I heard today that Wal Mart is getting rid of paper paychecks. Instead employees will receive a debit card as payment, if they refuse direct deposit. You can read more about it HERE.
As our staff and church has grown, my role is changing. I spend much more of my day interacting with staff members about their particular area of focus. Lately it seems I am saying a lot of, “Let me connect you with _________”, as I refer people to another person on our team.
The greatest role I have as a pastor, in my opinion, is to introduce people to the life-changing message of Jesus Christ, help them learn the truths of His Word, help them become growing followers of Christ (disciples), but then allow God’s Spirit to change their heart, which will ultimately change their life.
Quick question: What has happened to general common courtesies?
If you are like me you want to see consistent improvement in your organization. Sometimes I can be overly critical because I have such high hopes and expectations for us as a church. At times I can become a bit overwhelmed with all the things I think need to be tweaked, completely overhauled or killed altogether.
Shai Agassi is a 40 year old wildly successful founder of Better Place, a company deep into the green energy production boom. He left a very lucrative career with software giant SAP just before they were to name him CEO to take a giant leap towards his dream. Harvard Business Review recently interviewed him. Here is an excerpt from that interview.
Do you need reminding that change is coming and there is a purpose to life?
There are signs of encouragement and life returning to the economy. The unemployment rate is a factor that usually lags behind other indicators, so that’s still very discouraging, but there are hints of better days to come. How should we react during the waiting times like this? Let me offer a few suggestions:
Daniel Doss, the amazing worship leader who helped launch Grace Community Church, announced to the church this week that he is leaving to help plant another church. Daniel has one of the most gifted voices I have ever heard and could easily find a position anywhere, including staying at Grace, but he is excited to be pursuing the dream of planting again (it does get in your blood) with a high school friend in Northern Indiana. Daniel is our first staff member to ever leave and we are surely going to miss his and Emily’s energy and passion for what we are doing at Grace.
We started, as most church plants and new organizations do, with loose rules and fun times. There were just a few of us and we didn’t need much in the way of structured systems. In fact, some of us were running from the strict structure of larger environments. What we have realized, as we’ve gotten to be one of those larger environments, is that we need more structure in place in order for growth to continue. We need some rules to help level the playing field among staff and volunteers, making things fair for everyone, improve accountability, and insure we are good stewards of the resources entrusted to us. We need to use words like policies and manuals and enforce office hours and do staff evaluations and offer constructive criticism and keep an organizational calendar and….well, you get the idea. We have to put on our big boy clothes and be a real organization.