Paul Clark

Don't be afraid of hiring family

A colleague in a similar position at another church recently sent me a policy which explicitly forbids hiring family members, except in a few very narrow circumstances.  As someone who has been blessed to hire both of my sons in positions at Fairhaven, I obviously have no problem with hiring family.  Both of my sons have worked in graphic design and web design positions, reporting directly to me.  My oldest son has since moved on, but my middle son is our webmaster. Additionally, our children’s ministry lead pastor recently passed the baton to his son. His son graduated from Cedarville with a degree in children’s ministry and we hired him straight out of college. He’s been the second-in-command for several years, but is now the lead guy—and is doing a great job. Our Director of Facilities’ wife is the Administrative Assistant to the Next Generation ministries team. So we have family all over the place and frankly, it’s worked out very well.

What makes it work? It requires relational integrity. By that I mean it requires people who have or are willing to grow toward certain relational qualities:

1. people who are willing to always speak the truth in love
2. people able to have difficult conversations
3. people who keep short accounts
4. people open to others' opinions and observations
5. people who are honest with themselves

Most of all, it takes people who constantly ask themselves the question, “What’s best for Fairhaven Church?” If we lead with our primary motivation being to do what is best for the ministry of the church and not ourselves, then we’ll have no problem working among family relationships.

Many times family members understand to a greater degree the sense of calling and mission that are required to work in ministry. They understand the hours, the demands, the struggles, and the need for personal commitment and investment. Why would I exclude competent, gifted, and connected people just because they're family?

If you're looking for some policy guidelines on how to make this work, check out an article in Church Executive magazine's February 2010 issue, particularly the inset on pp.27 of the print version, "Guidelines When Hiring a Family Member."

5 Things you can do for your pastor in the New Year

What can you give your Senior Pastor for Christmas?  How about making an effort in the New Year to do five simple things:

1. Assume unwanted responsibilities. Look for responsibilities that he or she dislikes or struggles to accomplish. Look for the things that crowd your pastor’s schedule, drain his or her energy, or things that they wish they could avoid. Stuff like organizing staff agendas, scheduling baptisms and baby dedications, meeting with parents, tracking hospital calls, and recognizing birthdays. Volunteer to help clear their plate.

2. Be a planner. Most pastors are not planners. Be proactive in mapping future events, creating implementation plans, setting goals, and tracking results. Maintain a calendar and help keep the pastor ahead of the planning curve, so that they are prepared for staff and Boards.

3. Anticipate change and prepare for it. Change is difficult to manage, as evidenced by the 100’s of books written about how to successfully manage it. When a ministry transition is coming-- staff, ministry execution, facilities, governance-- evaluate the situation and map out steps that will be required for successful transition. Every pastor can use help managing change.

4. Understand your pastor’s vision. One of the challenges in pastoral leadership is getting the staff to understand and coalesce around the vision. Pastors wonder, “Does anybody get it?” Sit down with your pastor and express your desire to be one of their greatest advocates in casting vision. Get to know how they feel and think so that you can accurately support them among staff and church members.

5. Make your pastor successful. That's going to look different in every situation. How can you help your pastor achieve success? Every leader values someone committed to their success. The role of the second chair is a supportive role. Be loyal to a fault. Make sure the pastor clearly understands that our goal is to insure the successful execution of their vision.

Second chances

We recently invited Don Solin back to the staff of Fairhaven Church.  Don served with Fairhaven as our leader of student ministries for almost 10 years back in the late 80's and early 90's.  He left to pursue a vision for being a senior pastor, which he did for several years.  As he journeyed through that experience, God walked him through some tough days in leadership.  Eventually, God led him to resign his position and, for a time, leave the ministry.  Through that process, Don realized that his gifts and passion are best fitted for leading leaders of students, not leading the church at large. 

We invited him back to Fairhaven as our Pastor of Next Generation Ministries, overseeing the staff leading middle school, high school, and college ministries.  He's found his sweet spot.  He's seasoned, settled, committed and passionate. He's matured through the last 10 years. He's doing an incredible job, and it's a thrill to be on staff with Don. I reflected back though, on some of the churches I've served in.  Not all of them- maybe none of them- would have had the grace and the courage to invite someone who left, to come back. Though God is a God of second chances, we often are not. I'm thankful I can be part of something that's different.  Meet Don Solin...

