When a Pastor Leaves

Posted on November 4, 2014 Written by

A pastor will typically serve three to eight churches in his or her career. Coming to a new job is usually filled with joy and excitement but often the departure is tinged with disappointment and even legal threats. In our litigious society, and now with a propensity for retroactive lawsuits, what should a pastor and the church do to ensure there isn’t any lingering ill will so that the pastor can leave well and to protect all sides from frivolous accusations after the separation?

Here is a list of issues to be settled. I strongly suggest getting the answers to all these in a written document which both sides sign and keep. The church should place its copy in the minister’s personnel file.

  • Who owns the books/materials the pastor purchased using church continuing education money while he was the pastor? Can the pastor take those with him or is the church requiring him/her to leave them?
  • Who owns the sermons and other published material he wrote on church time, church computers, and using church staff for research? All material produced by the pastor using church time and resources (office, computer, paper, etc.) belong to the church – the pastor needs to get the church to release those docs.
  • Who will conduct an exit interview so the pastor can tell someone what are some things that need to be done to help his/her successor be set up for success?
  • Who will the pastor give the annual personnel review files to since these contain confidential info?
  • Who will the pastor tell of confidential information he/she knows which involve current members/attendees of the church and that someone must know for the health/safety of the church and its members?
  • A release from ministerial negligence is not legally possible, but the church can pay for the pastor to visit a lawyer so the minister can share with the attorney any info which might jeopardize the church and/or the pastor in the future. Then let the attorney decide what action needs to be done. This conversation is “double protected” by the lawyer and ministerial confidentially understanding in the law.
  • The church can do an “exit background check” to ensure that nothing has occurred recently that they are not aware of. Churches do a background check when a staff person comes but they should also do one when a key staff person leaves.
  • For some staff positions, the church and minister should have a financial/credit background check so that if there is some major debt, the church will learn about it. That debt might have caused him or her to leave because he or she was embezzling to cover the debt.
  • Are there any discrimination issues related to his or her supervision? This can be uncovered through an interview by a member of the personnel team or attorney with each of the pastor’s direct reports to determine if there are any potential issues.
  • What are the specific details and considerations of a severance package, disclosure of that package, what happens if the pastor gets a new job while he is still receiving benefits from that package, etc.?
  • Do you have a release for all financial transactions: personal loans, unreimbursed business expense, credit card payments, perhaps a loan for down payment on house purchase, etc.?

The personnel file of the departing minister must be kept by the church for at least three years (legal requirement) but 10-15 years after the employee leaves is better. That ensures the church has a written record of what happened when the minister was on staff (by then memories have faded or are no longer as accurate about events as they used to be).

All sides need to protect themselves from useless accusations. Having these issues and questions answered allows both sides to separate with dignity.

 

Lead On!

Steve

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

Church Business Meetings (part 3 of 3)

Posted on October 14, 2014 Written by

This the third part on church business meetings. In the first section I talked about how to make the membership reports more engaging; the second post was about church programs and reporting how they use their resources, both financial and people, to carry out the church’s vision. This post will be on church decision-making and voting.

Decisions: most decisions should be made at committee levels, since they have more time and information to get into the nuts and bolts of why a decision is necessary. For instance, financial decisions are the realm of the Finance Committee, decisions affecting the church’s staff are the responsibility of the Personnel Committee, etc. It is the duty of each committee to bring to the church a report (see part 2 in this blog series) detailing the actions and reasons. The committee can be asked questions, but the responsibility lies with the committee. If the church body at large disagrees with the committee, then the church body can vote to either replace the committee and/or overturn the committee’s action.

Decisions which affect the entire church body are the ones that should be intentionally brought before the entire church. This requires a lot of education of church members ahead of time. It usually means that information is shared at one meeting, time is built in for members to think about the decision and gain more knowledge, and then everyone comes back to a subsequent meeting for a vote. Asking members to show up at a meeting, get up to speed in 15 to 20 minutes and then vote is not reasonable. If a decision is important enough to be brought before the congregation, then it should be a deliberate decision and not a hasty one. Give people time and you’ll see the “wisdom of the crowds.”

Implementing all or parts of these recommendations will make church business meetings flow more smoothly, be more enjoyable, and lead to better actions by the church. Try to do one of these at a time and incorporate these ideas over a period of months, if not years, and then gauge the attitude toward business meetings.

 

Lead On!

