Church Staff tend to be a varied group of people who are commited to serving the Church and Community. Some will be well trained, such as clergy and lay paid staff. Others will just be volunteers who give generously of their time and energy to the Church.

How does your Church communicate effectively with one another? The Church web site will typically provide email addresses, so you can use email. But there are also groupware tools that businesses use to communicate in teams. And video conferencing is also available online so even when people are spread out, they can still have a conversation together about the business of the Church. Take advantage of these tools, so you never have the situation of the “left hand does not tell the right hand” about what is going on.

Church Staff serve the congregation, so they are accountable to them. This means that in administrative matters, the staff will be held accountable. Of course, this can be taken to the extreme, where the staff are criticized for everything they do, right or wrong. Hopefully, in the Church, people have some appreciation for Grace! And staff are human beings, fallible and prone to mistakes.

Should staff have performance reviews like you find in companies? Those reviews are designed to be objective, measuring performance and how well the employee met their stated goals for the year. By setting those with a manager in advance, there is less room for emotional responses to some issue that popped up during the year. And the employee knows what is expected, besides showing up for work every workday. However, having been in numerous performance reviews over the years, they often seem rather sterile and perfunctory.

In the Church, reviews should be more of a reassessment of goals and objectives. Last year’s goals should be discussed honestly between staff and senior leadership. This could be the senior pastor, or an executive in charge of all programs. The goals should be evaluated to see how well they were met, and what could have been done better. This should be documented. And then new goals and objectives should be created for the new year. By taking this approach, the review becomes less about personalities and more about accomplishments. And the results can be summarized to the congregation so they know what was accomplished in the past year.

We expect a lot from our Senior Pastor. They are expected to be the best preacher in town, so the congregation will feel disappointed if they miss their sermon. They are expected to be a shining example of the faith, so others can follow. They are expected to always be caring and loving, so members can turn to them in times of crisis or need. They are expected to provide leadership to the Church as an organization, so that administrative matters are handled efficiently and effectively. All of that is tough to live up to. I know, I used to be a pastor.

The truth is that pastors are human beings, with all of the gifts, graces, anxieties, and troubles that others have. And leading a Church is a tough job. You don’t do it for the money; most Churches don’t pay that much. You don’t do it for the prestige; the local Church has lost a lot of its prestige in most cities. You do it because you feel called to it by Christ. And the Lord has blessed you with those gifts and graces, so you seek to use them to build up the Kingdom of God in this neighborhood. And you’re always mindful that you only have a little bit of time to do that. Others will follow, and you hope that they can build on what you accomplished.

In larger Churches, the Pastor is expected to lead the Staff as well as the Church. They need to get to know personally all of the staff members – even the custodians. Andy they need to be a source of encouragement to each Staff member in whatever responsibilities they are trying to carry out. The Pastor should pitch in and help when the staff gets overwhelmed. And they need to open doors when the staff needs to go in a new direction. In short, the Pastor needs to be a Servant Leader to both the staff and the Church.

So pray for your Pastor(s). Pray that they will be blessed with more grace and less frustration in everything that they do. And pray that they can grow as a Servant Leader in the midst of this community of faith!

Did you hear about the Leaning Tower of Pisa finally falling down? Or how about the Space Shuttle landing in San Diego? Or how about the Cell Phone ban in New Zealand? All of these were hoaxes played on April Fools day; and they attracted a lot of attention. Perhaps you’ve got a staff member who likes to play pranks and sends out eMails like those to everyone on the staff. It can be good for a staff to find time to laugh a little, but it is also easy to go overboard. Anyone can send an eMail to everyone on the staff with just a few clicks. Maybe that isn’t such a good thing.

The trouble is volume. As your staff grows, so does the natural volume of eMail. At some point, the time spent reading all of the internally generated eMails becomes a concern. How much time should your staff really spend reading eMail, Twits, and/or Facebook walls? Who should really be able to send out a message to everyone? Here are some ideas to consider:

• The Senior Pastor – High Priority issue comes up
• Human Resource person – Something affecting everyone’s paycheck
• Security Personnel – Emergency situations that affect everyone’s safety
• Operations Personnel – Alerts about a System Malfunction

Obviously, the importance of the message needs to be a part of the criteria to consider. Ask yourself the question, “Does this really need to be sent to everyone?” Or should it be more focused on the few who are directly affected? This is a judgment call, and your staff are expected to use good judgment. In a small organization, where everyone knows everyone, this should not be a problem.

We have Geoffrey Chaucer to thank for April Fools day – i.e. from his reference to the 32nd of March (April 1st). Perhaps appropriately, this is mentioned in the story about the fox and the rooster in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. So let’s all find time to laugh today; just don’t overdo it.