#3 - Don’t Settle For Good Enough
One of our core values here at our church is excellence…which does NOT mean perfection…but it does mean giving something your best effort. As a senior pastor I have an incredible amount of confidence that the people I serve with are going to do all that they can to make sure that whatever they are working on is the best it can be! One of the biggest problems in church world today, in my opinion, are churches that put a pathetic presentation out there and then use the word “authentic” to describe it. We are called to do whatever we do with the absolute best effort we can put forth. I do not expect perfection from our staff because I am not perfect…but I do want everyone’s best effort because I believe God works through people who are willing to go all out for Him.
#4 - PLEASE Get Along
One of the most frustrating things for a Senior Pastor to have to deal with is staff members who refuse to act like grown ups and feel the need to resort to name calling and comparison with other staff members. As a leader of God’s church I don’t have time to try to help people who can’t escape the mentality of a second grader!!! My gosh…we are the church…we can’t provide environments that facilitate forgiveness if we are carrying unforgiveness in our hearts towards the people we work with!
#5 - Don’t Surprise Me
If something is going to go wrong…and you know it’s going to go wrong before hand, please tell me! Don’t let me get caught in a situation that you knew was going to happen but didn’t tell me hoping that Jesus might decide to come back and fulfill everything LaHaye and Jenkins wrote about, saving you from any fallout that would come as a result of your mistake. A pastor needs complete honesty from a staff member. Because of some honest staff members our church has been guided away from some decisions that I may have thought were good, but because there were staff that could see what I could not see, and spoke up, we’ve been able to be used by the Lord to advance His Kingdom.
One more thing…as a senior pastor I am a PIT BULL when it comes to anyone talking about the staff that serve with me. No one, I MEAN NO ONE, talks smack about my staff in front of me. I simply will not allow it! But, what I tell our staff is, “If you make a stupid mistake…PLEASE don’t hide it from me. Seriously, tell me because someone is going to tell me and when they do I want to be able to let them know that you personally came to me and I know all about it!” Staff members…help your pastor protect you! You are going to make mistakes. AND…trust me on this one…he is going to hear about it.
So, where are numbers 6 and 7? Sorry, folks, but I wrote and scheduled this prior to my Israel trip and this pastor had not yet posted the final two parts!
