Can (or should) ALL staff members really help the church reach out?--Effective Staffing for Vital Churches

[James Nored]

A book which I am reading through right now and am starting to blog through is Effective Staffing for Vital Churches by Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian. It is, essentially, a staffing book for missional churches.

The book begins with a number of stats that for missional leaders are by now well know. Actual weekly church attendance in the US is now about 17 percent. Thirty-two percent of 18-30 year olds now profess NO religious affiliation. And yet, sadly, many churches think that they can do what they have done in the past and the church will grow. In most cases, it will not. The world has changed, and that pace of change is quickly accelerating.

This means that the church must rethink and reexamine many of its practices and emphases to see if they are effective or outdated. This includes thinking about church staffing. The authors make these points about staffing:

1. Every staff person assists in equipping and sending people out into the mission field to be backyard missionaries.
2. The primary role of staff is to create a culture of transformation that produces disciples and leaders.
3. Staff functions as scouts and coaches rather than doers of ministry.
4. Each staff person does their share of generating both personal and numerical congregational growth.

It used to be that most churches would staff "internally," and they might have a minister with an "external," outreach focus. Now, however, all staff members must think outwardly and help the church reach out to the community. This understanding, of course, flows naturally out of a missional theology, which sees the church as being fundamentally on mission, rather than mission being one out of many ministries of the church. But it is counter to how most churches have staffed.

The authors say that in a church of 500+ "it takes only one unaligned staff person to derail the entire progress of the church." Of course, in a smaller churches, if there are only one or two ministers and they do not have this focus, the church will never reach out. But their point is that in mid-size churches, as the staff grows, every staff members needs to fit into this focus and understanding or the church's mission can get derailed, particularly is there is not a strong lead minister position to keep things on track.

Now, this does not mean that every staff member needs to have the gifts of missional leadership or evangelism. But it does mean that they need to understand and buy into the idea that mission is at the heart of the church's purpose, and that they are willing to work within their ministries to support this goal. So how does this work?

• The lead minister/preaching minister should:
  1) keep this focus before the church and the entire staff, educating leaders and members;
  2) preach to both a churched and unchurched audience in a way that both can relate, as well as coordinate these messages with the entire worship experience;
  3) inspire church members to reach out and serve, which includes both spoken messages and personal modeling, as well as practical application that people can implement; and
  4) as the chief storyteller of the congregation, share back these stories of outreach and service to provide a positive feedback loop.
• The worship minister should:
  1) keep the church current in worship songs and styles and communication methods (e.g., powerful use of video),
  2) coordinate the worship elements with the lead minister's preaching message/theme for that Sunday, so that the message is both heard and experienced and churched and unchurched people leave with a clear understanding of the message
  3) make the entire worship environment welcoming to the unchurched
  4) move worship out to the community--such as parks, coffee shops, et.c--particularly using music to draw people to Christ
• The spiritual formation (and small groups) minister should:
  1) include sharing one's faith and service to the unchurched as a part of spiritual formation
  2) realize that spiritual formation involves much more than classroom teaching and learning, and offer "hands on" learning opportunities--which can include outreach and service to the community
  3) make evangelism and missional teaching and training a regular part of the church's curriculum and small groups, and make sure that this teaching and training is integrated throughout the curriculum and small groups
  4) have specially dedicated small groups that are specifically outward focused in nature
• The youth minister should:
  1) make mission trips--both local and foreign--a regular part of the spiritual formation of the youth
  2) encourage teens to use their strong social connections to share their faith
  3) design youth events that are easy for teens to invite their friends to and encourage teens to invite them to these events
  4) regularly teach evangelistic Bible studies for teens and their parents
• The children's minister should:
  1) help the church adopt a local school to serve
  2) always be looking for the unchurched to show up and gear things towards the unchurched (if you do not expect them to ever come, you will not be ready for them when they do)
  3) help families learn how to reach out with their children's social circles (sports, extra-curricular activities, neighborhood friends) and encourage them to invite the unchurched into home settings, church events, and worship
  4) make outreach through service (i.e. singing at nursing homes, packing the food pantry, etc.) a regular part of the children's ministry
  5) take things such as VBS out to the community
• The administrative assistants and administrative staff should:
  1) provide administrative assistance to the ministers and church to all of the above
  2) help the church track not only members, but unchurched visitors, people in the community who come into contact with the church, etc.
  3) incorporate direct outreach and service into part of their weekly service (for instance, one of our administrative assistants/secretaries now runs our food pantry ministry, which is open for two hours each week)
  4) help synergize the church's outreach efforts through assistance in coordination and alerting the staff to outreach opportunities
  5) always provide a loving, caring face or voice to the community when they call or visit

And all of these staff members can and should be engaged in prayer for the unchurched and the church's outreach to the community.

