Sabbaticals and Jubilee Years for Churches?

Posted on June 24, 2014 Written by

In Leviticus 25, Moses receives farming instructions from God:

‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord.”

A few verses later, “Count off seven Sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.”

For years 49 and 50, Israelites were not allowed to sow or reap – the land was to lie fallow. The 50th year was celebratory year: all debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, etc. It was a year to remember and it usually happened once in a person’s life.

What if churches had Sabbath Years and Jubilee Years?

What if every seventh year a church:

  • Seriously evaluated every current program and completely overhauled it to set it up for the next six years. A church probably can’t totally stop every program for a year, but they can embark on a year-long study and serious assessment to determine if the program should continue or not.
  • Discerned what are the goals for the next six years and created new programs to meet those goals.
  • Visited other churches and non-profits to learn from what they are doing successfully and unsuccessfully to see if and how those ideas can be implemented in their own church.
  • Determined if its missions activities were successful and if it its missions funds (even the funds given to the denomination) were used for their maximum good.

What if every 25th year (a half-jubilee) a church:

  • Did an analysis of its staffing needs and current staff in order to implement a strategic blueprint to guide the church for the next generation (every 25 years) – that is a “half-jubilee” timeframe

What if every 50th year a church:

  • Studied its current facilities to determine

o   Whether the church needs to be in its current location or move to a new location

o   Whether the church needs to update or even gut and redo the current buildings

o   Whether the church needs to tear down its existing structures and/or build new facilities

This concept means the church intentionally designs and redesigns its resources (programming, staffing, and buildings) to meet the needs of the current and next generation(s). It follows a (biblical) model of intentionally evaluating why it is doing what it is doing and then decide what it needs for the next few years. Instead of just “keeping on keeping on” this makes the church really pray and study about what it wants to do going forward.

As to what date you start with, why not use the church’s year of origin as the basis?

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church staff, strategy, wisdom Tagged: , ,

Overtime Law

Posted on June 10, 2014 Written by

The US Department of Labor says that employees are classified as exempt from overtime (cannot get OT) or non-exempt (are eligible for OT). Exempt employees are classified as such because they earn over a certain amount AND have decision-making authority for the organization. Non-exempt employees “must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.”

What if a person uses sick and/or vacation time that pushes the total weekly hours to over 40, does OT come into play? For instance:

  • A custodian is sick Monday and Tuesday for a total of 16 hours
  • To catch up, the custodian works Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 10 hours each day for a total of 30 hours
  • The employee has a total of 46 hours to be paid: 16 sick + 30 on the clock
  • Does the organization pay the custodian for
    • 40 hours at regular time plus 6 at overtime? Or
    • 46 hours at regular (because he didn’t “work” 16 hours)?

The Fair Labor Standards Act says the custodian would be paid 46 regular hours because he’s only owed overtime for hours worked. Some companies will even allow an employee to get 40 hours pay and keep the remaining 6 hours in a Paid Time Office (PTO) bank. That may or may not appeal to the employee or employer. Some people value time off more than an extra big paycheck one week.

I asked this question of Suzanne Lucas who runs www.evilHRlady.org which is a very helpful and informative website. Suzanne was extremely prompt with an answer. When you have personnel or human resource (HR) questions, do some research on this website and even ask Suzanne for help. She’s good!
Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: church staff Tagged:

Your Debris Field

Posted on June 3, 2014 Written by

In June 2011 I went with a church group to Oneonta, Alabama. In April, just two months before, a massive tornado system decimated homes and lives throughout north central Alabama. Our goal was to frame up a house in one week and we did, even though it was the hottest June they’d had in years. One afternoon I walked downwind from the house into the debris field. Pine trees were snapped or bent over and hardwoods were uprooted. And all over the place was the debris of a family’s lives: pictures, shoes, a baby blanket, papers, parts of a trailer, a dish rack, sofa cushions, and thousands of bits of a home and house. It was terrifying to see what the wind could do in a matter of minutes and I can’t imagine what it was like to live through it.

I’ve lived long enough to be able to look back and see what I have done in my life. I have hundreds of friends literally around the world; I’ve traveled to dozens of countries; learned millions of facts (too many of which I share without invitation); and have a beautiful family. In essence, I can see the good and bad of what I’ve left in my own personal debris field. I know I’ve left some hurt along the way; I want to believe that whenever I’ve plowed through someone, that I’ve taken the time to return and seek forgiveness. I’ve probably not been as successful in that as I think I have. I do know that I’ve hope I’ve left some joy back there, too. I prefer to reflect on that part of my debris field – where I’ve helped and not hurt.

