Leadership

Not Quite A Craftsman

My grandfather first introduced me to what it means to be a craftsman. When a person exercises a trade, whether it be carpentry, plumbing, farming – whatever; it is an expression of that person. When the work is done well and in accordance to the accepted standards of the day then that person is a proficient tradesman. But when they exceed expectations and go beyond the accepted standards, to the point of amazement and beauty then they are expressing craftsmanship.

My grandfather was an example of such a person. He would toll away in the extreme southern sun, with its humidity and scorching heat to build or repair something for his family or loved ones. His picnic tables required multiple men to move them, and his decks and houses still stand today even though they are several decades old.

As I approach the fifth decade of my life, I have come to realize that I am a builder at the core of who I am – an echo of my grandfather. But like any builder I can go about my trade according to the acceptable standards or I can seek to bring true beauty into the world through an expression of craftsmanship.

Men in their youth want to be known and recognized for their contributions – older men want to leave something behind, to leave an expression of beauty. Having tipped the scales toward the eternal, I am seeking to build something with a craftsman’s touch, that will stand the test-of-time and demands of life.

The thing about craftsmanship is that what is produced will not fall into the categories of trends, fads, and niches’ – the craftsman’s creations are beautiful in their own way. There are some things, because they are so well made, people will always understand their worth.

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As I was writing this post, I stopped to finish a project that went unfinished since my last opportunity to work on projects. As I was screwing in a brass screw the head snapped off because the pilot hole was too small. Not only did I not know how to fix this, I knew it would not end up with a “beautiful” (see above) outcome.

I ended up drilling out the remains of the brass screw and fixed the repair by adding a brass washer to hide my attempts to get the brass screw out. As I went through the process I was once again reminded that I am not a craftsman. I build things, but they never go as planned and rarely do they end up beautiful. My creations may be functional, just as crocs are functional shoes – but never beautiful.

So there I am standing at a workbench between novice and master craftsman trying to build something with my life, looking to people like my grandfather for inspiration and to be some kind of an example for those that follow. Come and build something with me, but don’t stress it probably won’t end up like you think – and that’s ok.

Staffing Your Team: “Generalist v. Specialist”

Staffing Your Team: “When is the Right Time to Hire Staff?”

Hiring Church Staff

When is the right time to add staff to your team?

1) When no volunteer or team is able to do what needs to be done in a given area.

2) When what is required to be done is more than a single leader or team can reasonable do.

3) When leadership is needed in a given area and there is one to do it.

4) When there is an expectation that needs to be met so often that it is not reasonable for a volunteer.

“Parkinson’s Law” – when work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. People find a way to make jobs more complicated and time-consuming, which in the end requires more staff to get the same amount of work done. When there are transitions in leadership, there should be an analysis of the work required to the time you are asking the leader to complete it – is it reasonable, exaggerated, etc.?

5) When expertise is needed that is not found within the church body, and that expertise is needed on such a regular basis that it is reasonable to hire a person to do it.

Things to Consider for the Staff Position:

• The person will be asking three questions that need to be addressed.
1) What am I responsible for?
2) What decisions am I able to make on my own?
3) Whom do I report to for help?

• Staff should not do what volunteers can do. The goal of the leader is to put church members in place of ministry so they can grow in their faith, and experience the joy and blessing of service. This is also how we grow and mature in our walk with the Lord. If the leaders do everything, they limit the growth of the ministry, and rob members of these blessings.

• A team should always support the staff – no lone rangers. Sometimes. Staff are hired because no one can do what needs to be done, but the leader must immediately seek to build a team.

• Be careful not to load a new staff person with all the needs of the church. The example of deacons in Acts 6:2 was an effort to allow the elders to focus on their calling/ministry. The staff need to be able to focus, and should avoiding generalizing as much as possible.

• Church leaders should be equipping/teaching others on their team to do what they do. Ephesians 4:11-13 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, . . .”

• Hire leaders of ministry, not people to do the ministry themselves.

Should the church hire from within or hire from the outside?

• When your church culture is healthy, hiring from within will perpetuate that culture. Hiring from the outside will change the church culture.

https://seniorpastorcentral.com/2830/staff-churches-under-600/

I would suggest this article because he does a good job of describing when you should hire staff and the order they should be hired. It’s a good read if you are interested in this topic.

Dealing With Problems and Decision Making

Dealing With Problems and Making Decisions [1]

Inevitably when you are a leader you will have to deal with problems. How a leader deals with these troubling circumstances and leads through them is what determines if he/she is a good or “desperately in need of improvement” leader. If you have ever agreed to hold a position where others in the room look to you for what to do when things go wrong then you need to have at least thought about a process for dealing with these problems. In large organizations they call them “contingency plans” but most of us don’t have shelves of three-ring binders we can flip through when disaster comes upon us.

