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Seven Expectations of a Senior Pastor of His Staff

Orginally published on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 6:28 AM
by Todd Rhoades

What should you realistically expect from your staff? If you're a senior pastor, I'm sure this question has crossed your mind at least once or twice. Well, Mark Batterson gives his list of expectations recently at his Evotional Blog. Read them here, then check out his great blog everyday for tons of practical leadership insights...

Mark writes:

1) I expect loyalty. I’ve got your back and you’ve got my back.

2) I expect you to be growing spiritually. This is my primary concern. It is so easy for those of us in full-time ministry to seek God for others instead of seeking God for ourselves. We’ve got to do ministry out of the overflow of what God is doing in our lives!

3) I expect a positive attitude. Attitude really is everything. And I’ve learned that how much you enjoy ministry depends on who you’re doing ministry with. Let me just say it like it is: negativity sucks. Literally. It sucks the life out of a staff.

4) I expect staff to verbalize rather than internalize. I want a staff culture where people can have tough conversations about tough topics. Life is too short to hold a grudge. My philosophy of conflict is John 1:14. Jesus was full of grace and full of truth. Truth means I’m going to be honest no matter what. Grace means I’m going to love you no matter what.

5) I expect staff to have fun. We all have bad days. We all have long days. But if ministry isn’t enjoyable you need to get out of the game! The top quality I look for in prospective staff, besides a thriving relationship with Christ, is a sense of humor!

6) I expect you to make mistakes. We have a core value: everything is an experiment. Part of experimenting is failing and learning. I have no problem with mistakes. I just don’t want staff to make the same mistake over and over again!

7) I expect excellence! I think a dose of divine discontent is healthy! We need to keep getting better and better at what we do. It is that commitment to excellence that allow staff to morph in greater responsibilities…

You can read more here...

FOR DISCUSSSION: What do YOU expect from YOUR staff?

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There are 3 Comments:

Posted by

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 8:32 AM

I like these.

I might add patience and an unswerving dedication to the mission of the church.
Posted by Leonard

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 8:37 AM

That is a great list. I have a couple more. I expect a teachable heart. I want my staff hungry to learn, no just doing ministry on what they know. Ministry on what you know becomes stale quickly. Ministry on what you know with a bit of what you are learning is fresh. I not only want my staff growing spiritually, I want them growing professionally. Reading books, in discussions with others, reading journals, taking lessons, going to classes, to enhance your skill is a requirement of being on staff with me. The best leaders I know are teachable in spirit.

I expect my staff to develop shadows. No one on my team is allowed to build a ministry that cannot function without them. every staff person must find and develop a shadow for their ministry. In fact I ask every leader of a ministry in our church to do this. It is in essence what I am working on in them.

I expect my staff to love the whole not just the part. They do not serve where they serve becasue they love students, kids, music, etc. My staff serves where they serve because they love the church. their ministry is an expression of their gifting, calling and deep love for the whole church. They must believe we cannot thrive as a church unless that add to the whole. No one builds kingdoms on our staff. We are all working on a kingdom whose got the greatest king.

I have some more about team but that enough.
Posted by

Monday, May 07, 2007 at 1:32 PM

I’m hoping, as an associate, that sr. pastor’s are also applying these expectations to themselves. I assume this is the case but often I wonder. This list seems so CEOish, so employer/employee, rather than doing church as a team. Of course I’m GenX so I guess I’m not supposed to understand the idea of coming to work, punching a clock, putting in my hours, doing jobs whether I like them or not, and working overtime.
I would ask the sr. pastors, “are you creating the enviornments for these expectations to take place?” Loyalty - are you making yourself visible so your staff knows what they’re loyal to, or do you visit your staff once a week for meetings and then retreat to your house? Fun - does your church office setting encourage this or not? It’s hard to have “fun” when the enviornment feels like a funeral home. Spiritual growth - do you allow work time to include spiritual growth or is to be done on their own time? I know, I know, who am I to expect to be able to have a devotional or do a personal bible study on “company time?” How unprofessional of me.

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.