As you go through life, pause long enough to look at your own debris field. What is littered in your wake? Are there torn up lives and people who are hurting more because you passed by? Do you see people who remember you fondly and joyfully? We can’t have a positive impact with every person every day, but there should be an abundance of positive results after you’ve passed by so that people will say you enriched their lives. Aim for good things to be the legacy seen in your debris field.

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church staff, generosity, wisdom Tagged: , ,

When Should a Pastor Search Team Disband?

Posted on April 15, 2014 Written by

Pastor-Search Committees have a very hard job. In just a few months, they are charged with

  • going through the five stages of grief as the pastor leaves (even when it is a contentious departure, people still grieve a loss)
  • determine what is the current culture of the church
  • decide what are some of the future paths the church can take
  • solicit names of potential leaders and research those prospective pastors
  • work with other church leaders such as the personnel and finance teams to ensure there are sufficient funds and a fit with the existing staff
  • promote the final candidate to the church and to the current staff
  • coordinate the vote and install the new pastor

At this point, most pastor-search committees are exhausted. This has taken about 18-24 months of monthly or even bi-weekly meetings. The members have given up family time, their jobs may have suffered, and certainly there have been jabs and barbs from church members second-guessing the decisions of the committee. Many, if not most, committee members want nothing more than to be done with the pastor-search committee.

But their work isn’t done. In fact, it won’t be done until the pastor they helped bring to the church departs. Pastor-Search Committees have a very difficult short-time responsibility but they have a critical long-term role.

Pastor-Search Teams need to stay together and continue to work with the pastor. They need to meet at least semi-annually with the pastor to provide him or her feedback about the status of the church and what the “person in the pew” is saying. The committee needs to know what the church leadership is saying about the direction of the church and its leader and then they need to share that in an honest way with each other and the pastor. In fact, the Personnel Committee should charge the Pastor-Search Committee with doing the pastor’s annual evaluation.

No one at the church knows the new pastor better than the search committee – they’ve known him longer and they know the reasons they felt he or she was a match with their church. The search committee has a duty to both the church and the pastor to help the new pastor be a success and they have a vital role in his leadership. Pastor-Search Committee members were selected for their position because they are typically highly respected lay leaders with a lot of experience and influence. They must leverage their position to help the pastor succeed and chart the course for the church for the next generation.

When church members begin to gripe about the new pastor, the search committee must step up and be his or her advocate. That doesn’t mean they have to defend everything the new pastor wants, but they shouldn’t denigrate the pastor publicly, either. Instead, they can bring concerns to him or her at their next semi-annual meeting and together craft a way to address valid problems in a win/win scenario. The pastorate is an incredibly lonely position and one in which people want to tell him or her only good things. All leaders need constructive and forward-looking feedback. In a church, that responsibility is on the Pastor-Search Committee for the length of the pastor’s time with that church.

Over time, especially for long-tenured pastors, some search committee members will leave the church through moving or death. But the original search team should stay together and not recruit any replacements. The last two jobs a Pastor-Search Committee have is

  • To plan a departure event of the pastor when he or she leaves whether it is due to retirement, resignation, or even death. A nice symbolic gesture at the farewell is for the committee to receive the “mantle” from the departing pastor and then give that mantle to the next Search Committee who will pass it on to the next pastor.
  • Finally, the search committee must meet with the next Pastor-Search Committee and give them suggestions and ideas of how they failed and succeeded so that the next search committee and pastor can succeed even more.

Lead On!

Steve

 

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

Interim Executive Administrator

Posted on April 1, 2014 Written by

When a pastor leaves a mid-size or larger church, the pastor vacates three critical roles (and a myriad of smaller ones): the primary preacher, the chief of staff, and the staff person who coordinates the decision-making bodies of the church. Below is a description of the reality and non-traditional solution for churches whose pastors leave.

