships, and the church that they and their family attend. So don’t make this decision flippantly.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

5 Symptoms Your Church Needs More Volunteers

Sunday, September 20, 2015

I’ve never worked with a church that has said they don’t need more volunteers. But I’ve worked with a bunch of churches that have trouble getting people to volunteer and stay engaged volunteering.

Through our research at the Unstuck Group we’ve discovered that the average church in America has 43% of their adults and students volunteering somewhere in the church. Follow this link if you’re interested in learning if your church is healthy in this area and others.

While a lot of churches need more volunteers, most don’t know why they need more volunteers, or why it’s difficult for them to enlist and keep new volunteers.

1. Your “span of care” is too broad

If you can’t care for your volunteers, you’re not going to keep your volunteers very long. Because they’ll begin to sense that you want something from them not for them. In business-world Fortune 500 CEOs usually only have seven direct reports. That’s probably a great rule of thumb for ministry-world as well. A simple way to figure this out in your context is to add up the number of volunteers and then divide by the number of staff and volunteer leaders. If the result is more than seven, then you have a span of care issue and you need more leaders.

2. You have too many staff

One symptom I see over and over again in churches that struggle with building an effective volunteer ministry is that they are over-staffed. Instead of paying staff to lead, develop, and disciple people in the church they pay the staff to do the ministry. The research we’ve done at the Unstuck Group working with literally 100’s of churches has shown us that if you’re staffed at a ratio higher than 1:100 (1 FTE Staff Member for every 100 people attending your church) you’re overstaffed.

3. Every decision comes back to your desk

If every decision is coming back to your desk you haven’t figured out how to empower people. Empowering people first starts with clarifying the mission, vision, values and strategy. It means clearly articulating the role for volunteers, helping them understand how to make decisions that help the church move towards its vision, and then moving people from doing tasks to leading their teams.

4 Using people instead of developing people

Many churches I’ve observed view volunteering as roles to be filled instead of people to be developed. Here’s what I know, when you’re primarily focused on the number of volunteers you have and the ratios you have in classrooms you’ll never have enough volunteers. On the other hand when you primarily focus volunteers as people to be developed and discipleship, you’re far less likely to have a volunteer shortage. Because after all volunteering is discipleship.

5. It’s Difficult to get Involved

The number one complaint I hear from people who want to volunteer in churches who don’t is that they’ve tried to volunteer, they’ve signed up, they want to but they don’t know how to get involved, it was hard to get involved (they had to take multiple classes or be a member of the church prior to volunteering), or no one ever called them back. Does your church make it easy or difficult for people to get involved and start volunteering?

Posted in Leadership, Volunteers

Why your Church should Play more Freshmen

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Some of you know that I have what some may say is a bit of an unhealthy obsession with College Football (really hoping the Gators can begin to turn things around this year). Right now teams around the country are practicing and preparing for the start of the season, and Coaches are watching the players on the practice field and identifying who their starters are going to be.

In light of that I recently heard Charlie Strong, the Head Coach of the Texas, Longhorns and former longtime Defensive Coordinator of the Florida, Gators say to the veteran players on the team that when it comes to position battles the tie is going to go to the freshmen. In other words, if a veteran (Sr. player and incumbent starter) is tied with a freshman when it comes to talent and performance the Freshman is going to play not the Sr.

Sound harsh? I think there’s a lot that the church can learn from Coach Strong when it comes to recruiting and developing young leaders. And the future of the church may depend on it.

1. Talent Development

Talent isn’t developed in the locker-room; it’s developed on the practice field. You don’t learn leadership is a classroom, you learn it through leading. Young leaders need to develop into experienced leaders, and the only way that is going to happen is if you take a risk and play them and coach them.

2. They ask “Why?”

Everyone knows that young talent isn’t experienced or seasoned talent. They’re not going to bring a wealth of experience and ideas to the table. But what they are going to bring is a new way of thinking. They don’t know why you do things the way you do things and so they’re going to challenge the way you do things and make you think differently about the way you do things (try saying that 5 times fast). When you begin to answer their challenges and talk through the way you do things, it’s going to naturally provide you the opportunity to improve upon how you do things.

3. Freshmen are the Future

This may sound harsh, but it’s true. Freshmen are about the future and what’s going to happen. Sr.’s are about the past and what already happened. Now we all know that great teams have both freshmen and Sr.’s but when there’s a tie do you defer to the incumbent player or the new player? Maybe it’s time to start deferring to the freshmen?

4. Recruiting new Talent

Your church, like a lot of churches, may be struggling with attracting and keeping young leaders. Here’s a simple solution (not an easy solution). New recruits want to go where they’re going to get the chance to get on the field and play early. If you show that you’re not afraid to allow young leaders to lead then guess what? You’ll attract more young leaders!

Posted in Leadership

5 Articles from June that will Help Your Church Make Vision Real

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Thank you for making June an incredible month here at Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s great staying connected with you through social media and hearing that these articles have been helpful. So, thank you for connecting with me through the content on this blog! You made these the top 5 Posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one place for your convenience!

#1 “7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Church Leaders”

It’s much easier to identify poor leadership in others than it is in yourself. We have a tendency to judge our leadership based on our intentions and the leadership of other based on the results.

An old Russian Proverb says it this way, “The eye cannot see the eye.”

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to observe all kinds of different Church Leaders who are leading in different sizes and “flavors,” churches. No matter the size or the flavor of the church I’ve seen the following 7 habits come up over and over again. So in no particular order, here are 7 common bad habits I’ve seen in Church Leaders over the years:

#2 “10 Signs Your Church is Headed for Decline”

When I was young my Aunt purchased a brand new car. I didn’t have a car yet so even though it wasn’t red and it had 4 doors instead of 2 I thought it was really cool. And because she had a car and I didn’t she by default was cool too.