One of the best skills a leader can posses is dealing with problems before they arise (through prayer, advanced planning, training, etc.) but eventually no matter how much you plan there will be times when problems find their way into your life and you have to deal with them.

First and foremost a spiritual leader desires to know the will of God’s concerning what directions or actions they should take. So as one prays, studies Scripture, and contemplates the circumstances consider the following:

Questions to Answer
Am I committed to doing God’s will in this situation? (Romans 12:1-2)
Sometimes the answer is easy and His will is plain, but we are not willing to do it. It may require us to confront someone who will have their feelings hurt, or we know they will become angry, or we may even lose our job (or place of ministry, or at least we think we will).

Sometimes the decision is not so clear, but we must commit to doing God’s will in each step that we know what to do, and when His will is clear. Sometimes as a leader we lay ourselves down “as a living sacrifice” and be willing to “take a hit” so that Christ’s name may be lifted high. Strong personalities, or strong willed people who feel their way is best (instead of the given direction from the leader) will try to take the organization in a direction that may be away from the expressed will of God and toward what benefits them personally. So opposing these people may be difficult for the leader and even his family. So we begin the process by asking how committed is the leader to following God’s will; is he willing to do whatever it takes to see God’s name and will held as the top priority?

Are the desires of my heart to pursue this particular course? (Psalm 37:4)
This Psalm says that when we delight ourselves with the things of God, He will give us the desires of our heart. So our main objective as a leader is to see that God is glorified and that His name is lifted up. When we lead people to do this as well, then it should bring delight to our hearts. Our desire then becomes seeing others give God glory with their lives.

Is the problem something that you feel needs to be fixed (do you even care about it)? Or would it be best to pass off (i.e. delegate) this problem to someone who is passionate about it, or who “has a heart” for that area? If you say, “This is something that we can’t ignore. Something must be done about this,” then make sure your heart is lining up with the commandments and teachings of Scripture.

Does God provide the power to continue working on the project and make the necessary decisions to achieve it? (Isaiah 26:3)
This passage from Isaiah discusses how God gives the mind peace as the person trusts in God. So the leader must make decisions that result from prayer and contemplation but ultimately result in a step of faith where he/she trusts that God will take care of him/her and work through them in the situation. It is easy for others to second guess decisions after time has passed and the problem has passed. But what makes one a leader is that they must make a decision in the midst of the storm. Trust God once you feel you have heard from Him and pronounced a decision.

Also, what makes a spiritual leader different from a secular leader is that they rely on the Holy Spirit for things not provided to those who do not believe and place a saving trust in Christ (such as strength, insight, faith, peace, resources, etc). Does the leader have a sense of peace as they work through the process that the most current decision is the right one?

In determining what to do next in the midst of a problem it is helpful to define some terms.

Definitions
Decision-making; this is choosing between alternatives. Often times the alternatives are not good and bad, but good and good, or good and best.

Problem solving; this is the process of formulating and implementing a plan of action to eliminate a difficulty. Problem solving tends to deal with internal issues.

Conditions; these are currently uncontrollable circumstances superimposed on the situation from outside. A considerable length of time is required to change conditions noticeably. Conditions tend to deal with external issues.

Problem Solving Process

1. Determine if the situation is a problem or a condition. Is the situation coming from outside of the organization or the inside?

2. Clearly state the problem.

3. Determine what will be gained or lost in solving the problem. Don’t create a bigger problem by solving a smaller one.

4. Identify alternative methods and solutions.

5. State the cost of each alternative.

6. Choose between alternatives (as you pray, have Bible study, seek godly wisdom, etc.).

7. Delegate action steps and begin implementation.

8. Evaluate progress.

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make in dealing with problems is that when they are working through this process they don’t take into account the feelings of those in the organization as they begin to make changes. Even if these changes will improve the situation of all concerned, people typically don’t like changes; especially if they don’t play a part in the decision making process. If you are in a “boss-employee” situation then the leader could just state the decision in a memo and be done with it. But in a volunteer organization (such as a church) then people choose to follow or not, the leader has to be sensitive (but not overly controlled by) to other’s feeling and emotions.

The following is a way of asking people how they are feeling and gives an opportunity to discuss the change process as you go through it.

When __________ (occurs), I feel ______________ (state the way you feel), because ________________ (state why you feel that way.)

For example: “When you change things, I feel fearful, because I do not understand where we are going and how it will affect me and my family.”

Your goal is to get honest responses and point them to Scripture and the rationale and reasoning process you have taken to reach the decisions that have been reached.

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[1] Note: information for this article was taken from notes of Dr. Ken Coley in a class at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary entitled Church Administration in 1998.