Steve

 

 

Filed Under: church administration, future, leadership, planning, strategy Tagged: , , , ,

Church Business Meetings (part 2 of 3)

Posted on October 7, 2014 Written by

This the second part on church business meetings and how they should change. The reason for the change is so the members and guests see the church as dynamic, not as static and boring. I believe that business must be engaging and not merely a recitation of fact and figures. Business meetings should consist of stories of people and how the church is helping them. My first post focused on the membership report. This post will focus on the programming reports.

Reports: the church is about the business of helping people see how much God loves them. The most common way churches do this is through their programming and activities. But if you’re not involved in one of those areas, you probably don’t know what is going on. Why not use the church business meeting to share with the entire church all of the successes (and failures) of the past and the exciting things that are planned for the future?

When the church’s financial report is given, the treasurer interviews ministry leaders saying, “The church has given you X dollars; can you tell us how you’ve used that money?” Then, the ministry leader talks about what they did with the money using pictures, music, children and youth, other adults, and any resource he or she has. The treasurer presents financial information about each ministry area and uses that a lead-in to ask what is going on with that money.

By the end of the business meeting, attendees have seen and heard what their church is doing, who is involved, how much money has been spent and for what, and what is going to happen in the next few weeks and months. Everyone leaves the meetings having been informed about events outside their areas of interest.

At every meeting, the reports from the main ministry areas are a must: missions, age-level programming (adults, young adults, youth, and children), pastoral care, administration, fellowship, and worship (the five purposes of the church). Then, reports can be given by other ministry areas as there is need and time.

One caveat: all reports must be engaging and the treasurer/interviewer must be energetic in asking questions and encouraging the presenter to be enthusiastic. Reading dry reports should not be permitted; the church must be an exciting place to be and the reports must reflect that.

Next post: decision-making!

 

Lead On!

Steve

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

Publicly Available Financial Statements

Posted on August 19, 2014 Written by

Right outside the door to my Finance Office is a multi-tier tray in which I put several documents. This is part of my goal of complete financial transparency. Members (and non-members) can get any of these documents without having to ask for them and without being stopped or being asked why they want the information. Here is what I put in my financial information trays:

  • Latest Month’s Financial Statements

o   I always put out the most recent financial statements. While the church business meeting may only get a financial summary (in order to save paper), the document in this tray by the Finance Office is the same document which the Finance Committee gets. I put it out no later than the 15th of each subsequent month so that people can read current data.

  • Last Year’s Audit or completed financial statements

o   I’ve always had an annual audit, but some churches can’t afford an annual audit. If you have an annual audit, please put out copies of the complete audit so that people can read what an independent CPA wrote about the church’s finances. If you don’t have an annual audit, then put out the prior years’ complete financial statement (the document which has the information for all 12 months). People can look back at the prior year and compare it to the current year if they choose.

  • Other info: I also want to look forward, not just backward at financial information. To that end, I put out information which will help members be better Christians and give them ideas for being generous with their church.

o   Stewardship books: I make available two books which are free for the taking. The books are Fields of Gold by Andy Stanley and The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. These books are inexpensive, but they are powerful. I keep the rack stocked with these books and encourage people to take as many as they want.

o   Capital needs list: Every church has long-term, financially expensive needs. However, most churches do not have a way to let members know what needs to be done. I strongly encourage churches to post a list of their capital needs – ranging from relatively inexpensive items (chairs for the children’s area) to major items (new roof or A/C units). Keep your membership informed because at some point, the church will have to pay for these expenses and perhaps someone will see this list and take care of it before the church has to pay for it.

o   Other Items: You can use this to publish information about a current capital campaign, a long-term mission project, or other things that the church needs to be aware of.

Use this multi-tier tray to keep your members informed. It’s money they gave to their church, and providing transparency engenders your donors’ trust.

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: budget, church finances, church financial statements, leadership 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: , ,

Creativity Within Boundaries

Posted on March 25, 2014 Written by

In beginning: God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1:1

As a church administrator there is a certain order to this story of creation that warms my heart. There is a goal of conquering the chaos, there is organization to what must be done, there are daily tasks to be accomplished, there is a time of sitting back and admiring what’s been done (crossing it off the list, if you will), and then getting ready for the next day. There is good administration and organization to this job and I like that (I tease my colleagues that Genesis 1 proves that God loves church administrators the most because the first thing God did was get organized – they don’t laugh much).