Reality

  • A mid-size to larger church will have 18-24 months without a senior pastor before the next one comes
  • The current staff needs to remain focused on their primary areas using their skill sets without the distraction of meetings outside their respective competencies
  • The church will experience a vacuum of someone who can coordinate and administer the church governance and personnel due to the absence of a senior pastor

Concept

  • The church hires an Executive Administrator (the title is flexible) whose focuses on
    • Working with decision-making teams
      • Church business meetings
      • Coordinating Council
      • Personnel and Finance Teams
      • Pastor Search Team
      • Other teams as necessary
  • Communicating, coordinating with, and leading campus staff members
  • Assisting, as needed, with Pulpit Supply Committee to find speakers
    • The traditional model is to find someone who will speak every Sunday during the interim
    • Alternative solution – to get speakers for three months at a time. That lets the church see a variety of styles and people. It also prevents the church from “falling in love” with their interim and asking him or her to be the permanent pastor.
    • The role of the Executive Administrator is to help the church resolve any lingering baggage from the previous pastor and help the church leadership set the stage for the next pastor. The goal is to set up the next pastor for success.
    • The church must have a point person who, “in the meantime” can make or at least suggest tough decisions. Otherwise, the current staff will be inundated with requests for which they are unprepared.
    • This person must have experience in working with large churches, multiple decision-making teams/committees, and finance and personnel management. Business experience is valuable but non-profits use the legislative process more than executive directives (source: Jim Collins).
    • This person will not be a Sunday pulpit person since those roles should be filled by interim preachers and existing staff. This person will work with decision-making groups. Together they will keep the church informed regularly and invite church members to provide their input and attend meetings as they wish.

Coordination

  • The last verse of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
  • The church does not need a king, but it does someone to lead the staff and who can work with the church leadership so that the church and staff work together to achieve goals together instead of each person doing what they want to do.
  • The departure of a pastor puts the church at its own crossroads – there are multiple paths from which to proceed, even backwards. The church needs someone with knowledge of churches and their inner workings but who can also help the church leadership determine what is needed in their context to help the next pastor and the church grow for the next generation.

Lead On!

Steve

 

 

Filed Under: church staff, strategy, wisdom Tagged: , ,

You Can’t Do It All

Posted on December 17, 2013 Written by

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

Acts 3:1-8

Many ministers feel they have to do everything they possibly can to take care of the needs of the people in their church. It is a mindset that frequently leads to ministry burnout. It also leads, falsely, to members thinking that every problem they have should be dealt with by their pastor.

In Acts 3, Peter and John enter the Temple in Jerusalem and encounter a man who has been lame for several decades. He positioned himself in the best location possible to ply on the emotions of people so they’d give him some money. The best place to do that was the Temple – so those coming to seek God’s favor could demonstrate to everyone including God how good they are.

Jesus went to the Temple a lot; like all good Jews, he was at the Temple every Passover and he most certainly passed by this lame guy. But Jesus never healed him. Wait a minute! Jesus didn’t take the initiative to heal this guy and take care of this need? Why?

We don’t know for sure: some will say that Jesus was “leaving it for Peter” or that the guy never expressed an interest in being healed or some other reason. The interesting thing to me is that not even Jesus got around to doing every single thing that he was capable of doing – he didn’t feel every hungry person, he didn’t heal every sick person, he didn’t remove every demon, etc. Jesus left many, many things undone.

And if Jesus with all of his God-power didn’t do everything while he was on earth, then who are we, mere humans, to think that we can do everything? We can’t and we shouldn’t think we can. We’re going to leave a lot undone, and that is just fine. Ministers should never feel guilty about not doing everything; instead, ministers should do the most important things in front of them.

Just as Jesus prioritized the critical things he needed to accomplish, ministers must do the same. The things that a minister cannot do should be left for others or even left undone. Focus on what is most important, just like Jesus did.

Lead On!

