Off the Agenda | Conversations for Building Church Leaders

Entries from Off the Agenda tagged with: staff

January 19, 2010

Ground Rules for Staff Meetings

11 tips to consider.

What makes a great staff meeting? We follow several principles: Have a regular time and place (and don't cancel!). This builds a pattern that reaps long-term benefits. Most staff teams find it best to meet early in the week....

Tags used in this post:

staff, team,

Posted by tavery at 4:03 PM on January 19, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

November 18, 2009

Caring for Church Workers

Come alongside them and appreciate them.

One of our soon-to-come training tools is called Caring for Church Workers, which helps churches know how to support their staff and volunteers. As a sneak preview, here's a short excerpt from an interview we've included in the tool. Lee...

Tags used in this post:

staff, support, volunteers,

Posted by tavery at 10:25 AM on November 18, 2009 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

April 14, 2008

Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church

Every church can do more to encourage unity across ethnic and economic barriers.

I recently had the opportunity to return to my native Arkansas. I had forgotten that spring arrives in some parts of the country by March. But I was even more surprised to find, in Little Rock of all places, a...

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community, leadership, staff, vision,

Posted by rwilloughby at 7:00 AM on April 14, 2008 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

February 18, 2008

Arranging the Passengers on the Church Leadership Bus

(and why it makes me sick).

Several years ago, I had to look in the eyes of someone and tell her she could no longer be part of our team. Her final day would be in two weeks. She looked back, unblinking, almost uncomprehending, and then...

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difficult people, hiring, recruiting, staff, team, vision, volunteers,

Posted by mbranaugh at 7:00 AM on February 18, 2008 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

January 28, 2008

Should You Stop Asking for Volunteers?

Perhaps it's time church staff and leaders re-think how they recruit help

I've attended - and volunteered in - several churches. And in some of them, I've made the mistake of volunteering for too much. By now, I've learned to draw reasonable boundaries based on my gifts and my limitations. And I...

Tags used in this post:

burnout, recruiting, staff, team, volunteers,

Posted by mbranaugh at 7:00 AM on January 28, 2008 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

January 14, 2008

Is Your "To Do's" List Too Long?

How we tamed a seemingly endless list of tasks.

When our small staff (of two) met for a long-term planning and goals review, my colleague was visibly stressed. She said, "My whole life is church. I'm drained, rather than energized, by ministry. I want to be able to go...

Tags used in this post:

burnout, staff, time management,

Posted by mbranaugh at 7:00 AM on January 14, 2008 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

December 17, 2007

Leading Your Leaders

Ten effective ways to serve those you lead.

On Friday, Amy Simpson wrote a post on our sister blog, www.giftedforleadership.com, about a leader's responsibility to those they lead. Her insights were too good not to share on Off the Agenda: As a leader, it's easy to understand and...

Tags used in this post:

burnout, pastors, recruiting, staff, team, volunteers,

Posted by mbranaugh at 7:00 AM on December 17, 2007 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

November 27, 2007

Christ as Our Great Leader

Rick Allnutt, the pastor of Faith Evangelical Covenant Church, where I attend, preached Sunday on Colossians 1:15-20. While the message focused on the supremacy of Christ in our lives, I was struck by this passage on a somewhat different level....

Tags used in this post:

burnout, compromise, mediation, staff, team,

Posted by mbranaugh at 10:00 AM on November 27, 2007 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

October 18, 2007

The Looks in Our Eyes

The look of bewilderment and hurt in my friend's eyes caught me off guard as we ate lunch together last April. It was just after Easter, yet that look still remains vivid in my memory five months later. And our...

Tags used in this post:

burnout, community, difficult people, pastors, staff, stewardship, team, vision,

Posted by mbranaugh at 8:00 AM on October 18, 2007 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

October 15, 2007

About Off the Agenda

Conversations for Building Church Leaders

Off The Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders is a blog where people in church leadership positions — pastors, staff members, and volunteers, among others — gather for discussion, where they encourage, equip, and prepare each other for the joys and challenges...

Tags used in this post:

administration, Bible study, boards, budget, buildings, burnout, children's ministry, community, compromise, current events, devotions, difficult people, elections, evangelism, failure, family, fund-raising, giving, hiring, legal, liability, mediation, meditation, men's ministry, missional, missions, money, multimedia, outreach, pastors, politics, pop culture, prayer, quiet time, recruiting, risk, sample forms, seniors, small groups, spiritual gifts, staff, stewardship, study, team, technology, time management, tithing, training, vision, volunteers, women's ministry, worship,

Posted by mbranaugh at 8:01 AM on October 15, 2007 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

October 15, 2007

Leith Anderson

Leith’s many interests involve him in pastoring, teaching, writing, speaking, and leadership. Leith earned a master of divinity from Denver Seminary in Denver, Colorado, a doctor of ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and a doctor of divinity...