But look at this story from another perspective: each day had specific things to be done but within those boundaries, there was a fantastic amount of creativity. This shows God’s balance between being right-brained (creative, artsy, subjective) and being left-brained (logical, analytical, objective), the creative and the logical. God established boundaries (left-brain) but within those boundaries, God was massively creative (right-brain). Humans tend to be either right- or left-brain oriented. Very, very few people are both (think Da Vinci as a rare crossover: artist and engineer).

Churches need to use:

  • volunteers who are creative and who are analytical
  • staff who think outside the box and those who are the guardians of tradition
  • people who bring new ideas to the table and those who retain institutional memory

As children learn to use crayons and markers, parents and teachers encourage them to stay within the lines but use whatever colors they want. Staying inside the lines helps with fine motor skills which children must develop but using a variety of colors helps add spice and variety to what is being done. Just as God worked within specific lines, churches must do the same – establish the boundaries and then be creative within those borders.

Churches must establish their boundaries: finances, space, leadership, location, and anything else that will be a constraint to them. No two churches have the same restrictions, but all churches have some limitations. Once a church has defined the lines within which it will work, then it must unleash all forms of creativity. “Blue sky” thinking should rule the day and when ideas bump up against the reality of the borders, then those ideas should come back to reality.

I don’t know how all of this is carried out. I do know that it is possible because I’ve seen some churches do this – they dreamed big, knew what they could and couldn’t do, and then accomplished some incredible feats for the Kingdom. So, be creative but always within the proper boundaries – just like God did.

Lead On!

Steve

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

Church Budgets: Top 10 List (part 1 of 2)

Posted on February 18, 2014 Written by

This week I am posting #1-#5 of the Top 10 considerations regarding church budgets. Stay tuned for the remainder of the list next week.

 

1. Why do you need a budget?

A budget is a tool – nothing more.

  • It is a yardstick to measure your progress toward planned goals.
  • The planned goals are the most important aspect of the budget, not the financial numbers.
  • The financial numbers are ONE indicator of how well the church is doing toward achieving these goals, but it is not the ONLY measurement.

Budgets must be developed holistically

What do we want to accomplish in our youth ministry, worship area, building maintenance, staffing needs, etc.?

How are we going to reach these goals using our resources?

  • People: staff, volunteers, and paid vendors
  • Money: from all sources, not just budget
  • Time: when do we plan to achieve these goals

Ideally, budgets look forward over several years, not just the next few months. The Budget Committee should always be looking at how the church’s finances need to be structured over the next several years.

 

2. What is the timeline for developing a church budget?

There are several elements to the process and each one has its own timeline. Some churches use all these elements and some use only a few. Determine what works best in your specific church’s culture.

Theme development

  • Churches that use a theme typically have a team working on this 7-8 months before the beginning of the new fiscal year.
  • Some churches have themes centered on the core aspects of church (worship, fellowship, missions, member care, and education) and promote each one every five years. This helps guide theme development.
  • The committee usually selects a verse, logo, tag line, and music which will help focus the church during the budget emphasis. Churches with a fiscal calendar year often use October as the budget emphasis time, and theme development is in April and May.

Committee budget work

  • Committees need 2-3 months to find times to meet and come up with goals (numeric and intangible) for their ministry areas for the few years.
  • Committees should have a leader (staff or lay member) who can make a presentation, if necessary, to the Budget Team.
  • Committee work is done 4-6 months before the new fiscal year.

Budget Committee coordination

  • It is up to the Budget Committee (sometimes a subset of the Finance Committee) to gather the info from the various working committees and compile it into a comprehensive budget.
  • Some Budget Committees want representatives from the various teams to make presentations to the Budget Committee so that they’ll more fully understand the why behind each of the numbers. These presentations can help this Budget Committee to be the most fully informed group of lay leaders about the wide variety of work being done by the church.
  • Budget Committee work is done 3-4 months before the new fiscal year.

Church-wide presentations and vote

  • Some churches have a month-long budget or stewardship emphasis to help people understand what makes up all these figures and why each person in the church is important to make all of it happen. Many churches will use every form of communication possible to inform members and get them involved.
  • If the church is on the fiscal calendar year, then these presentations are in October with a vote by mid-November (before Thanksgiving) so as not  to encroach on Advent.
  • Typically, this work is done 2-3 months before the new fiscal year.

Follow up

This is a continuous process during the fiscal year. People need to be reminded of how their money is being used and the good that it is doing. Take advantage of Sunday morning offering times to tell the stories of how lives are being changed due to the generosity of church donors.

