In preparation for my conference at Granger Community Church next week, I’m reading two books by two members of its ministerial team. Tim Stevens (Executive Pastor) and Tony Morgan (Pastor of Administration Services) have written a series of books with “Simply Strategic” titles. The two I’m reading are “Simply Strategic Stuff” and “Simply Strategic Growth.”
The subtitle for “Simply Strategic Stuff is “Help for leaders drowning in the details of running the church.” The book has 99 suggestions to help pastors better perform their ministerial and administrative duties. While not all 99 are applicable to every church, there are a lot of good suggestions in the book. I’ll hit a few of the highlights.
In the Introduction, the authors make a point that is a fundamental truth and challenge to effective ministry. “Ask any pastor who went to seminary how many classes on church administration were required or even offered. The typical response is laughter. Yet pastors are required to hire, fire, manage and supervise, oversee large budgets and the construction of buildings and parking lots – all with little or no training and few resources specific to ministry” (p. 14). I have found that most of my learning in these administrative areas have been through on-the-job training and trial and error (usually taking several trials and many errors to get it right).
Every six months, a pastor should plan a “big event” – a churchwide program, campaign or project (p. 19). There should always be something for the church to look forward to and get excited about. The authors call these “momentum builders.” I like this idea a lot. It also requires a church to be continually forward-thinking. Not easy for a church to do, but worth it if a pastor can help make it happen.
Tip #3 is “Count the Cost Before Hiring a Family Member” (p. 23). Guess I should take Sydney and Molly off the payroll as “Ministers of Dessert Testing.”
Tip #5 – “If It Feels Good, Check the Data” (p. 26) - Decision-making should be balanced between an accurate measuement (the “data”) and listening to the Spirit. Erring too far to one side or another can distort the decision-making process. My experience has been that pastor lean too much toward the Spirit and ignore the facts and congregation members (especially those who make their living in corporate America) rely too much on the data and don’t allow enough room for the Spirit’s promptings.
Tip #6 - “Don’t Spend Your Life with Your Critics” (p. 28) – Wow, this one is tough. I just had a conversation about how to deal with “squeaky wheels” in ministry. It’s even harder when the squeaks are aimed in your direction. The authors say “It’s OK to listen to criticism as long as you choose the right critics.” But I don’t choose my critics, and if I ignore those other voices, they’ll find someone else in the congregation who will listen. There has to be a healthy balance between giving critics a chance to be heard but not being held hostage by them. I think a pastor need to surround himself or herself with “truth tellers” (preferably a Pastoral Relations Committee) so that the pastor can check out these criticisms with trusted, loving, straightforward congregation members. The importance of this group cannot be understated and I’m not sure how I’ve made it this far without one.
Tip #7 is called “Get Geeked about Gadgets” (p. 30) and is all about why you should embrace technology as a communication medium among the staff. I love these guys!
Tip #8 – “If Someone Hasn’t Left Your Church Recently, Your Vision Is Probably Too Broad” (p. 32) – Excellent point! Churches try too hard to be all things to all people and end up not being much to anyone. The authors say a church should start very focus, do a few things well and then add slowly. That’s great for a church just getting launched, but for a church that’s been around 40 or 50 years, it’s hard to scrap the blueprints and start over, especially in a church with a wide range of ages. Who’s going to look the 83-year-old church matriarch in the eye and say, “Sorry, Mabel, but we’ve decided to focus on young families with children. Good luck!” The focus the authors encourage has to be tempered in an older church with a commitment to serving the entire constituency within the congregation (or encouraging them to serve each other).
Tip #10 – “Visit Other Churches and Steal Their Stuff” (p. 37) – Yes! I call it “sharing the gospel.” No need to reinvent the wheel when so many churches are already doing great things. Kudos to Granger for opening up their doors to other pastors via conferences and workshops. We’re not in competition; we all play for the same Coach.
Several of the authors’ tips revolve around giving decision-making power to the people on the front lines. Tip #9 is called “Work Yourself Out of a Job” (p. 34) and tip #17 is called “Without Systems, All Decisions Rise to the Top” (p. 49). This is the idea of the priesthood of all believers. My job as a pastor is not to do everything, but encourage and empower others to do it. They are just as gifted as me, and in many cases much more gifted. I follow the example of Jesus who, when his disciples fretted about feeding such a large crowd with only a few loaves of bread and some fish, said, “You feed them.” My job as pastor is to help people discover their gifts, equip them with the knowledge and spiritual motivation, and then say, “You feed them,” and then cheer them on as they do it.
Tip #19 – “Staff Ahead for Growth” – A thousand times “yes!” If a church wants to stay right where it is size-wise, there’s no need to add staff. If a church is waiting until the budget or attendance numbers supports hiring a new staff member, it will never happen. If one of your goals is to grow, you have to thinking bigger than you are and live into it. The church should always be thinking bigger than it currently is.
In Tip #22, the authors encourage coronating someone as the “database czar” (p. 58), the person who’s responsibility it is to keep all the membership records up to date. Judy does a tremendous job of this at CCC. A good user-friendly membership software is absolutely essential for a church.
Tip #26 – “Perception Matters” (p. 66) – Although the authors use this phrase in conjuction with ministers’ conduct, it is a mantra for almost every aspect of ministry. Perception will almost always trump reality when it comes to ministers because so few people actually see the totality of what a minister does. Someone could complain, “Well, I was in the hospital for three days and Kory didn’t come to see me.” If that perception of me begins to circulate through the church rumor mill, it becomes reality, even if the real reality is different. Ministers have to be skilled a managing (as best we can) perception versus reality and to have a few cheerleaders in the church who aren’t afraid to correct misguided or inaccurate perceptions. But in the end, we have to be OK with ourselves and with God. Only we know if we’ve done what we’ve been called to do. If the reality is that we have to the best of our ability, that’s all we can do. We can’t control other people’s perceptions.
In Tip #29 “Disgruntled Secretaries Drain Dynamic Leaders” (p. 71), the authors say, “You should never pay for someone to be negative, disgruntled, or difficult to be with. People can do that in your life for free.” This gives me another chance to say how blessed I’ve been to work with some fantastic secretaries at CCC. Denise, Sue, Jeanne (whom I miss terribly since she passed away) and Judy have been an incredible blessing to my ministry. I’ve seen the anguish an unhappy church secretary can cause. You ladies were and are the best!
That’s enough for tonight. More tomorrow from this great book!