Steve

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

Advice for Experienced Leaders

Posted on November 12, 2013 Written by
  • Value Training, Be a Mentor  New and young leaders need someone to teach them how to be a wise and good leader. Experienced leaders must share their knowledge, experience, and expertise with the next generation. And the best way to do this is one on one (same gender to same gender, too, lest there be any mixed signals). Be intentional about finding, mentoring, and developing future leaders. Your investment of time and skill will return benefits for decades, perhaps forever, as your mentee becomes a mentor later. And, when you’re almost finished with one young leader, find another one and keep it going.
  • Employee Evaluation  Employee evaluations should be done every time an employee meets with his or her supervisors, as every employee should know every day what their employment status is. The annual evaluation time is merely to fill out paperwork, not to go into in-depth evaluations. Employees who do not know what their status is may feel a Damocles Sword hanging over their heads and thus might not be as productive as they could be because they’re wondering when or if they’ll be terminated. Keep your staff informed, and let them know each month when you meet with them how they are doing.
  • Set the Stage for the Next Generation  Over the years your organization has taken on your personality traits; that is a truism in business. However, these ruts and routines created by you will probably not be helpful to your successor who, frankly, needs to create his or her own. As you end your career, you need to be intentional about who is on key committees, what processes are being done “because the boss wants it” (and not because it helps the company per se), what “minefields” need to be cleared out so your successor doesn’t wander into them, and what personnel need to be moved on so they are not a headache to the next leader. Set up your successor for success; clear the launch platform of unnecessary things so the next leader can shoot for the stars.
  • Make Stakeholders Uncomfortable  For the most part, stakeholders in organizations want things to continue in the same ways so that their personal investment is not threatened but is instead honored. Stakeholders may be current or former employees, board members, longtime customers or vendors, major and minor donors, etc. Organizations cannot live in the status quo, and going forward often involves risks. It is up to the leader (hence the term “leader”) to nudge or even shove the organization and its stakeholders forward. Experienced leaders know the key stakeholders and will work with them to move everyone forward so that the organization doesn’t die from valuing the status quo over progress.
  • Foment Wealth-Sharing  You have tremendous experience and knowledge. Do not hoard that; share it with your community by serving on non-profit boards, volunteering in community-based organizations, and helping your church. You are responsible for leaving your neighborhood, church, and city better off than you found it. You stood on other people’s shoulders in order to achieve your status as a leader – you need to pay it forward by helping your community and its leaders be even better than where they are now. AND, you must challenge, prod, and encourage other leaders to do the same. You are rich in life – share the wealth!
  • Teach Wise Risk-Taking  Risk-taking is part of business, but it is not intuitive because everyone wants their “risks” to be certain successes. Experienced leaders know that failure is part of risk, but failures can minimized by taking “wise risks.” That involves asking lots of questions, doing an incredible amount of due diligence, and training people well. Risks are a necessary part of leadership – not taking risks means the person in charge is managing, not leading. Risks should be done strategically so that the “win” is clearly defined. AND, when the risk turns to failure, wise leaders know when to stop the venture cut the losses. Experienced leaders must teach the next generation how to take wise risks.

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church staff, future, leadership, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , , , , ,

Tools for Your Staff

Posted on November 5, 2013 Written by

One of my favorite sayings is that all staff members need proper tools to do the jobs you’ve asked them to do. And then I follow up by saying that if I don’t give you the tools to do a job, shame on me. But if I do give you the tools and you don’t do it, then we’re going to have a serious talk about your future.

What are the tools that a staff person needs? Actually there are lots of them, but let me try to hit the top few:

  • Time
    • A staff person must know how long they’ve got to do a job
    • They need your time to meet with them so they know what to do
  • Knowledge
    • Staff members need to come with basic skills to do a job
    • They need to come with an attitude of being willing to learn new skills
  • Money
    • Staff members need a budget to do their job
    • They need to know the organization as a whole has sufficient funds to keep going so that they are not distracted by whether or not the organization will fold
  • Job Description
    • All staff need to know what their job is in clearly defined terms
    • The job description is also the standard by which their performance will be measured
  • Praise and Criticism
    • All staff need to hear positive things about their work, because those kind words go a long way in helping people feel good about themselves and their role in the organization
    • All staff need to hear some constructive criticism so they realize they have room to improve and stretch; the criticism should never be demeaning but must be a way to push the employee beyond where he or she is now
  • Challenges
    • Humans get into ruts all the time, but that isn’t good or healthy because you can’t see very far when you’re in a rut – the routine becomes the norm
    • Goals which are just beyond our grasp are good ways of making employees push and reach just a little farther than they thought they could

Give your staff the tools they need and in turn, watch them flourish. Nurture that growth and you’ll be impressed and amazed at what they can do. They might even grow so much you’ll need to promote them, and that is an excellent thing!

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: church staff, leadership, strategy, wisdom Tagged: , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »