Great organizations don’t just appear. There is a method to the madness. I wonder sometimes, however, if we make it seem more difficult than it is to create success in an organization. While nothing worth doing well is ever easy, certain attributes seem to exist that successful organizations share with one another.
From my observation, here are 7 attributes of success as an organization:
One of the toughest jobs in the church is that of being a pastor’s wife. No doubt I have one of the best in Cheryl. (I would say the best, but I have a co-pastor and he has an excellent one also!) Cheryl has a full-time professional job, is an excellent mom and wife, but the demands on her as my wife are often overwhelming. Still she handles it with grace and a smile.
If a pastor is not careful, the weight of everyone else’s problems will take precedence over the issues and concerns of his immediate family. I see it frequently among pastors I encounter. There have been seasons of my ministry where this is the case, especially on abnormally stressful days.
I decided years ago when I was a small business owner, serving in an elected office and on dozens of non-profit boards that my busyness would never detract from my family life.
Here are 7 ways I attempt to protect my family from the stress of ministry.
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Recently I had the privilege of speaking to some executive pastors about a senior pastor’s expectations for their role. Part of a healthy organization is recognizing the individual roles and responsibilities of the others on the team. I felt it was important that I first help them understand the pastor better, so I shared 10 Things You May Not Know about the Senior Pastor. You may want to read that post first.
I continued my talk by sharing how other staff members within the church can support the position of senior pastor. I realize our church would have never been successful without the creativity, diligence and leadership of the staff at Grace Community Church. Part of our success has been the way our staff has assisted my co-pastor and me in our work, but the role of a senior pastor is unique also.
Here are 10 expectations I believe are important for those who serve on a church staff in supporting the leadership of a senior pastor:
I write a lot about introversion, because I’m an introvert. Introversion is a personality preference, based on the way a person has been programmed by experiences and life. In very simple terms, it means we prefer a world of inner thoughts and reflections over a world of social engagements and interactions with others. It’s not that we don’t like people, it’s that if we had a preference of how to use our time, we would mostly spend it in quieter or more controllable environments. Chances are you have lots of introverts on your team, in your organization, as your customers, or even in your family.
I will often get requests to write about extroversion. (Extroverted people are seldom shy about asking for what they want!) The fact is, however, that I’m not much help on understanding extroversion. Perhaps someone can guest post here sometime.
I do want to accommodate the requests, however, so here is an attempt. Allow me to share 7 ways that extroverts can help introverts:
