Steve Law

Safety Officers

Posted on October 1, 2011 Written by Steve Law

Just over three years ago I established the Safety Officer Team at my church. No one asked me to do this, I realized the need for this after reading an article about the number of shooting deaths in churches. From 1999 to 2007, 41 people died in churches from gunfire. This does not include violent deaths at church-related camps or other properties nor does it include violent deaths by means other than guns (such as the poisoning of the church coffee pot in a New Hampshire church that killed one person). This figure does not include the scores of people wounded in shootings such as the two pastors wounded in September 2011 in a church in Florida.

Churches used to be considered sanctuaries (in every sense of the word). Churches are no longer immune from violence. Instead, churches must be proactive in protecting their facilities when so many people are present. Churches can do this in several ways:

Volunteers – these are typically members of the church who have had or are currently police officers.
- I discourage the use of members of the military. I greatly respect members of the armed forces, but typically they are trained to shoot first and ask questions later; police are trained to ask questions first and shoot only as a last resort.
- Members who have neither police nor military training could be a risk the church should not take. My “risk-management hat” tells me that some untrained members may be either trigger-happy or trigger-reluctant and either situation can put people at risk.
- Police (current or former officers) are probably the best way to go because of their training. This also gives police officer members of the church the opportunity to give back to their church using their professional training – something that many of them want to do but have never been asked to do.
Off-Duty Paid Officers – This is the best form of protection but it is also the most expensive. These officers can be either in uniform or in plain clothes or a combination.
- Some churches use traffic officers to help with getting cars out of the parking lot; those officers are the first line of protection for a church. Someone bent on harm may see a traffic cop and choose another, less guarded, site and bypass your location.
- High profile ministers usually have an officer that is assigned to be with the minister to ensure no one causes harm to him or his family while the minister is on the church’s campus.
- Paid plain clothes officers are usually used in large churches where an officer’s presence is needed in a worship environment but where the church members do not need to be alarmed by the number of police.
- Sometimes a church will learn of a threat against a minister or the church itself. You need to decide how you’ll address that threat and there isn’t an easy answer. Every threat needs to be addressed individually.
  - Do you ignore it? A foolish action (in my book)
  - Do you bring in only volunteers? A good move but not far enough
  - Do you bring in paid officers in uniform? That is a great move but it does have consequences. The person making the threat may see the officer and decide to postpone the attack nor even cancel it. It may also alarm church members who are not used to seeing a uniformed officer.
  - Do you bring in a paid undercover officer? That is also a great move. It will not alarm church members but it does have the drawback in that the person causing the threat may continue with his (or her) attack.
Combination of volunteers and paid officers – This is probably the most efficient and effective method.
- It is an efficient use of church funds by using volunteers inside the church and a paid traffic officer. When (not if) there is a threat or there is a perceived need for increased vigilance, additional paid officers can be brought in.
- It is effective in that the first line of defense is always the most visible officer – the traffic cop in the parking lot.
- This is the way that I’ve gone to – I like and it works quite well. We’ve weathered 2 intentional threats and the heightened security around 9/11/2011.

Below are the Safety Officer Guidelines that I created for my volunteer officers. My regular paid officer sees these guidelines, too. By the way, as my way of thanking them for their service, I meet with them once a year (the only official meeting I have with them). I invite them all, volunteer and paid officers, to lunch and I pick up the tab. I want them to get to know each other so that all the good guys to know each other – some churches are so large that police from different jurisdictions have never met each other. Take your volunteer officers to lunch – they’ll enjoy it, you can take the opportunity to acknowledge and express appreciation for their community service, everyone will get to know each other better and you can remind them of why they are so needed and vital to the church.

Lead On!

Steve

Safety Officer Guidelines

Overview

The purpose of the Safety Officers for our church is for passive not active threat assessments leading to actions only if absolutely necessary. Passive action means observing individuals but not approaching or engaging the individual unless a specific threat is noticed.
Only trained law enforcement (present, former, or retired) should be included as a Safety Officer of our church.
Safety Officers may carry weapons on church grounds but that is typically not necessary.
Safety Officers may wear uniforms but that is not typically necessary.
Safety Officers must know who else is a member in order to assist or recognize another officer during a crisis.

Responsibilities

Whenever a Safety Officer is present at the church, he/she must consider him/herself to be “on duty” and available to respond.
Safety Officers must be aware of individuals who have the potential to harm others. If a Safety Officer notices an individual believed to be a threat to others, he/she should approach the individual to determine the danger. If the danger is real, then the Safety Officer.
1. Should summon on-duty officers (call 911)
2. Maintain personal or visual contact of the individual until on-duty officers arrive
3. Attempt to get other Safety Officers to help with the situation
4. As a last resort, escort the individual out of the building if the person becomes disruptive
Safety Officers should be aware that many times dangerous individuals want to gain a reputation or fame for themselves and their actions. The most prominent person in the church, and thus the most likely single target, is the senior pastor. If a Safety Officer notices an individual approaching the pastor during the worship service, the officer should walk forward to see if he/she can be of assistance.
1. During the music – pastor may be approached by staff trying to tell the pastor some emergency. Only rarely will anyone else approach him.
2. During the sermon – this is a high visibility time for an individual wanting to gain fame. Only rarely will anyone else be on the platform
3. During the “altar call” – this time is when the pastor is most vulnerable since people are encouraged to come to him. Someone dangerous could get within inches of the pastor and not draw any attention.
Safety Officers should not draw attention to themselves or their position unless a threat is imminent.
Safety Officers should get to know each other and the church-hired traffic officer.
The work of Safety Officers will go entirely unnoticed and unrecognized by the church. But please know that those people who are aware of your work greatly appreciate your service. It helps the staff and church do its work with peace of mind – thank you!

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: church safety, church security, leadership Tagged: church safety, church security, leadership

Employer FICA is Illegal for Ordained Ministers

Posted on September 26, 2011 Written by Steve Law

Last week a colleague at another church and I had an email exchange that might be of value to you. The question was whether ordained ministers should have the employer’s portion FICA paid by their church (NO!). The underlying issue is bigger than that – too many times church leaders tell their staff to do things which are illegal because those leaders are not familiar with tax laws. When the staff attempts to inform the pastor of the laws, the pastor instructs the administrator to do it his (the pastor’s) way regardless of the law. This puts the administrator between a rock (his boss and paycheck) and a hard place (the IRS and the law).

Pastors, please listen to your administrators. That’s why you hired them; that’s what you pay them for. Ask them for information rather than telling them what they should do. You may not like their answer – remember, they are just the messenger. Take your frustration to Congress, please, not on your staff.

I do not know what my colleague will do but this person is in a very difficult position. Unfortunately, I hear about situations like this at least once a month.

Lead On!

Steve

Question:

It’s been a long time since I consulted you! I have a problem and need your expertise. One of our ordained staff was approved to designate part of her salary as her housing allowance yet wants to continue to be treated as an employee. Does that mean we pay our share of her FICA (Social Security and Medicare)? Any other things we need to know regarding this? How do I prepare the W-4 toward the end of the year when in the first eight months, her whole salary was treated as taxable income but beginning September, we exclude that housing allowance? I need help and guidance from you. Thanks!

Response:

Great question and I got an answer for you – I heard it this past summer at the church administrators’ annual meeting.

If a person is ordained, then that person cannot be treated like an employee for Social Security Administration purposes. That person is self-employed. Thus, the non-profit can never pay any employer FICA and Medicare for that person. The ordained minister bears the burden of both the employee and employer portions of FICA and Medicare.

Housing allowance can still be taken out of the salary. However, the housing allowance portion is only prospective from the time it was approved by the governing body. That means that if the minister was on staff on 1/1/2011 but that the housing allowance was approved by the board on August 1, 2011, the housing allowance is only effective from August 1 through December 12 – it is not retro-active to January 1.