Why Fairhaven?....Why a Youth Pastor? from kevin batson on Vimeo.

So cool to be in ministry with my son

Every day I get the privilege of working with my own son, Jeff, in carrying out the ministry of Fairhaven Church. Jeff’s our Director of HelloMedia, our media department. Jeff’s a graduate of Cedarville University with a B.A. in Electronic Media and he started managing our website as a senior in college. When he graduated we snatched him up because he’s incredibly gifted. He can not only program a complex website, but he’s a great graphic designer in his own right.

I’ve watched him grow over the last couple of years as he’s taken on more responsibility managing a staff and budget, working with internal and external customers, implementing processes and procedures, and keeping the media team focused on relevant, quality products that further the mission of the church. He’s an awesome young man who loves God and is growing in his faith. And I love that fact that I can go to staff meeting and see my favorite middle son.

Isn’t it great when life and ministry come together; when your passion for your work and your love for your family overlap? God is good.

Right Person, Wrong Position

In the Nov/Dec edition of Your Church magazine, I have a piece about the challenges of transitioning a staff member from the staff because of failure to meet performance goals.  It's a tough situation to manage.  I hope you'll check it out either in the magazine or on the digital version on the website (p.46).  Be sure to mark the Your Church website and YourChurchblog in your favorites--they do a great job staying on the leading edge of the issues we are facing each day!

Read the article here...

Getting lots of love

Director of Communications from Fairhaven Church on Vimeo.

We've gotten some incredibly positive feedback on our ad for a Director of Communications!  We had no idea this thing would shoot across the country like it has.  Thanks to all of you who tweeted or blogged about it!  If you haven't seen it, here's the video, but be sure to take a look at the landing page at www.frhvn.ch/doc

Have a great weekend!

how do you structure staff meetings?

In this space on Fridays, I'll answer questions that are being asked of me through the blog or during my conference workshops.  Got a question? 

Our Tuesday staff meetings are broken into two segments:

Fellowship and prayer time:  we gather at 9 am for coffee/donuts/bagels and for about 30 minutes, the entire staff of admins, support personnel, etc. connect with each other on a personal level.  This helps us stay relational and speaks to the high value we place on community.  After about 30 minutes, David Smith, our Senior Pastor, leads us in a season of prayer.  He's very creative in how he does that: for instance we recently broke up into groups and went to various areas of the church to pray for the ministries that were starting that particular week.  It's always a meaningful time.

Pastors & Directors Staff Meeting:  we dismiss the admins and support personnel and just the P&D staff remain.  Recently, I have been leading the staff meetings.  We use an agenda composed around three "D's".

Decision: (What decisions have been made that need to be communicated?) we communicate decisions that have been made at the Executive Team or Governing Board level regarding events, policies, calendar, ministries, etc.  It's a time to make sure the staff is informed about the decisions that have been made which will impact them in some way.

Direction: (What direction does the staff need in order to execute their ministries and meet expectations?) we communicate directions that help staff execute their ministries.  Examples would be instructions regarding adapting ministries to our construction project, direction regarding implementing  Fellowship One in the ministries, and directions for how to answer questions about some major church issue.

Discussion: (What do we need to discuss with the staff in order to get their ideas, input and buy-in?) we open the floor to discuss issue for which we need input and ideas.  We use this time to get staff ideas, allow them to be involved in processing an issue under consideration, and get them to think through an issue and its impact on their own ministry.  Some examples would be considering video venues, topics for the fall spiritual growth series, how to act like a church of 6,000 (we're only 4,000), etc.

I also include on the agenda a list of important dates coming in the next few months, and a financial section so that the staff can see, and I can explain, the context for understanding weekly giving.  The meeting lasts 30-60 minutes, depending on the agenda.

Occasionally, David will lead one of the sections because he has some vision-casting he wants to do or the issue relates to a leadership topic that he wants to speak to. 

What do you think?  Take a look at one of our agendas Download P&D Staff Meeting Aug 18.

What’s in a name?