 

3. Who needs to be involved in the process?

Early stages

  • In the early development of a budget, you need the informed leadership working on the budget. This usually means the informed leadership in each budget area meets to plan their goals and determine the resources they need to achieve those plans.
  • The Budget Committee (or designated sub-committee of the Finance Committee) does not have jurisdiction over the goals in the various ministry areas because they are not as fully informed about those areas as the respective committees are.

Middle stages

  • At some point in the development process, the many ministry committees should invite feedback from the people invested in each area.
  • For example, the Missions Committee should tell people interested in missions what the plans are and then ask them for their ideas about what is needed on future endeavors. Committees must never create budgets in a vacuum – seek input first from the leadership and then from the followship. The “wisdom of the crowds” is valid and insightful.

Later stages

Finally, the different components of the budget will become public and that is when as many people as possible should be aware of the budget (at a minimum) and invested in it. The more people that are “buying into” the budget and what it wants to do, the more successful all the areas of the budget will be.

 

4. Should you use pledge cards?

Some churches have used pledge cards for decades and will continue to use them. Some churches stopped using them; some of those members regret that decision and others do not.

Pledge cards have several purposes:

  • As a tool in setting the budget
  • As a way to challenge people to give more
  • To track how much people have given

Increasingly, younger generations do not want to commit to a figure they’ll give. They will give – and give generously – but they just don’t want to state how much they’ll give. There are so many variables in life (debts for school, home, car, credit card; kids; trips; business and home; etc.) that are hard to plan for.

If you use pledge cards, then have a clear, concise, consistent reason WHY you are using them.

  • Pledge cards should never be used as a tool to bully people into committing or giving – too often that is what pledge cards devolve to.
  • Like ALL aspects of church finances, pledge cards must be used in a positive way, such as encouraging people to be more generous (with their prayers, their time given to church activities, and their finances).

 

5. How do you estimate your annual income?

This is one of the hardest numbers to determine in financial budgeting.

Fiscal prudence suggests one or a combination of the following. A church should be able to do better in the future than it has in the past.

  • Use the past 12 months’ rolling figure of actual receipts
  • Use 90% of the past 12 months’ rolling figure of actual receipts
  • Use a spreadsheet formula to forecast the next 12 months’ income

These formulas are intentionally conservative. The church can use any “excess” for capital needs, additional staffing or programming needs, and/or to establish and replenish reserves.
Be financially conservative in your projections. You won’t regret it.

 

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

Rocket Scientists

Posted on January 7, 2014 Written by

Years ago I heard a story about a pastor who was ready to quit after just a few months at his new church. Every decision he made, every item in business meetings, and every issue in church council meetings was being questioned in detail. The lay leaders wanted to know every answer before they gave their approval. And the pastor didn’t have every answer –he knew that some answers would only come “somewhere down the road” and that wasn’t good enough for many of his key leaders. He was frustrated to the point of quitting and he expressed this to the monthly gathering of local pastors, a group with whom he could share his feelings and problems.

Some of them laughed at him which he didn’t appreciate. They asked him where these lay leaders worked who were “causing this trouble.” “At NASA, of course, and they are all rocket scientists,” was his answer. This was a “company town” in that the major employer in the county was NASA and yes, the lay leaders of every church in that city were, quite literally, rocket scientists.

Rocket scientists are a special breed of engineers. Engineers study the heck out of everything – they want to know the answer to problem and potential problem before they embark on actually carrying it out. Rocket scientists take it one step further because they know that they never get a “do over.” If something breaks in a factory, the engineer can go in with a team, find a solution, and fix the problem. That is usually not an option for rocket scientists – they’ve got to know and prevent every single problem that might even remotely happen before they even build the rocket. That is a phenomenal amount of planning. These rocket scientists were merely taking their training to their church’s finance, personnel, deacons’, and church council meetings. And the new pastor didn’t understand the background of his leaders.

After his colleagues helped him understand the dynamics of working in that city, the pastor had a long tenure there. He helped the leaders understand that in church work, you don’t know all the problems before you embark on a project and you certainly don’t have to have all the answers ahead of time. The leaders helped to pastor to be more organized in planning and assessing the failure or success of an activity. In short, they helped each other as they were making decisions.

The lesson for leaders is to understand who they are working with and the backgrounds each one brings to the table. Everyone has different gifts and those can be a huge asset to the organization if they are used correctly (or damaging if used improperly). Get to know your people and use their skills for the Kingdom.

(FYI: I’ve heard this story is true and attributed to a specific church but without confirmation, I prefer to leave it more as a parable than fact.)

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: leadership, wisdom Tagged: ,
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