Everything was cool until she forgot to change the oil. Truth be told, she never changed the oil. From the day she drove the car off the lot to the day it died (which was much, much sooner than it should have), that car never experienced a single oil change. Routine maintenance wasn’t her strong suite. And most of us are just like her. We put off going to the doctor for our annual check-up, we postpone going to the dentist for our 6-month check up, and yes we put off routine maintenance on our automobiles.

We just keep going until it hurts enough that we are forced to stop and go in for a check up.

Unfortunately most church leadership teams operate the same way. They put off routine check ups and maintenance until it’s too late and decline starts to set in. What if there were early warning signs (flashing lights on the dashboard) that helped indicate that trouble was ahead? In my experience Coaching Church Leaders and Consulting with Churches across the country I’ve seen the following 10 indicators of an impending decline over and over again.

#3 “5 Common Hiring Mistakes that Churches Make”

Recruiting and hiring a new team member can be exciting! Hire the right person and the whole team benefits. When you invite the right person to join your team not only is there an infusion of new talent, but also new ideas, fresh eyes, and a new well of experiences to go to. One new hire can literally improve the performance of the entire team. On the other hand, hire the wrong person and the ministry at your church could be set back for years.

Churches are notorious for making well-intentioned bad hires. At most churches the hiring process usually goes wrong for one of the following 5 reasons.

#4 “Discovering the Leadership Culture at Your Church”

While many churches may have a list of Core Values that they’ve built, very few churches that I’ve come across have taken the time to do the hard work of defining and clearly articulating their Staff Values or Leadership Culture that they’re trying to build at their church.

Culture is tough to define. It’s the elusive, soft stuff in the organization that’s more on the art side than the science side of leadership. It takes hard work to articulate it. But it’s a must for any church that wants to actually be intentional about building a particular staff leadership culture. A clearly defined culture allows you to make decisions, hires, and take any number of other steps at a faster pace. After all as Peter Drucker famously said…

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
– Peter Drucker –

Interested in discovering the Staff Leadership Culture at your Church? Start here. Gather your Sr. Leadership Team together and spend some time wrestling with the following two questions and build some lists together.

#5 “Work Hard Give Your Best & Put Family First”

How do I balance family and ministry? It’s a conversation I’ve had over and over again as a church staff member. I’ve heard church staff express deep frustration and anxiety over this question. They want to give their best to their ministry calling and yet sometimes feel like they’re sacrificing their family to follow Jesus. But then again doesn’t following Jesus mean you take care of and lead your family well? When you’re on staff at a church it means working weekends and often times being gone multiple nights of the week at meetings when church members are available. Further, many church staff members feel like they’re on call 24/7 to meet the needs of church attenders. You can see how ministry staff members can quickly feel tension over the whole balancing work and family, especially young church staff members who are just starting out and trying to figure it out.

At Sun Valley Community Church (the church I have the privilege of serving at) we’ve defined our leadership culture with 7 clear distinctives. If you’re interested in learning more about them you can follow this link. One of them states:

Photo Credit: justin fain via Compfight cc

Posted in Family, Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Staffing

New Staff Search: A Large Church in Phoenix is looking for a new Lead Pastor

Sunday, May 10, 2015

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search! I’m helping Harvest Community Church as they begin the search for their new Lead Pastor. Harvest was planted in August of 2009 and originally met in a movie theater. They later moved to Skyline High School for a period of time before settling into a permanent facility in 2012. Today, just 5 years in existence, they average more than 650 people in weekend attendance! Located just one mile north of a new large residential community and a mile off of the 202 highway, Harvest is positioned for growth!

Harvest Community Church sincerely desires to be a Biblical community of people that seeks God’s leading for their lives. They believe this happens best when we connect ourselves to God, His purpose, and others. Harvest exists to connect people to God and to give them an increasingly accurate view of God while moving them to be wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ. Simply put, Harvest wants to help people connect with Jesus, grow in Jesus, and go for Jesus.

Lee Stephenson, the founding pastor, is leaving Harvest Community Church in a place of health as he has transitioned to be the next Executive Director of Church Planting for Converge Worldwide. The location, finances, growth, mission, and staff team are all great reasons that make this a very attractive opportunity for interested candidates. Harvest is affiliated with Converge Worldwide, “A movement of churches working together to start and strengthen more churches.”

Located in Southeast Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, AZ, Harvest is set against the beautiful backdrop of the Superstition Mountains. The facility is located in a new and growing community. The area boasts beautiful outdoor living including biking, hiking, equestrian trails and other recreational activities. The community is also convenient to shopping, golfing, and resorts. With its proximity to Phoenix, this opportunity provides all the benefits of small town living with the appeal and amenities that come from being close to a major city.

The next Lead Pastor at Harvest Community Church will be a gifted and dynamic communicator of God’s Word. They will highly value both strong biblical exposition as well as practical application in their teaching. They will have a passion and ability to make the truths of the scripture relevant to those exploring the faith, as well as challenging devoted followers of Jesus, leading people to experience and follow Jesus. They will have received a formal biblical education that has prepared them for pastoral ministry (seminary is preferred), have a clear spiritual calling to the role of Lead Pastor, and meet the biblical qualification for eldership expressed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Multi-site and/or church-planting experience is a plus. In addition, they will have had 10+ years of church leadership experience with relevant experience in a large church (1,000+). The next Lead Pastor at Harvest will not only be an excellent communicator of God’s Word but also pastor the congregation and cast inspirational and actionable vision for the future. They will be a high capacity leader with a proven track record of developing others and have the ability to work with the high capacity lay and staff leaders on the team.

Interested parties should submit their resume here via email.

Posted in Staffing

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