Recently I was invited to lunch by a few guys who are Executive Pastors. They said they get together monthly to talk about “XP stuff.” In the conversation I mentioned that I sometimes (not as often as I’d like) attend the local NACBA chapter meetings and I asked if they’d ever gone. One guy’s response was so quick and definite that I thought I’d offended him. We’re not “church business administrators.” Wow, I guess I touched a nerve.

I wasn’t aware there was such a great divide. I think there’s more overlap between XP’s and CBA’s than some people evidently think. All of us, XP’s and CBA’s alike, are involved in managing the church—remember PLOC (planning, leading, organizing and controlling)? Both XP’s and CBA’s do all four. Most of the times I’m around other XP’s, they end up talking about stewardship, budgets, buildings, policies, staff and that stuff—not strategic planning or leadership skills. I’m really not into XP hubris. I’ve met some brilliant CBA’s and some XP’s that I wouldn’t hire to manage the secretaries.

I love all the management buckets I get to carry and think that the more people I can talk to and learn from, the better off I’ll be. I hope you’ll agree. Something comes to mind about, “those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank…” Let’s pursue the virtue of humility, knowing that in the end, it won’t matter what our title was, only what we did with the “talents” we were given.

What are your thoughts?

Leadership Team Behavior

I had my four wisdom teeth romoved this morning.  As my dentist told me, I should have done this 30 years ago. Oh well...  Anyway, not much else to do except sleep or read, so I've been catching up on some reading.  I came across a diagram in an article (Business Week: May 25, 2009 ) by Jim Collins about his new book, "How the Mighty Fall." In this diagram, Collins contrasts the behavior of leadership teams on the way up with the behavior of teams on the way down.  It's fascinating! I don't know about you, but I think it resonates truth, at least in my experience.  I'm going to give it some serious thought...

Teams on the way down: People shield those in power from unpleasant facts, fearful of penalties and criticism for shining light on the rough realities
Teams on the way up: People bring forth grim facts—"Come here and look, man, this is ugly"—to be discussed; leaders never criticize those who bring forth harsh realities
Teams on the way down: People assert strong opinions without providing data, evidence, or a solid argument
Teams on the way up: People bring data, evidence, logic, and solid arguments to the discussion
Teams on the way down: The team leader has a very low questions-to-statements ratio, avoiding critical input and/or allowing sloppy reasoning and unsupported opinions
Teams on the way up: The team leader employs a Socratic style, using a high questions-to-statements ratio, challenging people, and pushing for penetrating insights
Teams on the way down: Team members acquiesce to a decision but don't unify to make the decision successful—or worse, undermine it after the fact
Teams on the way up: Team members unify behind a decision once made, then work to make the decision succeed, even if they vigorously disagreed with it
Teams on the way down: Team members seek as much credit as possible for themselves, yet do not enjoy the confidence and admiration of their peers
Teams on the way up: Each team member credits other people for success, yet enjoys the confidence and admiration of his or her peers
Teams on the way down: Team members argue to look smart or to further their own interests rather than argue to find the best answers to support the overall cause
Teams on the way up: Team members argue and debate, not to improve their personal position but to find the best answers to support the overall cause
Teams on the way down: The team conducts "autopsies with blame," seeking culprits rather than wisdom
Teams on the way up: The team conducts "autopsies without blame," mining wisdom from painful experiences
Teams on the way down: Team members often fail to deliver exceptional results and blame other people or outside factors for setbacks, mistakes, and failures
Teams on the way up: Each team member delivers exceptional results, yet in the event of a setback each accepts full responsibility and learns from mistakes

...where's my ice pack?

Raising the Bar in Tough Times

The latest edition of Ledger magazine, published by the NACBA, just came in the mail.  I have to admit that I get a thrill whenever I see something I've written in print.  My article, mentioned above, is the lead article and is followed by some really excellent material written by people much more accomplished than myself... CPA's, Ph.D's.  I hope you'll take a look.  It's a good read, cover to cover.  By the way, the material in the article will form the foundation for a workshop I'm presenting at the NACBA conference in Long Beach in a few weeks, Enhancing Your Role as Administrator.  If you follow my blog and will be in Long Beach, I'd love to meet you.  Have a great day!