One last thing this attorney said, if you are made to do something that you disagree with, then do not sign the W-3 – get someone higher up to sign it because if the IRS or SSA come to your office, you can direct them to the person who signed it, not you.

Thanks for contacting me and I hope I answered your questions. If not, I’ll try again. Let me know.

Question

Thanks once again for your prompt reply. My concern is that it’s my boss I’m dealing with. He wants me to treat one of our staff with a housing allowance but to continue to withhold and pay the necessary taxes and SS & Med tax for the employee. I’m confused as to what I should do.

Response

You’re in a very difficult place – you need an “outside expert” to explain the legal side to your boss. There are several ways to go about this.

1 * Gather data from reputable sources such as Richard Hammar’s Church & Clergy Tax Guide. It’s published annually and costs $40 – the whole book is over 700 pages long. It is the “Bible” for church administrators on legal and tax matters. If you don’t have it, please get it ASAP.

2 * Get a person to write up an opinion to give to your DOM. This person can be someone like me, a nationally-known expert (see http://nonprofit-tax.com/), or the best scenario is the firm that does your audit.

3 * Get someone to visit with your boss to explain the situation and the consequences – fines, penalties, loss of 501(c)(3) status, and, if it is bad enough, jail time.

What he is asking you to do is clearly illegal. He needs to be educated about this. The laws have been the same since 1984. I don’t know how old your boss is, but he may be thinking of pre-1984 laws or he may have heard of pre-1984 laws from some colleagues.

Let me know if I can help you in this situation.

Response

Thanks for the advice and I will pray which action to take. I’ll study the things you listed.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: church staff Tagged: church staff

Budget Percentages

Posted on September 12, 2011 Written by Steve Law

Below is a recent email exchange with a friend of mine (names omitted).

Email Question:

I have a church that wants help examining their budget allocations by categories: missions, personnel, programs, etc. They want to look at similar size churches with similar size budgets. They want to know whether their allocations are in line for their type of church. Basically, they want to benchmark their distributions. They suspect that their personnel budget at 67% is high, but the church doesn’t know any different. And they want to know why they do not have any money to do actual programs.

Do you have access to any sort of database like that from any of your connections?

My response:

No, I don’t know of any authoritative written source of ratios. Sorry.
My experience tells me the following makes commons sense

a. Personnel

i. Range of 40-60% of undesignated receipts

ii. Ideally about 50%

iii. This includes the ministers and administrative assistants – people key to accomplishing the goals, mission and vision of the church

b. Facilities

i. Range of 15-25% of undesignated receipts

ii. Ideally about 20%

iii. This includes facilities staff costs

iv. The percentage will be higher if a church has debt; lower if there is no or low debt.

v. A church should spend annually about 2% of the cost of replacing the building on maintenance. If you have a building worth $1 million, then spend about $20,000 on maintenance. The rest of the percentage will be spent on salaries, utilities, cleaning supplies, commercial property insurance, capital reserve funds, etc.

c. Programming

i. Range of 20-35% of undesignated receipts

ii. Ideally about 30%

iii. This includes education, worship, missions, funds budgeted for allocation to outside organizations (Cooperative Program/Missions), etc.

That being said, these percentages go wild in various types of churches. New, emerging, highly growing churches have very high salary percentages and loads of debt. Older, established churches have paid off their debt so their programming is high and salaries have stabilized in the 50-60% range. While there is no “one size fits all” there are well-grounded rules that will help a church stay out of fiscal trouble. Hope this helps.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church finances, church financial statements, leadership, strategy Tagged: accounting, budget, church finances, church financial statements, leadership, strategy

Church Insurance

Posted on August 28, 2011 Written by Steve Law

On 9/11/2001, the insurance industry took the largest hit ever – over $40 billion dollars in claims – as a result of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, the Pentagon and the planes. The insurance industry raised their premiums in an effort to recoup their vast losses – commercial insurance prices rose a lot in 2002 and then stabilized. In an effort to help the insurance industry, Congress also permitted the industry to levy a terrorism fee on new insurance policies (this authorization for this fee expires in 2014). As a result, church’s have been paying more for their commercial property insurance for ten years.

Actually, the price increases for churches are not entirely attributable to 9/11. There were two other series of incidents in the 1990s that exacerbated church insurance premium hikes. The Roman Catholic Church (and other church’s, too) had a series of well publicized pedophilia scandals which then tainted all faith institutions and raised premiums. There were also a number of church vans that tipped over and killed several people. 9/11 was the third of unrelated incidents which affected church insurance.

Since 9/11/2001, every commercial property insurance has carried a terrorism clause and premium. The dollar amount isn’t much and is rarely noted by the policy holder and not often mentioned by the insurance agent. This is a voluntary payment – churches can exempt themselves from paying this by simply stating they do not want this coverage. The coverage is automatic unless the church specifically states it doesn’t want the coverage. Please call your insurance agent and have that coverage removed. In my opinion, churches don’t need it because of the very limited coverage it offers: the terrorist attacks must be perpetrated by US citizens and acknowledged as terrorist acts by Congress are the only ones covered. Therefore, nothing on 9/11 would be covered but the Oklahoma City bombing would be covered.

In recent years I put my church’s insurance contract out to bid. Here’s what I learned. We paid over $42,000 for five consecutive years. In the year that the contract went to bid, the incumbent agent came back with a quote of just over $28,000 – a reduction of 35%. Two other bids came in at the same price so I knew that was a reasonable amount. In December 2010, a year after the initial bidding, I put the contract back out to bid and got back a quote of $24,500 – even more savings. We have shaved about 45% off our insurance contract.

With that savings I paid for a current valuation of the church’s property so that we have an accurate estimate of the worth of the church’s buildings and furnishings. I also got a video inventory of every room, cabinet, closet and office in the church. We made several copies of that video inventory and placed the copies with different people in their homes (away from the church), including our insurance agent. I’m in favor of inventories but not paper ones – when it says “10 chairs” there is no knowing the worth of those chairs. An image of those chairs allows for better accuracy in getting an insurance settlement.

So, please do the following

Call your insurance agent today and delete the terrorism coverage on your church.
Put your church’s insurance contract out to bid as soon as possible. Get at least three quotes and chose the low bidder.
Get a current valuation of your church’s PP&E (property, plant & equipment)
Make a video inventory of your tangible assets and have copies made for several people

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, buildings, church finances, facilities Tagged: budget, buildings, church finances, facilities

9/11 – 10 Years Later is on a Sunday

Posted on August 23, 2011 Written by Steve Law

This year the anniversary of 9/11/2001 is on a Sunday. Churches will be filled with people as on every Sunday and many churches will make note of the sacrifices of the people working in the Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon, and the four airplanes. Hopefully they will also recognize the first responders (fire and police personnel) who rushed into the burning buildings only to have the towers collapse and kill them.

While it would not be appropriate to either trivialize the significance of 9/11 in American history, it is also not right to make it a jingoistic or nationalistic event. That day was one of the worst terrorist attacks but it was preceded and followed by scores of other terrorist attacks across the world (Nairobi, Madrid, London, Oklahoma City, Bali, Beslan, Mumbai, etc. to name but a few of the most infamous and deadly). The attacks are the feeble attempt by a few to disrupt lives and impose their ideology on others.

For 9/11, I’m asking our members of the church’s Safety Officer Team who are active duty police officers to come in uniform (with weapons) and with a marked car. Ostensibly this is to remind people that on 9/11/2001 it was the first responders who voluntarily went into the burning towers and to their deaths. The other reason for very visible officers is to deter someone from attacking the church. Of course, our regular traffic officer will be on the street with his marked car, too. There has been much speculation that Al-Qaida or some other organization or person wanting to make a name will attempt a terrorist event on this upcoming anniversary.

Inside the church’s lobby, I’ve suggested that we have a poster for people to sign and write notes on. Actually, we need four of them because Sunday afternoon, we can take each of these four posters to the three fire stations and one police station who take care of our church. This will be our way of thanking them for their service to us but also to say that we remember the day they lost so many of their brothers and sisters.

Let me encourage every church to have some acknowledgement on 9/11 of the first responders in their area – that is a great tribute to those who died 10 years ago. But let me also encourage you to take precautionary measures to discourage terrorists.

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church safety, church security Tagged: church safety, church security

Capital Budgeting

Posted on August 9, 2011 Written by Steve Law

The List
Every church needs more money for it’s capital projects. Oh, I presume that you have a list of capital needs which means you’ve already done a study of them. If not, here’s what you need to do:

Itemize
- Make a list of every thing you need to do in the next ten years. 10? Yes, because I guarantee you do not have the money do it all this year so you need to have a plan of what you’re going to do over the next decade. Equipment will break down and need to be replaced. Keeping a list of your HVAC (heating, venting, and air conditioning) equipment and what needs to be replaced in the next few years will help you set money aside for those needs.
- Also, there are things that you don’t see now that you will need in the future. In 1990, no one had any idea of the power of the internet – now it is an indispensable part of every office. Who knows what the next 10 years will bring – be prepared to control the future rather than having the future take control of you.
- The list needs to items that you know about but also what others see. No one person knows all in a church, consult with others (both staff and lay members) about what should be on the capital needs list.
- Most capital needs lists are physical plant items: air conditioning units, roofs, paint, furniture, buildings, etc. There is nothing keeping a church from establishing a capital needs list with items related to non-physical needs – items that will help others outside the four walls of the church and/or will enable members to go farther and do more. I wish more capital needs lists had other items such as
  - Endowment or foundation funds: this would be a pool of funds to meet present and future needs of the church whether it is a physical plant need or a ministry need.
  - Mission fund for a specific trip coming up or to take care of a ministry need somewhere else.
Prioritize
- After you’ve got a list, put them in some type of order. The best order is one which indicates their priority for being accomplished – the priority of need. This order is very fluid – some things will drop in priority while others will rise according to the needs of the church at any given time. For instance, new interior signage may drop in priority when people realize that the condition of the children’s furniture warrants more attention and funding.
- This does not mean that you’ll do the items on the list in that order. Several things may interrupt such as
  - A donor sees something on the list that tickles his or her fancy and the donor decides to take care of that item(s). There are donors like this in every church – let members know about the list and you may be surprised by how many items are “just taken care of.”
  - Some items are so big that you can’t do them in one year; instead, items are taken care of in phases over several years. I’m doing that right now with several items: installing electric shades in the dining room and gym; replacing all copper gutters and downspouts with aluminum ones with gutter guards (so I never have to pay for the gutters to be cleaned again); putting in new windows throughout the church; etc.
Monetize
- Put a dollar figure beside each one. The dollar figure is very much a guess, but an educated one. Do not spend the time now to get quotes for every item, just take a stab at how much each item will cost (aim a little high, too!). That way, when people see the list, they’ll understand the scope of the needs. Also, if someone wants to “own” one of the items, they’ll know how much to give to the church to cover that specific item.
Date-ize
- Establish goals as to when items will be done. These dates can be fluid, of course. But if you don’t put some type of date/goal, then it may never get done. Put it on the list with a desired “due by” time frame even it is done piece-meal over several years.
Publicize
- Tell people what the list contains, why items are on the list, ask them for additional items for the capital needs list, be willing to alter the list as needed, and continue to tell people about the list. The more publicity you can create, the better. You’re not “poor-mouthing” the church, just making people aware of items that they may not know about or may have over-looked. Help people be aware of the needs – then they’ll support you in your efforts to meet these capital needs.
- One of the ways that I make my list available is to put it in a rack just outside my office door. I totally believe in transparency so I make all financial info available to anyone who comes to my office (and a limited amount online at the church’s website). That rack contains four items:
  - The latest audit by the independent audit firm
  - The most recent monthly financial statement
  - The current capital needs list
  - Give away books on stewardship and generosity (The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn and Fields of Gold by Andy Stanley)
- When a project is underway, let people know what is being done and why it is being done. AND, thank them for their financial gifts which made that work possible. Acknowledge their generosity every way you can whether it is in print or from the platform.
Review-ize
- Every few months (definitely once a year), go over the list. Move things around in priority, re-value items as you have new info about their cost, change the “due by” dates as needed, move items to the bottom “already done” category, etc. The capital needs list is organic – don’t let it be static.

The Money
I tell my vendors that while I cannot afford a new piece of equipment this year, I can pay for it in five years by setting money aside. Where does this money come from? Lots of sources – and that is key: tap various areas of the church’s finances in order to pay for the various projects. Finding different pools of money to do things will let you do more. Here are some examples:

Use the church’s reserve funds for things that are needed. That’s what the reserve funds are there for. Don’t deplete the reserve funds, but also don’t let those funds just sit there when they can be used for immediate and/or pressing needs. If necessary for a big project, tap the entire reserve fund with the understanding that the money will be put back if the church ends the fiscal year in the black.
If the church ends the fiscal year in the black AND it has fully funded the reserve accounts it needs, then use the excess to pay for capital needs. Make sure that the governing body of the church authorizes this expenditure and as often as possible, let the congregants know about this project and how it was paid for out of their generous gifts to the budget.
The church’s foundation was asked for money for the renovation (complete gutting) of the oldest bathrooms in the church. The foundation was informed that the total need is $100,000 and they would be approached five years in a row for $20,000 each year to do this work. The foundation agreed to fund this.
The gym needed new equipment. The need was made known to parents during Upward Basketball games and over the course of about 9 months, over $12,000 was received for this need. This money came from people outside the church so these gifts didn’t affect the church’s budget receipts – this was “gravy money” which we would not have received otherwise.
Talk about specific needs with various members of the church who you know have the gift of generosity. Twenty years ago a family donated funds to enhance a room in memory of a loved one. The room is increasingly out of date and needs some re-touching. I approached the family and they are more than willing to underwrite the cost of renovations to this room. In fact, I gave the family a ballpark of how much this would cost and they said that money is not a hinderance. They are a wonderful family and example of generosity.

In summary, keep a list (with lots of input), check it twice and thrice, find the money from lots of different pockets, spend the money while you tell people what you’re doing and why, and say “thank you” lots of different ways.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, buildings, church administration, church finances, church financial statements, facilities, leadership Tagged: budget, buildings, church administration, church finances, church financial statements, facilities, leadership

The Shadow

Posted on August 4, 2011 Written by Steve Law

Going to conferences is fun – you get to travel, stay in nice hotels (with comfy beds, hopefully), eat out, and meet old and new friends. I like going to conferences – I plan to continue to go to conferences. However, conferences lack something – that personal touch.

Many times a year I’m asked, “Can you tell me in the next few minutes what a church administrator does?” I appreciate their interest so I figure that if they are really interested, they will want to learn. I make them an offer – come spend a day (in whole or part) with me: follow me around, sit in on my meetings, watch me answer email and handle personnel matters, read my financial statements, etc. In short, be my shadow and learn from the inside out what it is like to be an administrator. A few people respond positively, others say, “No thanks.” Those who shadow me leave at the end of the day with eyes wide open and a new appreciation. I’ve even had my finance committee chair shadow me – and come back for a repeat!

Church staff/leaders have a lot to offer and I wish we’d share more of this knowledge with each other. Sharing material in conferences is great but there is nothing like visiting a colleague’s church and shadowing someone for a day and seeing “what it’s really like.”

I’d like to propose that church leaders be intentional about being both a shadow and a shadow-caster:

· Shadow-casters: these would be leaders who are willing to give a day or two a year to being shadowed. There is no agenda – they just meet the shadow at the agreed upon date and time and then let the person sit in on all that happens. If there is a confidential situation, the shadow can be excused.

· Shadows: these are leaders, both staff and lay members, who want to shadow other church leaders. These church staff leaders may want to learn the “best practices” at another church. It could be someone interested in this field as a career opportunity and wants to learn about this career from the inside before embarking on it. It may be a lay member who wants (and needs) to learn more about what the professional minister does each day. We can all learn from each other – more than we think we can!

This year I’m taking some conference time and shadowing some counterparts in different cities. As long as I’ve been doing this, I know that I can learn from others especially if I am sitting as close to their shoes as possible. I’m looking forward to being a shadow; I’ve been a shadow-caster almost a dozen times so it’s time for me to be a shadow.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: church staff, leadership Tagged: church staff, leadership

Training and Conferences

Posted on July 31, 2011 Written by Steve Law

Training is underrated in most church office venues. I think that most churches don’t want to spend the money on doing the training when it is incredibly beneficial. Every year I attend a national conference of my peers and I learn so much at each one even though I’ve been doing this work for over 15 years. Sometimes what I learn re-enforces what I already know, but that is a good feeling, too.

Ministers and other management staff need to go to at least one training conference a year. If for nothing else, it is good for their morale to get out of the office and to hang around peers. Usually money is budgeted for these positions so the people can go if they’ll only make it a priority. It is up to the supervisor to make the subordinate attend a conference – too many say they can’t fit it into their schedule. Everyone has excuses, just find the time to go!

Administrative Assistants (Admins) are on the low end of the totem pole and rarely are they included in a training budget. That is wrong. I work with about a dozen ladies – all of whom are very committed to their work and to the church. They are consummate professionals – very skilled at what they do and anxious to do it right, the first time.

When I came to my current church, I was told that the church database was insufficient for the church’s needs and that one of my priorities was to get new software. I had used that software for over 10 years so I knew what it could and couldn’t do. What I soon learned is that the Admins were not knowledgeable about the software. I began to remedy that immediately.

First, I brought in an expert to lead all-day classes for the ladies. We set aside time and they brought in questions. It cost me about $1,000 for the consultant and for the lunches. I probably recouped that money within three months – what the Admins learned they implemented immediately and they became more productive and efficient.

The second year, I brought in the same consultant for a half-day training session. After lunch, the consultant spent about 30 minutes in the cubicle of each person addressing her needs and concerns. The third year, I brought the consultant again. By now the ladies were pretty knowledgeable about the software and the complaints from the ministers and managers had diminished but I knew the ladies wanted to know more. This time, the consultant spent 45-60 minutes with each person – there weren’t classes for everyone, just individual sessions. After the consultant left, I met with the Admins and they drafted a series of documents to help new Admins and as “cheat-sheets” for the current Admins.

Finally, for the past several years I’ve sent at least two Admins to a national conference. These two get to spend a week out of the office in a nice hotel with company-paid meals and travel (that is a huge morale booster for them). They hang around other Admins for the week and get to know the software developers and technicians – now when the Admins call for help, they can put a face with the name. It does cost about $3,000 to do this each year but that money is recouped within six months in efficiency, effectiveness, shared knowledge with the other Admins, and morale.

A side benefit to all this is that the turnover of the Admins has been pretty low (less than the ministerial staff turnover). Every year they talk about who is going and they pretty much self-select – I don’t have to make the choices. They are a wonderful group of Admins who can now do just about anything on the software – there are no complaints about what the software can or cannot do. The Admins know it all!

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: church administration, church staff Tagged: church administration, church staff

Categories