I like this quote from the authors: "Because people no longer come to church on their own, the church must spend most of its time, energy, and money filtering people out into the community." It takes every staff member to do this.

Imagine a mission team in which one of the five people is not onboard with the mission and does not help the team in its mission efforts. Even if a person is not the front line person in the team's mission efforts, he or she ought to be contributing to these efforts, praying for these efforts, and overall realize what the team is trying to do and helping the team in its mission.

 So, what are your thoughts? How else can different staff members help the church reach out to the community?

[Chancellor C. Roberts II]

To Lynn Nored: Chancellor is my first name; I don't have a title.  You wrote, "Inherently, the designation of "staff" is nothing more than the recognition of  certain "servants"  or "ministers" or "elders" or "evangelists" or "teachers" or "pasters" or ......  I.E. this is just a modern language recognition of a group of servants--in this case full time paid servants ( as Paul indicates a servant is worthy of his hire)."  I'm sure you'd like to believe that, but the way it appears to be working in churches suggests otherwise - that these people are elevated above and separated from the people who are not "staff."  Here in Buffalo, for example, there's a local church pastor with a fairly large congregation who boasts of running his church like a business.  And while it's true that Paul did argue in favor of people who communicate the gospel making their living from the gospel, I'm sure he was referring to those who are out there communicating the gospel, not people who are sitting in an office doing clerical work.  Besides, he made it a point to also state that he didn't avail himself of the right to make his living off those to whom he was sent.

 

To Sandy Detherage: God's established design of the Church isn't subject to changing with the times and Paul stopped preaching in synagogues when he turned to the Gentiles.  Reaching people outside the Church has nothing to do with God's design for the Church.

 

To James Nored: yes, leaders in the Church (pastors, elders) are ordained by God to oversee those He has placed into their care.  It is a biblical concept, as is receiving financial benefit from those one is reaching with the gospel (which is what Paul was arguing when he made it a point to say that he chose not to avail himself of that right).

[Lynn S. Nored]

My thoughts on the Staffing Blog:  As stated below, I have the book as well.  One thing I believe that is left off is the affirmative or destructive role of the eldership.  Just as ONE staff member can derail missional thrusts, one elder can do so as well.  Unfortunately,that seems to be the norm-- i.e. in the search for conformity elderships defer to the negative individuals among them.  As documented in the book Five Dysfunctions of a Team  by Patrick Lencioni, operating by consensus indicates a dysfunctional team.   I would also postulate that the pursuit of "unity" within a congregation at the expense of the fundamental mission of the church is a false trade-off.  

[Lynn S. Nored]

To Chancellor Carlyle Roberts:   I have read your profile and the information about the church ( congregation) you are a member of,  I am a little confused about the title "Chancellor" as I saw no school ( normally having chancellor's associated with them).  I note you seem to be going to Cameroon.  My former business/seminar partner was from Cameroon.  

Regarding your comments on "staff":  I would agree that the designation of "staff" vs "members" can, but not necessarily does, lead to a lack of understanding of the obligations of all members to use their spiritual gifts ( which from your churches website I believe you also agree they have) in service to others.  This, I believe, depends on the attitude and actions of the leadership in the congregation --including the "staff".  Inherently, the designation of "staff" is nothing more than the recognition of  certain "servants"  or "ministers" or "elders" or "evangelists" or "teachers" or "pasters" or ......  I.E. this is just a modern language recognition of a group of servants--in this case full time paid servants ( as Paul indicates a servant is worthy of his hire).   Can this create an artificial and unbiblical division, of course it can.  By the same token, the elevation of "elders" or "pastors"  or "bishops" to unbiblical roles can be abused as well.  The use of the term "staff" does not within itself mean a "business" model--- though it could be abused as such.  Just my opinion for your consideration

 

[James Nored]

Chancellor, thank you for your thoughts. Certainly we must fight against having a business mentality in the church.Language is important, I agree. Maybe staff is a word that implies a business mindset. However, having leaders in the church is a biblical concept. And having people who receive pay for ministry is also a biblical concept.

[Sandy Detherage]

I suppose that if we didn’t adapt our style of evangelism and ministry to an appropriate time and culture, we would be seeking to teach in the local synagogues. This could present a real challenge in some parts of the world! However, if we are living what we truly believe, our model and our words will be both contemporary and effective.

While the authors of the book understand that the staff of the local church are to equip the membership for service, it might be interesting to see what the members perceive about the role(s) of the staff. 

[Chancellor C. Roberts II]

That you refer to church "staff" suggests the church being modeled after a business or business-like organization (e.g. a non-profit) and not as the body and family that God established when He established the Church.  Just like the evil that is the separation between "laity" and "clergy" (the doctrine of the Nicolaitans), having "staff" and, what, "not staff" brings further separation.  God established the Church as a whole to be the body of Christ, to be the family of God, not to be some sort of business that services clients or customers.