25 March 2008
Management Training for Church Leaders
Management Training for Church Leaders.
The Christian Church is an organization of order and structure. Basic management principles apply. Here’s a short list of questions often asked of Your Business Blogger(R)
1. What does the church leader, the manager really do?
Plan, Lead, Organize, Control, Motivate. Or, as one wag once said to the new manager, “Welcome to the overhead.”
2. What does the individual contributor do?
The work. The individual does the hands-on work. Not the manager.
3. What gets the Pastor hired?
Henry Ford once said, “If you take all the experience and judgment of men over fifty out of the world, there wouldn’t be enough left to run it.”
Yes, the search committee had a list of KSA’s (knowledge – skills – abilities) to run the church. But Pastors are hired for their wisdom and judgment. Being over 50 implies a maturity perhaps not seen in a twenty something.
4. Can the church manager be a victim?
Many Church leaders feel this way – but the Pastor must have impact on his church and be able to persuade and influence outcomes. It is not good to be surprised.
5. What happens when the team/church staff is angry?
In the army the cliché was, “Take care of the troops and they will take care of you. And if you don’t care of the troops, they will take care of you – the troops always get even.”
6. Who are the church ‘constituents’ and ‘customers’?
This is the classic dilemma in the non-profit world – the disconnect between who gives and who gets. The constituents, who tithe in the pews, are not the customers, save for the recipients of charity from the deacons’ fund. The ‘customers’ probably are not members of the church.
In the civilian, for-profit kingdom, the customer pays and the customer gets the goods. The customer is the same as the constituent.
This poses unique challenges for the church management. The customer, the consumer of church charity is not the constituent.
7. When should the church leader raise his voice? – When should the church leader not take counsel?
When the sanctuary is on fire. And a fire-and-brimstone sermon, to be sure.
Emergencies are the few times that direct shouting is required. And maybe not even then if you’re Presbyterian…
In most instances the Pastors should make a moment to take council of the mature adivsors.
8. When is counsel, coun-‘sell’?
A council of advisors should ‘sell’ counsel, advice to the pastor. The pastor can buy the advice or not. Deciding to accept the recommendations or not – is the wisdom of mature management.
9. What is the most important concern for the church staff? The work/ministry, the people/congregation or the boss/Pastor?
The Pastor. (Staff and Pastors always get this wrong – staff thinks it has the answer and gives the wrong answer. Pastors know the right answer and give the wrong answer, out of embarrassment…)
10. Is office politics good or bad?
Politics is the normal interaction of people and power and position and process. Office politics – church politics is a tool to be acknowledged and used by church management.
11. Is it better for the church leader to have the answers, or the questions?
Neither. It is best for the church leader to have competent staff who anticipate questions, research alternatives and present recommendations. Why does the pastor have to think of everything? (I know, I know…I’m sorry to ask.)
“I have a quick question,” says the subordinate to the Pastor.
“It’s not the questions,” says the Pastor, “It’s the answers that take so long…”
The pastor’s first response to any subordinate’s question is, “I know you’ve prayed about this…what are your thoughts?”
The subordinate should bring not only questions, but suggested answers. The church leader can then grade the answers. The manager makes decisions on staffer’s recommendations.
12. How does the Pastor know when he is managing well?
The best church staff will bring a memo/course of action/decision that will require nothing more than the Pastor’s signature.
13. Does the Associate Pastor have the “right” to church resources?
Nope. The mere position of authority may or may not command compliance from the church bureaucracy. It has to be earned.
14. Who is the boss? Who is the subordinate? How can an observer tell the difference?
The military has the template. There is a term for a subordinate in the Army called, “Action Officer.” There is no doubt when the superior officer and staff work together, that the action remains with the Action Officer.
15. Is there a relationship between the time a manager ‘works’ and the results?
No. The manager should see himself, not just as the captain of a ship – but as the helmsman with a light touch on the rudder. Where the slightest movement, the smallest effort moves the rudder and can direct the largest vessel.
16. What is the Pastor responsible for?
All that his church does, or fails to do.
17. What makes for the best Associate Pastors?
Discipline – the Army’s definition: Prompt obedience to orders and the initiation of appropriate action in the absence of orders. Every Pastor’s dream.
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