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One of the most critical but often overlooked parts of being a lead pastor is interacting with and relating to your elder team. If you get this right, you will find smooth sailing and incredible momentum that is felt throughout the church. If you get this wrong, it can lead to many difficulties, frustration, and heartache on the part of the lead pastor, the elder team, and, ultimately, the church.

Over different seasons, I have gotten this right and gotten it wrong.

Recently, I was reading CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest, and the authors have a whole section on the interactions between the CEO and the board of a company. They are: 

• Choosing radical transparency
• Building a strong relationship with the board chair
• Reaching out to individual directors (elders)
• Exposing the board to management

Let’s take them one at a time and apply them to churches:

4 important lessons for lead pastors and their elder team.
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Choosing radical transparency. It is amazing to hear how much or little pastors tell their elder teams. I get that it can be hard, and often as a lead pastor, you are dealing with your old wounds and scars as you step into trusting this group.

But one thing you should always strive to do is tell your elder team what is going on. Don’t hide things from them. If something happens in your church or you think something is going to happen, make sure they know before it happens or as quickly as possible.

There have been times I’ve told my elder team something might happen, and then it didn’t happen. But that openness has brought about a lot of trust and confidence. And many times, my current elder team has said, “Thanks for keeping us in the loop.” That trust goes a long way.

Building a strong relationship with the board chair. This person is the lead pastor in some churches, but I don’t think that’s wise.

Our church calls this person the elder facilitator to clarify what this person does, which I like more than the board chair. But whatever you call this person, it may be the person with the longest tenure or most influence on your board, whoever they are, build a relationship with them. They can be an incredible help to you in terms of advice, moving things forward, and getting a sense of what each person needs or where the church is, especially if you are new.

4 things pastors and elder teams must do to work well together.
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Reaching out to individual directors (elders). While the elder team works as a team, it is crucial to understand each person who serves on that team. Get to know their personalities, how they think and process things, their histories, theologies, and passions for ministry.

One of the things I do is meet with each elder individually throughout the year. I get feedback from them on how I’m doing, how the team is doing, and what they see and hear in the church.

If things get off track, they can be a pastor’s greatest asset and the first line of defense. But you have to invest in them relationally.

Exposing the board to management. This one is important but often tricky in a church setting. It is really important to clarify your governance and who answers to whom. In our setting, I, as the lead pastor, answer to our elder team, but everyone on staff answers to me. While the elder team is ultimately responsible for our church, they don’t oversee the staff. So the staff doesn’t have two bosses. In some church settings, this can get confusing. Clarifying this first is crucial to a healthy church team.

Once this is clear, you must figure out how to connect your staff and elder team. Unfortunately, many churches keep them apart, which can lead to disaster. 

One of the ways we do this is through reports that staff write or give to the elder team; we also connect one elder with each staff member to meet once a month to connect, pray together and have that elder attend one team meeting for that ministry each year. The elders then report to the whole elder team about how things are going in that area and what the elders should know and celebrate. 

The relationship between a lead pastor and elder team often makes or breaks a church.
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Many lead pastors, unfortunately, are suspicious of their boards or see them as getting in the way. Working well with your board will relieve so many headaches and heartaches and make your church stronger and healthier. 

4 ways to work well with your elder team.
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The post 4 Ways to Build a Strong, Healthy Elder Team appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.

At some point in your leadership as a pastor, you will have a staff member, elder, deacon or volunteer resign and say, “I’m done.” It might happen suddenly as if out of nowhere, it might be mutually a good idea. It might be hard to take or it might be a hidden blessing. Regardless of the situation, there are some things you can do to honor them, the situation, communicate it so that it is a win and move forward for both the person leaving and the organization.

Here are a 8 ways to make it a win for you, the other leader and your church:

8 things to do when a staff member quits.
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1. Find out the whole story from the person. When people leave a situation, they tend to not tell the whole stories. They will often tell their boss or ministry leader only what they’re comfortable sharing or what they think the other person wants to hear. Do as much as you can to find out exactly what happened and why they are leaving. Find out what is underneath things and keep digging. This will help you to learn as a leader if you did something wrong or if there is something unhealthy in your church. Don’t take simple Christian cliche’s if you can avoid it, make them explain it. Too often in these situations, because they are difficult, people in a church environment hide behind “God told me, God is moving me” etc.
2. Honor them and what they’ve done publicly as much as possible. The person leaving has done a lot for your church, whether you want to admit it or not. Even though, in this moment it is difficult and it hurts, honor them. They’ve meant something to you, your church and others. Honor them. Thank them. Give people a chance to say thank you. People care deeply about how much you honor someone. This gives you a chance to show people how you as a church treat people. Someday, your church may treat you the way you treat leaders who have transitioned out.
3. Say what only needs to be said publicly. If sin is involved, relational strife, poor job performance or anything else that is difficult, you don’t need to put that out there. I’m not suggesting that you lie or take an arrow for someone else’s sin or stupidity, you just don’t need to share everything. Each situation will dictate what you say. We’ve had staff members leave Revolution, we’ve had to let staff members go, we’ve disciplined elders for sin and because each situation is different, it changed what we said publicly. If the person leaving is not an on-stage, well known person in the ministry, don’t bring them on stage to say goodbye. Talk about it in the places this person has touched and affected.
4. Publicly, focus on the future. When you make the public announcement and have thanked the person or explained what happened, spend as much time as possible focusing on the future and how things will not fall apart. I would say in the “official” announcement, you need to spend 80% of the time on the future. Show people you are moving forward and the ministry/church will survive.
5. Be honest publicly and privately. As a pastor, don’t lie. Every fact doesn’t need to be shared, but don’t lie. In private, don’t make things up, don’t bash the person. Have one person you are venting to if it a difficult situation who is speaking into your heart on the situation, but don’t have a team of people you are venting to.
6. Honor them financially. Whatever the situation, you are called to shepherd them and take care of pastors. Go above and beyond financially and in terms of insurance. Once, we moved a pastor who was with us for 3 months back to Indiana. He wasn’t a fit and everyone knew it quickly and they had just moved so we felt the honorable thing was to move them back to where they came from. Sometimes you give months of salary and benefits, sometimes you give a week. Again, it depends on the situation. One rule of thumb I’ve used is: if this became public, what would people think of us and how we’ve handled this and what we game the person. Another way, would I want the same treatment I am giving this person?
7. Create a transition plan as quickly as possible. Don’t wait to decide what is next for the ministry. Grieve what is happening, find out the story and start on a plan. Don’t wait around. If you are the lead pastor or the leader of a ministry area, take the lead and get this done. People will want to know the ship is being steadied and you are moving forward.
8. Transition them as quickly as possible. This last one will seem unloving because it is a church environment. When someone says, “I’m done” they’ve been done for weeks or possibly months, they have just now said it out loud. This means their passion is gone, their calling is gone and they are done. Getting them out of their role as quickly as possible. In the long run, this is the best thing for them and the ministry. Sticking around for 3-12 months doesn’t do anyone any good. Make a plan, honor them, take care of them and move them on as quickly as possible.

These situations are sticky and they are all different. As a leader, you will walk through this too many times to count. Each one hurts. They are people you’ve invested in, loved, cared for and worked with and watching them leave always feels personal. You either feel like you did something wrong, missed signs, hired the wrong person or were lied to or let down. Grieve the situation. Learn whatever you can and move forward to becoming better and fixing the situation.

The post When a Staff Member or Volunteer says, “I’m Done” appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.