This week i am sharing with you blogs and leadership material that is found online. These are things that we can all learn from without ever traveling or financial investment. Taking some time to read and listen to other Pastors/Leaders struggles and insights could sometimes relieve us of going through the same heartache and we might learn something in the process.
These are two Leadership Conferences taking place online: ck them out. These are both next week. Led by some of the ministries you have heard of and know well. I am so pumped about both of them. Myself along with some of my team will be partcipating in these.
www.theforum.lifechurch.tv
www.thenines.leadnet.org
Thoughts from Shannon Odell, Lead Pastor, Brand New Church in Bergman, AR. This is a small town of 450 population, 10 miles from McDonalds & Walmart. Shannon & Cindy Odell became pastors with 40 people and now minister to over 2000 weekly with 4 campuses & 3 satellite churches. Ck it out;
website: www.brandnewchurch.com
blogspot: www.breakingalltherurals.com
6 Qualities to look for in a Staff Member
When I was hired at Southside Baptist Church, now Brand New Church these were the mandatory requirements…
1) Five years of pastoral experience2) Must be married3) Seminary degree. After reading those I realized Jesus could not get a job at this church. He was single, only had three and half years of ministry experience and never attended seminary.
So now we have restructured our staff requirements:
1) A Red Hot marriageYour marriage is the report card of your walk with God. Also, an Ephesians 5 marriage order. I have seen so many great men of God lose passion and ministry faith because their wives were leading the home.If single…how do they manage their personal self-disciplines (money, mouth, meals, motivation).Are they “majorly in debt, do they talk too much, majorly overweight (everyone who is big is not overweight), self-starter.
2) Orderly Home…Titus 1:5 “a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.”This may be the most unspoken passage of scripture in the Bible from the “pulpit”. God calls you to shepherd your home first, then His Church.
3) Relationship Builder…If you don’t love people you are not called.
4) Passion for our God…This is found out from the people closest to them.(#3 and #4 are the staples of the Great Commission…Love God and Love People.)
5) Loyalty…Listen how they talk about their previous employment and employer. Loyalty to authority is the most difficult quality to find in ministry staff thus far in my short 6 years of pastoring. BNC is too large for a church split, but I am learning that staff can do extensive damage when they are not loyal to God’s leadership paradigm in the local church.
6) Understand God’s Vision for Brand New Church.The word under-stand means submitting to what was stated. The potential staff must get “under” the pastors vision and mission with no “agenda” of his own. They need ministry ideology and creation of new ministry, strategy, development of volunteers and leaders, events, spiritual connection and community, but ‘under” the direction of the senior pastor.
I love the six points here. Missy and I just celebrated twenty years on the staff of NHIC, the past thirteen as Senior or Lead Pastors.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, I've seen alot of great men & women; but there have also been some knuckle-heads encountered along the way. One cannot over emphasize the importance of loyalty and submission. One definition for "submission" is "willfully fitting into another person's plans". Submission doesn't have to be a nasty word.
I can add this: As leaders, we get multiple opportunities to "sow" loyalty. Those that serve under our leadership can easily become victims of congregational abuse; and, we must stand by our staff members in their moments of criticism, crisis, personal issues, ministry burn-out, attack from people, marriage problems, etc...
I have two spiritual sons on my staff who recognize that a "two-cord strand" is really tough to separate, but we see ourselves as the "three-cord strand" who stick together through everything. I would encourage every pastor to find at least two that can fit that description.