We continue the “Ten Best Ways to Ruin Your Church Staff” to avoid for those pastoral leaders who want to keep and develop quality staff ministry colleagues, (For those pastors who want to get rid of troubling church staff, then this is the way to do it!). Today, no. 8: Lower your expectations and your standards.
8. Lower your expectations and your standards. I am constantly taken aback at the low expectations congregations, and their pastors, seem to hold for their staff members. Too many congregations seem to have the mentality that they do not deserve, or are unable, to get the best persons out there. So, they take the attitude of “settling” for whomever they get. At my last congregation one constant message I received over six years, meant as a compliment, was, “We know we can’t keep you.” Said often enough, that kind of compliment becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Effective pastoral leaders cultivate the perspective that their congregations deserve the best, and therefore, they choose the best staff. Their church deserves it, they deserve it, and, the kingdom of God deserves it. There is no valid reason for settling for and tolerating mediocrity in church staff. If you accept lower standards and tolerate mediocre performance from staff, you’ll lose your best people first. That said, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Experience counts (most of the time), but personal maturity counts for more. When seeking good staff, I’d choose personal maturity over experience almost every time.
- Invest in the long-term (it takes three years to get competent at any job; five years to develop a program; 6 years to get settled; 8 years to be fully accepted by the congregation). A string of short-termed staff tenures gets you nowhere.
- Pastors who set high standards for their staff members need to function at a high level of competence and professionalism themselves. There are fewer ways to lose the respect of your staff than to be a poor performer and unprofessional. Set your own standards, but set them high.
From, Perspectives on Congregational Leadership: Applying Systems Theory for Effective Leadership, by Israel Galindo. See the new Perspectives on Congregational Leadership blog site.
