Dr. Thomas Douglas
Pastor
Parkway Baptist Church
Kansas City, KS

Pastor Bill has made it to another December business meeting. As his church wades through the regular items on the agenda: approval of the minutes, treasurer’s report, written reports, oral reports, old business, and finally new business, he begins to feel his normally dry palms get sweaty. Pastor Bill knows in just a few moments he will be asked to leave so the church can discuss his salary for the next year. He will be ushered out and sent to the education space to await the decision on his compensation package. With this being his 6th year at the church of just under 100 in attendance the process of the church discussing his position without an avenue to speak for himself still rattles him. He has taken the time to examine why the church has been unable to break the 100 barrier. Oh, they passed it a few times but for all too common reasons slid back below the 100 thresh hold. One year they lost their beloved music director. Another, a couple families got upset over something he said from the pulpit. Another talk spread of him being unavailable to certain families because he didn’t make it to the hospital on one occasion. Then, he would never forget the class that refused to multiply into two because the teachers liked alternating every other month. Now the class has dwindled to fit in the room it once was outgrowing.

As Pastor Bill headed to the education wing, he knew someone would raise the question of the lack of numerical growth and tie it to the effectiveness of his ministry. He could answer what happened to each family that was not there but knew that wouldn’t satisfy the grumblers. Sometimes, Pastor Bill wondered if he should apply for any church with over 100 in attendance just so he could feel what it was like to pastor a bigger church. Other times he figured God knew best and/or maybe there was a deficiency in him that kept God from blessing the church with growth.

Perhaps you attend or pastor one of the 59% of American Protestant churches that have under 100 in attendance on any given Sunday morning.[1] If so, then you are personally acquainted with some of the feelings Pastor Bill experienced. So much of the emphasis in the media and in areas of denomination leadership focuses on the larger churches with more people and more resources. It can appear that if you do not meet certain growth quotas, then God has removed His “candlestick” from you and unless you make major changes God will shut your doors and sell your building to the up and coming funeral home.

While it is true that more people are picking large churches to attend, small churches have a vital place in the American landscape and offer distinct benefits that larger churches struggle to meet. This series will offer seven reasons why small churches are great churches to join and belong. Not all of the reasons apply solely to small churches. Some are true of effective churches no matter their size but have a special role in defining small churches. These articles are meant to encourage small churches to see themselves as more than the total number of attendees and offerings. God has a way of using the unlikely-in-the-eyes-of-the-world to transform the world. Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Deborah, David, Daniel, John the Baptist, the apostles, and of course, Jesus are people in the Scriptures God used despite their humble beginnings. Out of the small churches in America, God raises pastors, missionaries, Sunday School teachers, and witnesses of all shapes and sizes to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. While we strive to reach as many as we can, let us relish in those areas that the world might see as weaknesses but that God sees as strengths and use them to impact the world around us for Christ.

Technorati Tag: small churches

Dr. Bailey has been the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Covington, Louisiana, since 1989.  He formerly served as Professor of Old Testament at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1978 to 1995. He has authored five books: Step by Step through the Old Testament; Biblical Hebrew Grammar; Joshua: Courage for the Future; As You Go: Biblical Foundation for Evangelism; and (with Kenneth Barker) Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, and Zephaniah in the New American Commentary. He is the current President of the Louisiana Baptist Convention

You have a goal that your church must accomplish. If you want your church to grow, you must keep it small.

It’s neither an oxymoron nor a paradox. It is simply this: as the church grows larger, the fellowship must grow deeper. Deeper fellowship gives the church a sense of being small. That’s what you want–a sense that the church is small.

How do you accomplish making your church “small?”

John Maxwell said it this way: “You walk slowly through the crowds.” I once had a pastor who never walked slowly through the crowds. He was in constant motion. He never seemed to have time for people. Though the church really was small, he lacked giving any meaningful time to people. I never felt that he had time for me and, consequently, I never felt valued by him. As I look back over the years, I realize that he was a fine man. He didn’t intend to harm me. But his actions kept the church from accomplishing so many things which God values. My posts on breaking the 100 barrier and staffing to grow not to plateau deals with some of the same issues of growing a church.

Maxwell counsels giving people time. Walk slowly through the crowds. Smile, look people in the eye, shake hands, call names.

We all want to know and to be known. When pastors, deacons, teachers, and other church members walk slowly through the crowds spending time with people, we make the church small, caring, and intimate. When the pastor is too busy for people, he chokes the life and growth out of the church.

Jesus always walked slowly through the crowds. Remember the story of the woman with the hemorrhage? In the midst of a huge crowd with people pressing on every side, she simply touched the hem of his garment. Jesus asked: “Who touched me?” The disciples ridiculed Him because everyone had touched Him!

Jesus knew when a single, (seemingly) insignificant person touched Him. He walked slowly through the crowds and gave attention to people. He made the crowd seem small. We need to do the same with the church.

I know pastors will take this to heart. I want church members to do the same. All of us are the key to making the church small–that is, warm, intimate, personal, and caring. Please make it your responsibility to keep the church small even as it grows larger. In fact, keeping the church small will almost insure that it reaches more people.

You can follow Dr. Bailey weekly on www.waylonbailey.com.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is the last in a five part series on finding people within the congregation who can meet extraordinary needs in the life of the church. The previous articles are:
The League of Church Members Extraordinary
Leaders: Find the Devil in Pew Number Seven
Reach the Ugly Woman in the Balcony
Midwives: Find the Lost and the Seekers

A SWAT team is a small group of highly trained military or law enforcement people who can go into a tense and dangerous situation, armed to the teeth, able to respond in any way necessary. The initials stand for “Special Weapons And Tactics.”

No, we don’t require such combat specialists in the church, as far as I know.

I’m suggesting a different kind of S.W.A.T. team. Let’s have a small band of church leaders who are constantly on the alert for fellow members who have spiritual gifts that they are not using in the Kingdom or are under-utilizing them.

Such gifted church members are usually unaware of their spiritual endowments, of the ways in which they could be serving, and of the difference they could make in the lives of others.

Our job–your job, if you are one of those gifted by the Lord for this kind of work–is to find these people, open their eyes to what God has done in their lives, teach them, and then help them find their place of service. Find their calling.

The strange thing is that far more people believe that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to every believer than believe that there is a place of service in the Kingdom for each person. A rather odd little dichotomy, I think.

Here’s a director of human resources who puts someone on the company payroll and sends them to the plant manager with instructions, “See if you can find a place for this one.” An hour later, the individual returns with a post-it note on his back saying, “Don’t need him.”

If God loves us and saves us, calls us and gifts us spiritually, then has no place of service for us in His work, He is as inefficient and foolhardy as that director of human resources.

If God gifts you for His service, He has a place for you in the Kingdom. And that, I say to you, is one of the most exciting things in the world.

Acts 26 is one of three places giving the account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. As the Apostle Paul tells it, the Lord said to him, “I now send thee (to the Gentiles), to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (26:16-18).

One of the earliest disciples who believed in this new convert and encouraged him was Barnabas (see Acts 9:27). Later, after Paul had fled Jerusalem ahead of a lynch mob and returned to his ancestral home in Tarsus, Barnabas learned of a great revival taking place in Antioch of Syria.

The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to Antioch to check out this new thing the Lord was doing. “When he came and had seen the grace of God, (he) was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (11:23). Then, something occurred to him.

Many of those coming to Christ were Gentiles. And God had called Saul of Tarsus to be a missionary to these very people. And so we read one of the most critical sentences in the history of this planet: Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul (11:25).

Among the fascinating aspects of this wonderful thing that Mr. Encourager (the literal meaning of “Barnabas”) did was this: evidently, he did not ask Saul to do anything. He merely exposed him to the things God was doing. Since the Lord had called and gifted Saul, once he saw the need and stayed close to the Lord, the opportunities opened up. The rest, as they say, is history.

Barnabas was one of those rare individuals who sees a need and asks himself, “Who do I know with the gifts for this work?”

Just as fascinating is the way Barnabas and Saul went out on that first missionary journey (Acts 13), with Saul as the understudy, and shortly the roles became entirely reversed. The next journey (Acts 15:36ff), Paul took Silas on his trip into Asia Minor, while Barnabas chose another youngster, John Mark, and they headed to Cyprus.

One reason the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is so weak in parts of our world today is that saved, called, and gifted believers are sitting back, letting others do the work of the Kingdom, while their gifts atrophy.

The caricature of the typical church as a stadium of spectators cheering and booing on a few over-worked athletes is not far wrong.

Tell the average Joe in the pew that he should be up there preaching or singing, going door to door witnessing, or organizing for the mission trip to Uganda, and he will wonder if you have lost your mind.

Christi Gibson has an unusual title. On the staff of New Orleans’ First Baptist Church, she is the Minister of Connections.

I asked her about that today. “My job is connecting God’s grace in people with the work He has prepared for them in the Body.”

I said, “In other words, you help them find where to use their spiritual gifts in the work of the Lord.” Exactly. “At first,” Christi said, “we were calling it Minister of Assimilation. Same idea, but people responded to it negatively. I think it sounded a little too Star Trekkie to them.”

“So, we went with Connections. The idea is to get people connected.” But connected with what?

“With their place of service. After all, they are saved by grace and gifted by grace. So, now let’s see where the Lord has for them to use those gifts.” How do you do that?

“We take people through a course on the subject. At the conclusion, I have a personal consultation with each one. We look at their testimony, their life experiences, and a spiritual gifts inventory. We talk about where they might want to plug into the Lord’s work around here. The best thrill is seeing that ‘aha!’ light go on in their eyes as they see that there really is a ministry for them to do, one that is just right for them.”

Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. (I Corinthians 12:4-5)

On a football team, the last thing you need is eleven quarterbacks. Or eleven tackles or centers or running backs. You will need one center, two guards, two tackles, a quarterback, and five more athletes who will line up variously as ends or running backs. And that’s just the offense. You’ll require another set of skilled athletes altogether on defense.

In an orchestra, you will not want 25 violinists or 25 tuba players or 25 percussionists. You will want several of each talent–violin, cello, bass, flute, various horns, perhaps a piano or keyboard, and such.

In a church, you will not need 100 preachers or 100 soloists or custodians, unless your congregation is massive. In most cases, one or two preachers, a few Bible teachers, a group of singers, and then child care workers, teachers for children and youth, custodians, groundskeepers, secretarial, and such. And that’s just inside the building. These days, churches often need technical workers with computer skills, graphic artists, marketing people, and church planters. In their local community, the church will need members with a calling for feeding and clothing the needy, trained witnesses for reaching the unsaved, and skills in housing the homeless.

That most of our members sit on the pews expecting to be fed once a week and seeing that as the extent of their discipleship can be laid at the feet of the ministry. We have not taught our people that the Lord of grace who saved them has both gifted them with special abilities and callings and prepared places of service for them.

Members who will help me find my calling, my place of service, the ministry for which the Lord saved me, are doing me an incredible favor.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is the fourth in a five part series on finding people within the congregation who can meet extraordinary needs in the life of the church. The previous articles are:
The League of Church Members Extraordinary
Leaders: Find the Devil in Pew Number Seven
Reach the Ugly Woman in the Balcony

I wish for your church a small, dedicated group of people who are called and gifted, trained and faithful, in helping other people into the kingdom of God.

Call them soulwinners or witnesses. I call them midwives. They are not responsible for the new life, but they assist it in coming into being.

Someone walks forward during the invitation time and tells the pastor, “I’m ready. I’d like to become a Christian.”

Fortunate is the pastor who can turn to a member nearby and say, “Bill, this is Tom. Tom wants to become a Christian. Would you help him?” Bill invites Tom to come with him, and they exit the sanctuary into an adjoining room where they can speak quietly and privately. Bill opens the Scriptures and shows Tom what God has to say about becoming a disciple of Jesus, answers his questions, and prays with him. Then, after Tom is satisfied he has done what he came to do, Bill begins the process of disciplining him–that is, grounding him in the Christian faith.

There are those who teach that every member of the church should become soulwinners, capable of leading others to Christ. In a perfect world, I agree. But the reality is that not everyone is going to do that. Others have gifts and callings, burdens and opportunities, in other directions.

All are witnesses. But not all are soulwinners or midwives.

A witness is any believer who tells others what the Lord has done for him and what the Lord means to him. We are all commanded to be witnesses (Acts 1:8 among other places).

A soulwinner (what I’m calling a midwife) is a witness who can assist one wishing to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior into this new life. That means learning certain skills.

A soulwinner will learn a series of Scriptures that explain in an orderly fashion how an inquirer can come to know the gospel and give his/her heart to the Lord Jesus. The soulwinner will learn how to respond to basic questions the seeker may have, and to keep the conversation on track. He will develop the ability to lead in what we call “the sinner’s prayer.” And, just as importantly as everything else, he will learn how to do follow-up, helping the new believer to grow in the Lord, to join the church, to begin to know his Bible, and share his faith.

The church is blessed that has a corps of midwives throughout the sanctuary every Sunday.

These people are doing the most cutting-edge work of evangelism: helping people enter the kingdom. They will be doing several things each time the church gathers:

• They will be available to the minister for help during the invitation time, as Bill assisted Tom in the story above.
• They will be on the lookout for first-timers and seekers in church. You will know them, as a rule, by the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look in their eyes. They are unaccustomed to church or to this church in particularly, and in most cases will appreciate a friend stepping up to assist them. In fact, that may be a better term than witness, soulwinner or midwife: friend. Because that’s all it is, doing the thing a good friend would do.
• And, they will be available when ministers or other leaders tell them of particular people who have been coming to church but have not made professions of faith in Jesus. These–those who have been attending regularly for some time now–are often ready and eager to commit their lives to Christ.

Pastors will work to do two things: find just the right people to train as midwives and keep certain other people away from midwifery.

Finding the right people is simple. You look for healthy, growing believers with a natural exuberance about them. Often, they are eager to train to share their faith and assist others into the Kingdom.

Excluding certain others is just as important. Within every congregation are people with bad mental health, people who are obsessive and compulsive, driven by guilt and afflicted by sinful habits. Send them out as soulwinners or preachers and you will cause havoc in the field and bring shame upon the name of Christ. Anyone who has observed the Christian scene for any time has seen just such people doing the Lord’s work in all the wrong ways and causing more problems than they solve.

An obsessive-compulsive soulwinner will browbeat sinners into submission, then–almost literally–drag them to church, down the aisle, and through the baptismal waters. Their poor victims will be so relieved finally to be rid of their dominator after the last step, they disappear out the back door of the church and are never seen again.

The biggest disqualification for witnessing and soulwinning is sin in the life. Second to it is bad mental health.

No church has such a corps of focused midwives accidentally. Only through much prayer and planning and preparation do we end up with these miracle-working life-changers.

Where do you find such workers? The same place as all the others. “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into the harvest.” Believe me, you don’t want any other kind than the God-called.

Once you find them, they must be led and trained, then nurtured and appreciated and encouraged. Turn them loose without any accountability and, in the nature of all life in this world, they will wind down and lose all energy, focus, and will.

I am not saying the pastor must be their overseer, although he may need to at first. But as soon as the ministry is going, he should ask the Heavenly Father to raise up one of the most faithful to ride point for this work.

There is a shameful thing happening in churches all across our land today. Someone far from God decides to get up on Sunday morning and go to church. They walk in tentatively, not sure where to go or to sit, when to stand or to kneel, what book to use, the right terminology for anything. They have shown great courage in leaving their comfort zone in search of the missing element in their lives. And what do we church people do?

Nothing. We ignore them. We gear our programs and ministries for those who know the songs, are familiar with where to go and how to do things, and are acquainted with the right words. Anyone else is out of luck.

Anyone doubting this should read the church bulletin and imagine yourself as an outsider without a clue as to what all this means. Would you be drawn to those activities? Would you understand what is going on?

In most cases, this courageous outsider leaves our buildings and returns home without anyone ever learning his name. There will be no followup, no prayer for him, no contact.

No one cared.

Let some of us decide to change that. We will be on the alert for the newcomer, the outsider, the seeker, the questioner. We will be available for anyone and everyone wishing to find the way to God and willing to invite us along.

Let the church have midwives.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is the third in a five part series on finding people within the congregation who can meet extraordinary needs in the life of the church. To read the first two articles, “The League of Church Members Extraordinary,” and “Leaders: Find the Devil in Pew Number Seven,” follow the links.

My wife tells me not to use the term “ugly woman” and as you surely know, for a preacher to go against the advice of his wife is foolhardy. But since we were unable to find a better substitute, it remains — at least for the moment. I can always return and tweak this article. Readers with better ideas should send them this way posthaste!

The story comes from a longtime friend, Lynn. Now, Lynn is a better Christian than almost anyone I know. She has had enough pains and heartaches for several lifetimes. Instead of making her hard and calloused, the trials have driven her closer to the Heavenly Father. Consequently, she is full of mercy and grace.

Her church has wisely made her a greeter for the congregation. That sweet spirit and smiling face draw people in. Every church should have such people out front to welcome worshipers.

Not long ago, prior to the service, Lynn spotted a woman in the balcony. I’m using Lynn’s words when I say that she was ugly. The scowl on her face warned everyone to stand back about 500 feet. And that’s why Lynn did what she did. She sought her out. Climbed into the balcony and went straight to her, thrust out her hand and said, “Hello.”

The woman may as well have uttered a “bah, humbug!” for she was a living personification of Scrooge himself. She said nothing and turned away. Now, for most people, that would have done it. They would have written the woman off, but not Lynn. Not even close.

The next few Sundays, Lynn made it a point to seek the woman out. Each time, she received the same rebuke. Lynn told her husband, “I’m going to get through to that woman.” He said, “If anyone can, it’s you.”

The next Sunday, Lynn found her in the balcony and reached out to shake her hand. “My name is Lynn. What’s your name?” “Why do you want to know?” the woman asked.

“Because we are the Lord’s children and we ought to know one another.” If she gave a name, I don’t recall. However, that morning, as everyone was leaving church, Lynn felt a hand grabbing her arm from behind. She turned and saw her, the unattractive hostile lady from the balcony. “Do you have a moment?” she asked. And then, “I need prayer.”

“I’ll be happy to pray for you,” Lynn said. “What shall I pray?” The woman said, “I’m just so lonely. It’s my husband.”

Lynn said, “Did he die?” “Yes. Three years ago. And I know I should be over it by now, but I’m not.”

“Oh no,” Lynn said. “When you’ve had a wonderful marriage for many years, you don’t recover from the loss of your husband quickly.” They talked, Lynn prayed, and now they are friends.

That’s the process. It’s almost miraculous how it happens. A believer with a tender heart and sensitive spirit sees one who is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and reaches out until she decides to let down the drawbridge and admit her.

There are at least four groups of church leaders who should be on the alert every Sunday for certain people who need them and their particular ministry.

Deacons need to be watchful for troubled members and trouble-making people.

People like Lynn–I call them compassionate healers–need to watch for worshipers whose burdens have made them angry, unattractive, unfriendly, and unwelcoming to human contact.

Trained witnesses and soulwinners need to be on the alert for seekers in the congregation, people drawn by their need for a Savior.

And last, there is a certain small group of leaders whom I’m calling “Ministers of Connections” who will want to be watching for gifted members whose talents and abilities are not in the service of the Lord.

Back to (ahem) the ugly woman in the balcony.

I apologize in advance for the way I’m about to characterize this lady. Once her circumstances changed, everything about her countenance reversed. But here’s the tale.

I said to our church staff on a Monday morning, “Did you see that new family in the balcony?” A dad, mom, and three children, the older two being teens. I said, “That has to be the ugliest woman I have ever seen.” Whatever their response has long since been forgotten.

The family kept coming to church and we learned their names. They joined the church and the kids got active in our programs. Then one day a phone call came from the school. The teenager daughter has reported to a schoolteacher that her father was molesting her. After calling the authorities, the teacher called our youth minister. We all went into action.

The daughter was placed in state protection, the father was arrested, and the church flocked around the wife and other children. In time, the father went to prison and the wife divorced him. She went back to school and became a professional in the field she had long loved. And one more thing. She became beautiful.

I had never seen anything like it. I knew the Bible talks about how the Lord helps our countenance; and common sense says that the burdens of life can weight us down and rob us of a thousand things, including our smile, our glow, our peace, but still–to see it demonstrated was stunning.

Most people read the ugly countenance wrongly.

Thinking that scowl is saying, “Stay back! I do not like you,” they avoid this individual.

Sometimes when such heavily burdened people make it to church, they return angry because “no one spoke to me.” But we wish they knew there is a good reason for that: They told them not to. Their “no” face warned people away.

The “Lynns” in the Kingdom of God–the compassionate healers–read those faces differently from the rest of us. They see the same thing we do, but since they are better at interpreting facial messages, they read the hostile ugliness as, “I’m hurting. Come find me.”

Do I have to tell you the Lynns in any congregation are extremely rare? They are hammered out in the crucible of life, they have been battered and beaten; they have suffered more than most. Finding their strength in the Lord, they emerge with a Christlikeness and a compassion the rest of us can only wonder at.

Pastors know to treasure such persons in their membership, but usually do not know what to do with them. Answer: Make them roaming seekers of the hurting. Send them forth into the sanctuary to be themselves and do what the Holy Spirit in them wishes to do.

How to recognize the burdened and hurting hostiles who need us:

Consider the following aspects to reaching these needy souls.

1) They are angry. So, listen for the ugly tone of voice, for the snapping responses to attempts to befriend them, for the kind of attitude that would cause a mother to send a child into time-out. Don’t be put off by it. Hurting people are often grumpy. If you doubt that, visit a hospital room and listen. The pain in their voice betrays the pain in their bodies.

2) You must not retaliate. Something inside us wants to “give as good as we got.” Stifle it. All a curt response does is drive the hurting hostile away. It confirms them in their isolation. They return home confident that staying home would have been the best choice. Those whose mind is set on the flesh cannot pull this off.

3) A soft answer turns away wrath. Some (ahem) wise person said that once, and it wasn’t Ben Franklin. So, try it. No matter the harsh words you heard, respond with, “I hope you have a wonderful day.”

4) Pray for them. Pray for them every time you think of them.

5) Be consistent. Smile and greet them warmly. Whether they respond or not, do your job. Stay on focus.

6) Expect the same response Lynn got. Eventually, they will decide to trust you and will open the door a crack. They will ask you to pray for them or ask for a word of counsel or a visit. That’s a big deal to them. So don’t blow it, friend. Do not make a promise–I’ll try to get by as soon as I can–and then fail to keep it. If so, you will lose them forever.

7) In time, help them to become compassionate healers themselves, to seek out wounded worshipers like themselves.

They’re in every church, friend. Watch for them. And remember: when that moment arrives to greet them, it’s too late to stop and pray. So stay close to the Lord, let His Spirit empower you and sweeten you and steady you, and when the moment comes, you will be ready.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is the second in a five part series on finding people within the congregation who can meet extraordinary needs in the life of the church. To read the first article, “The League of Church Members Extraordinary Part 1,” follow the link.

Deacons and other mature leaders of the church have a responsibility, probably not spelled out in their bylaws, but as necessary as any given them in Scripture or by the membership: Be on a constant lookout for trouble and troublemakers within the congregation.

The Apostle Paul told the Ephesian leaders that they could expect deadly threats to the congregation’s survival to arise from two sources: outside and inside (Acts 20:29ff). The first they would have expected. It is no secret that the devil wants to destroy the church and neutralize its effectiveness and will use any means necessary to pull that off. It was the second–enemies arising from within the body itself–that must have surprised them. Had those leaders been as trusting and naïve as many of us, they would have expected all the worshipers to be loving and gracious, faithful and trusting, and would have been blindsided by tyrants arising from their own number.

So, Scripture warns us to be alert, to be watchful in both directions.

This is not the pastor’s job alone. Granted, he is charged with this responsibility. But in a congregation of hundreds or even thousands, he needs eyes and ears other than his own. He needs the deacons and Sunday School teachers–note that we are assuming them to be godly and mature–to keep their eyes and ears open, their antennae up, to remain always vigilant. They are to watch out for the devils in their midst, plainly put.

Rebecca Nichols Lonzo’s new book, The Devil in Pew Number Seven, ought to read by every pastor and leader. In the 1970s, Rebecca’s father went to pastor a small Holiness congregation in rural North Carolina. Everything about it seemed normal at first. The people were warm and gracious, they built a new parsonage, and they appreciated Pastor Nichols’ messages. There was, however, one problem. The devil sat on the last row, in pew number seven. And he ran this church.

Mr. Horry Watts, the richest man in the county, lived across the street from the church. From his throne on the back row, he called the shots. The oddest thing about that is that the old man was not a member of the congregation. In fact, he was not even a professing believer.

His power and influence stemmed from his financial dealings, personal intimidation over individuals, and his wife. Mrs. Watts lorded it over a women’s Sunday School class and was the church clerk/treasurer. No one but they knew the church’s finances. There were no treasurer’s reports and no one was allowed to look at the books.

Soon, Pastor Nichols began to exert leadership within the congregation. The members voted to replace Mrs. Watts as teacher and elected another clerk/treasurer. When the time came to turn over the books to the new officer, she handed the clerk a new checkbook with the present bank balance listed. Nothing else. No one ever knew what was done with the church money during her tenure.

From this point on, old man Watts dedicated himself to getting rid of the preacher. He began with anonymous notes and phone calls. Soon, he graduated to the heavier stuff: shooting up the mailbox and setting off dynamite near the house.

Over a space of several years, even though law enforcement authorities became involved, the old man and his hired thugs continued their reign of terror. It culminated with a gunman entering the parsonage and shooting the pastor twice and killing his wife. The man was arrested and sentenced to life in prison, but Horry Watts was not implicated.

An FBI agent eventually put together a case against Horry Watts and brought charges. He changed his plea from “not guilty” to “nolo contendre” when a gunman testified that Watts had paid him to run over the preacher with his automobile, then backed out. Watts was sent to prison.

After the death of his wife and recovering from his own wounds, Pastor Nichols was no longer able to function and resigned the church. In time, he had a nervous breakdown and eventually lost his mind. He died at the age of 46, as I recall.

Last Tuesday–three days ago–my copy of this book arrived in the mail. Anyone who reads this blog knows that church-controllers in the pews is a regular, although reluctant, theme here, so when this book was recommended, I ordered it immediately. (Published in 2010 by Tyndale, it’s available new or used at amazon.com and alibris.com.) That afternoon at 5 pm, my wife began some preparatory steps for a medical test the next day. In between, I began reading this book aloud to her. At 8:30, we finished it. That’s how intriguing and captivating we found this sad tale.

I laid the book aside wondering several things. Where were the laymen in the congregation? Why did the godly and mature leaders not step up and deal with this tyrant? Why did they leave it to the embattled pastor to handle all this?

It appears from Lonzo’s book that the members of the congregation limited themselves to caring for the emotional needs of their pastor and his family. They loved the Nichols’ and fed them, took them into their homes, and grieved when tragedy struck. But they abandoned their pastor where he needed them most: he needed a few men to step in and take this burden off his shoulders and deal with the devil.

I have my own gentler story of the devil in pew number seven.

It is not, let me emphasize, of the magnitude as Pastor Nichols’ situation, and it turned out well. His name was Earl and this was my seminary pastorate. I was 25 years old, just learning how to lead a church, and determined to get this right. The church ran 40 in attendance. When they voted on me as pastor, six people had opposed us. No matter. The Lord wanted us there, and we promptly moved from the seminary campus in town, into the small apartment in the rear of the church.

Immediately, I saw a problem. Earl sat in the middle of the congregation with his arms folded and a scowl on his face. As eloquently as possible, he was communicating displeasure over his new kid preacher. I was not alone in noticing it. More than one person called our attention to what he was doing.

After two or three Sundays putting up with this, I decided something had to be done. One Sunday, just as our little family finished lunch, I called Earl. “May I come over for a few minutes?” “Sure. Come on.” He told me how to find his house in the next town.

Earl was divorced man and was raising three children, two teenage sons and a younger daughter. He owned a trailer park next to his house as his source of income.

Sitting in his living room, I said, “Earl, tell me what’s wrong.”

He said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Your unhappiness with me is written all over your face as I preach. I want to know if I have done something or failed you in any way.”

“Nope. I don’t have any problem with you.”

“Then,” I said, “what is it? There’s something wrong.”

He explained that he and his sister-in-law and the four children had been the six ‘no’ votes concerning my call. “I just felt that we’ve had seminary students for too long, and our church is in a stalemate. We need a full-time pastor.”

Oh great. They’re running 40 in attendance and he wants a full-time pastor. The weekly income at that time was less than $150.

I recall nothing more about our visit. We prayed together, and that was the end of it. Earl became a great friend and supporter. In fact, we remained friends until his death some 30 years later when I led his funeral.

The worst thing members of the congregation can do when a devil sits in the pews is to ignore him, hoping he will go away.

Devils-in-the-pews–let’s call them DIPS–thrive off the passivity of the congregation. DIPS have contempt for the members in general, believe them to be cowards, and know from long experience their willingness to back off and give power to the person with the loudest voice and most intimidating manner.

Here are my five suggestions. Ahem, let me rephrase that. Here are five strong recommendations for church leaders in regard to the tyrants who want to infiltrate the congregation and control it.

1. If this is left to the pastor, you’re sunk.

The preacher is the focus of the DIPS. So, anything he does to stand up to the tyrants is considered self-serving by some. Being Christlike, he has an uncanny ability to absorb great amounts of pain and personal injury. He might choose to do nothing rather than do what some would interpret as retaliation.

In Pastor Nichols’ case, the head of the Ku Klux Klan stepped up and offered (in secret) to “take out” Horry Watts if the pastor would give the say so. While violence is never the answer, a prompt response from strong laypeople is in order.

2. However, there are rare occasions when the pastor can handle it alone.

Contradictory? Probably. You’ll notice that I handled it with Earl without involving anyone else. And my pastor tells me a similar story of the time he confronted an actual evil-doer in the church and it turned out well.

So, there are exceptions. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in this.

3. No person should attempt to resolve this alone.

(Once again, there are exceptions. Smiley-face goes here.)

Matthew 18’s plan fits here. Admittedly, the first step given (18:15) is to go alone to see the offensive one. However, that’s speaking of personal slights between two people. But since what we have here is a tyrant (or would-be tyrant) spreading trouble within the congregation, this should not be handled by a single individual.

At first, let two strong leader visit with Mr. Watts (or his counterpart in your congregation). If the matter is not resolved, a larger stronger contingent goes next time. The third time is when the congregation gets involved, if necessary. Do all you can to keep it from coming to that.

4. In the first visit, the leadership duo goes with a single question.

They ask the DIP the same one I posed to Earl all those years ago: “What’s wrong?” They are not making charges, but seeking information.

Now, he will give the same answer Earl did. “What do you mean?”

That’s when they tell their perception of what he is doing or share the reports they are hearing or say what they have seen and heard.

Let them listen to his response. Even if it appears he has been a trouble-maker, there is always the possibility that something else is going on, something completely unforeseen to them.

If the trouble-maker has a genuine beef–if he identifies some actual problem that has prompted his actions–the leadership duo has a responsibility to begin the steps to address it. In most cases, they will report to the pastor and start there.

If the man perceived as a DIP is indeed an actual troublemaker, the leadership team lets him know in unambiguous language that his actions must be stopped immediately.

5. Then, the leadership duo enlarges their team.

The pastor needs to be kept informed, and at least two or three of the most respected leaders should be drawn into the circle. If nothing else, just to keep them informed. If action is to be taken, their counsel will be needed.

It’s clear that this entire approach is contingent on a church having a small corps of dedicated and godly, mature leaders. Ideally, they are serving in elected positions within the church, and such actions will naturally fall to them. In any case, the members who take the lead will be required to have a unique blend of courage and humility.

“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3)

If the DIP is violating the law, church leaders have an obligation to the pastor, to the church, and to the tyrant himself to report it. Call it “tough love.” We do trouble-makers no favor when we let them destroy God’s church or ruin a man’s ministry.

Leadership in the Lord’s church can be one of the greatest joys in life. But at times it can be the most difficult task a person ever faces.

If one does not have the courage to step up and speak truth to power–whether that power runs the community or preaches from the pulpit on Sundays–he should decline when nominated for high office within the congregation.

If one is not willing to do everything in his power to protect the ministry of the servant of God and the health of the church, if he wants high office in the congregation for the prestige, let him apologize to God and resign so someone faithful can fill the position.

Church leaders must always be on the alert. They must listen to reports as to what is being taught in classes. They must pay attention to idle chatter in the foyer or hallways prior to or following worship. They should monitor the attendance, the offerings, and other signs which could possibly indicate disaffection within the membership.

But–once again–no church leader should act alone. If he or she does, the perception may soon get out that this individual is trying to become a controlling tyrant himself. And that’s the last thing you need.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is the first in a series on finding people within the congregation who can meet extraordinary needs in the life of the church.

Yesterday, as the receptionist at the medical specialty clinic checked my wife in for a procedure, she handed me a small lighted gadget. “When it goes off,” she said, “they’re through in the back and will be coming to get you.”

We’re all familiar with these things. What are they called–buzzers? They fit in the palm of your hand, they’re operated by batteries, and restaurants use them for patrons awaiting tables. When they go off, lights flash, the buzzer sounds, and the thing vibrates.

Pretty handy.

Perhaps this is what the Holy Spirit does when alerting believers to opportunities for ministry, something important to note, a critical moment that has arrived. Lights, buzz, vibrate.

Pagers. That’s what they are called, my daughter-in-law informs me. It brings to mind former days when bellhops would roam hotel lobbies with notes on silver trays, calling out, “Paging Doctor Smith,” or whoever. Rumor held that some insecure individuals actually arranged to have themselves paged that way in order to alert others in the lobby to their presence.

Is there a Bible verse that promises the Holy Spirit will alert us–page us–to opportunities, needs, moments? I’m still searching for that.

But it’s true. It happens. Everyone who goes to work for the Lord knows those moments when the Spirit nudges us. Go back and give to that homeless man. Get up and speak to that lonely soul. Call her back and ask her to forgive you.

“He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3)

Now, I’m proposing that every church needs to have at least four teams of workers–probably unofficial, nothing really organized–who will focus on people in the congregation who need our help. As always, it will be the Holy Spirit who alerts them to the individuals who need them.

What are the four teams? They are four uniquely gifted groups who focus in on four specific kinds of spiritual needs.

1. Deacons and Other Mature Leaders.

These will watch for troubled and the trouble-makers in church.

I know this, Paul told the Ephesian elders, that after my departure, grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch . . . (Acts 20:29-31)

2. Compassionate Healers.

These will watch for the lonely, hurting, withdrawn souls within the congregation.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

3. Trained Witnesses and Soulwinners.

These will be alert to seekers in the congregation, those outsiders who are looking for what Jesus Christ, and only He, has to offer.

As you go, preach, saying the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 10:7). Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. (Acts 8:35)

4. Ministers of Connections.

These will be watching for gifted people within the congregation who are doing nothing with their calling/gifts/talents/abilities and matching them up with places of opportunity that need what they do.

Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, to seek Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). A great revival had broken out among the Gentiles in Antioch, and Barnabas recalled that Saul had been called by God as an apostle to this very group.

So! That’s the plan. In the four articles that follow, we will be sharing stories and whatever insights we can glean on this subject.

My wife says I might need to warn readers to watch out for my intemperate language in the titles of these articles. The first one, dealing with mature leaders on the alert for troublemakers within the congregation will be titled Watching for the Devil in Pew Number 7. And the second, on compassionate healers watching for the needy and lonely, I’m calling Find the Ugly Woman in the Balcony. (Incidentally, I’m doing this against her counsel. She says it will be needlessly offensive. I counter that all other titles I can think of are boring, and that this fits perfectly. We’ll see. No one will be surprised if, once again, she’s right.)

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is part five of a multi-article series by Dr. McKeever on how to go about seeking and calling a church staff more effectively. Part one is The Pastor Assembles a Staff: Scary. Part two is The Most Important Person in Your Office. Part three is Church Staffs: Rules to Live By. Part four is The Bi-Vocational Pastor Assembles His Staff.

(This should be the final entry in this little series of postings regarding church staff teams. For a pastor to bring in associate ministers to his church can be a wonderful boost to his work, a blessing to the congregation, and a lift to the associate’s career. But it’s also scary, a real faith venture which can and sometimes does go badly. Here are a few considerations on the subject.)

1. The pastor and congregation of a small church agree it’s time to add a staff member, their first. How should they go about it?

Very deliberately. Cautiously, prayerfully, intelligently.

The most common error I’ve seen pastors in this situation make is to bring in a buddy, who they have known through the years, who is presently without a church. On the surface, it looks like a gift from Heaven, a situation handed them from on high.

Maybe so. More likely not.

Pastor, it’s one thing to be friends with that colleague through the years. But when you become his supervisor, the relationship changes. Be careful here.

I suggest to the pastor of a small congregation about to bring in a new staff member that he do the following:

a) Put together a small team of mature church members to assist him. They are not “the” search committee, although they and you work as a team. You will need their counsel, their wisdom, their judgment, and the new minister will need their support. (It’s best if they do not select a chairman; you are their leader.)

b) Be very clear as to what you want the new staffer to do. If it’s to work with the youth or administer an educational program or develop a senior adult ministry, spell it out.

c) Have an understanding with your committee that all must be on board with a recommendation before it goes to the church. Prepare them for the possibility of everyone except you agreeing on someone, or you wanting a candidate who they do not accept. Make sure they are able and prepared to deal with that. Immature members will quickly lose patience with a pastor who seems hard to please or who does not accept their choice.

d) Call other pastors and get their help. They know people you don’t.

e) Once you find a likely candidate, do not fall in love with him/her too quickly. Caution your committee about this, too. Take your time to get to know him, to run plenty of references, to thoroughly check into his past.

After all, this being the church’s first venture into staff members, you want the experience to be a good one.

2. Where do we find great staff members?

First, ask God. “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38). He knows them all. Ask Him to send that special one who would be just right for your church. After all, it’s His church!

Then, remember how the Lord loves to work: “out of the box.” That is, He is not real good at following our rules and guidelines. He loves to do new and unexpected things, to use people in surprising ways, to open doors where we saw only a blank wall.

Therefore, you might find your new staffer in your own congregation (someone who is presently teaching school and is gifted with working with children or teens), in a neighboring church congregation (that’s why you’ll want to spread the word about your search to local pastors), and a hundred other places.

3. Okay, we’ve got our new staff member. Now what?

You—the pastor—and he/she should spend a good deal of time together planning, talking, sharing, getting to know one another, praying, thinking, dreaming.

The worst mistake pastors make with new staffers is to bring them in and abandon them.

The second worst is to hand the new hire a list of duties and expectations a mile long. He has to be in the office each morning by 8:30, he has to visit the hospitals at least twice a week, he cannot visit in church members’ homes without the pastor’s approval, he will give a written report of each day’s activities. A strait jacket. A heavy burden. Not good at all.

Get to know each other well, making sure you’re on the same page, and then set up weekly staff meetings in which you plan the worship service, reflect on the previous Sunday services, go over the calendar for the future, and deal with any problems that arise. Have the schedule for these staff meetings set in stone for Monday mornings at 9 or Tuesdays at 5 or whenever. Otherwise, you will soon begin to skip them, because “well, it’s just us two and we talk in the hallway a lot.”

It’s not the same. Stay with the scheduled sessions.

4. What if the new staff member is a “she” and the pastor is a “he”?

Then, you’ll need to do some things differently. Staff meetings should never be held between just the two of you in your office. Bring in the church secretary (if your church has one, she should always be included) or the chairman of deacons, anyone in leadership. If it’s just the two of you, have your wife and her husband present.

Should the pastor and “she” travel together in the car? Only as a last resort. The last thing the church needs—not to say your ministry and reputation, or her reputation—is gossip. You will have to go out of your way to do the responsible thing.

5. The staff member has been at a church 10 years. The congregation calls a new pastor, young enough to be his son. What to do?

The staffer ignores his age, as difficult as that may be. He’s the pastor and thus the church’s leader and overseer (Acts 20:28). He is your leader. Put yourself under his authority.

If you find yourself critical of how the pastor is doing things, you have few choices: a) If he will receive your counsel, offer it to him. b) If he will not, keep it to yourself. c) Tell no one but the Lord.

6. The new pastor is hurting our church. Members are coming to the staff member with their complaints. He’s sympathetic to them. What to do?

No church staff member should ever get caught in the middle of such a struggle. Nothing good can come from it. This is an issue the lay leadership of the church is going to have to handle without your input.

At some point when matters are going well in the church, a staff member tells the pastor and then, with his approval informs the leadership of the church, “If you ever have a problem with the pastor, do not come tell me. I work under his leadership. This is how God and the church have set things up. So, if you ever have a problem with the pastor, please bypass me and go straight to him with it.”

7. What if the staffer has some good suggestions to the pastor? Should he tell the preacher?

A staff member will quickly discern whether the pastor receives this kind of counsel well. If so, the staffer should consider himself most blessed. If not, then that’s the reality of the situation and he should learn to live with it.

The pastor of my church is as gifted as anyone I have ever met in the ministry. And yet, Mike Miller has a trait most rare: he welcomes suggestions on how to do something better.

What a staffer could do sometime when he and the pastor are having a friendly visit is to bring up the subject: “Brother Tom, give me some guidance, please. If I ever have a suggestion for you on something you are doing, should I keep it to myself or bring it to you, or would you prefer I’d just tell the Lord? I’m perfectly willing to do whatever you wish.”

Now, the pastor is going to say, “Hmmm. That’s a new thought. Give me an example, Ed.” This is where you will need to be prepared. If you aren’t, you are about to walk into a buzz saw.

What you do is give a hypothetical illustration, something that did not happen. “Okay, let’s say that last Sunday from the pulpit you thanked a group of people for the great banquet the night before. But you left out a key worker. Should I tell you or not?” Or, maybe, “Let’s suppose you said that nowhere in the Bible does it say such-and-such. Yet, I know where it says precisely that. Do you want me to tell you that or not?”

Good luck. Hope the pastor hits that one out of the park.

8. The pastor is preparing to bring in a second staff member. Does he consider the present staffer’s opinion?

You bet he does. Unless he is dissatisfied with his/her work and is making plans to end their employment, he should be seeking input from this person who works closest with him. When the new staffer comes in, the staff relationship will be one of the most critical aspects of his ministry.

And let’s make this point. If the two staffers become best friends, in no way should the pastor be threatened. Except in unusual circumstances, the church will only be blessed by this close friendship.

9. What if the pastor has to terminate a staff member? All suggestions welcome.

Been there, done that. It’s no fun. And yet, if a minister is not working out at the church—he’s not capable, he’s lazy, immature, or ill-fitted for the assignment, or unwilling to work under the authority of the pastor—it’s best for everyone if the pastor ends his employment.

If something immoral, illegal, or unethical is involved, the pastor will handle this discreetly with a few key leaders. No “two-weeks-notice” is given to such a staffer, either. He’s gone immediately.

But what about his family? What about his friends in the church? That’s why terminations always hurt. But one should never keep a poor staffer in place because “if we let him go, we’ll lose members.” That’s the worst of all reasons to do a thing.

My wife once listened as I went on and on about the behavior of a terminated staffer. Finally she said, “I wish you could hear yourself. Joe, think about it. You want to fire a guy and have him like it.” Zing. That’s true.

Termination should be the final step in a long process of working with the person in which we try to make them effective or find another place in the church where they could serve. They should not be surprised but should see this coming.

10. Any final thoughts about termination?

Do it in love, be generous, and be as helpful for future employment (references, etc.) as the individual will let you and the Spirit of God within you leads.

Some years back, I told a friend to lift me up on a morning that I was going to have to terminate the youth minister. He was killing the ministry, driving the kids away, and we had to stop the hemorrhage. She said, “May I make a suggestion?”

She said, “When you call him in, ask how he assesses his ministry. He might fire himself.”

That’s what I did, and it’s what he did. I was so relieved.

He and I are friends to this day.

Sooner or later, pastor, someone is going to pull out that old joke and say to you, “Don’t be like Jacob. (Or David, or whoever) The Bible says he leaned on his staff and died.”

It’s a funny line, maybe, but the Bible says no such thing.

One of the best things that ever happened to me was serving for 3 years on the staff of a large church. I learned lessons in that time it would have taken decades to master in the smaller churches I’d been pastoring.

Hmmm. I can see that needs to be the theme of the next article in this series. So, I’m not quite through yet, it appears.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is part four of a multi-article series by Dr. McKeever on how to go about seeking and calling a church staff more effectively. Part one is The Pastor Assembles a Staff: Scary. Part two is The Most Important Person in Your Office. Part three is Church Staffs: Rules to Live By.

A friend in Georgia who had read my articles on church staffs raised a good question: “How do you begin to build a staff when the pastor is the only employee of the church or even when you are bi-vocational?”

I sent a note to a friend in Alabama who knows all about the bi-vo business. While working full-time for a government agency, Bo has another full time job: pastoring a Southern Baptist church; and, a growing one at that. In fact, Bo’s church is sufficiently large enough to have two or more ministers on board full time. And yet, he and every member of his staff are bi-vocational.

A word about definitions. Bo called my hand on saying he is part-time at the church. “Hey, no minister is part time! No matter where you are, and no matter what you are doing, you are a minister of the gospel. There is no such thing as a part-time minister.” Good point.

So, how does Bo go about assembling a staff? Before telling you what he said, let me point out that he seems to have a great concept of whom to hire. The times I’ve preached for him, I’ve been impressed by the quality of the leadership of his team.

All right. Here are the eight principles that guide this bi-vocational pastor in seeking staff members.

Bo emphasizes, incidentally, that he just threw these together, so I assume this means they are not in order of priority or importance. I’m editing his notes just a tad for clarity. (Please note that my occasional comment following Bo’s will be in italics.)

1. First and foremore, I look at why they left their last position.

I’m not worried as to whether they were fired or not, unless it was over an ethical issue. It does matter if they caused turmoil or openly opposed the pastor. If they created strife there, they will here. I know there are exceptions to that, but it is still to be considered.

This means, of course, that you will want to know everything you can learn as to why they left their last position. Then you can decide how much weight to give to what you learned.

2. I look at their passion.

I’m willing to take heat for someone who is giving everything they have. You cannot teach or demand a “called” life. I want them to be as passionate about their area of ministry as I am about the entire church. This might cause strife at some point in staff meetings, but that is not always a bad thing. “As iron sharpens iron . . .”

Great point. It’s easier to try to rein in some race horses than to build a fire under lazy ones.

3. I use a search team to help me.

Members who I select for the search team will be people who I personally know love God’s church, support their pastor, and have a rooting interest in the job at hand.

It’s always easier and quicker to make these decisions alone, but I guarantee that a new staffer will feel much more secure coming in to a church if he has the endorsement of a team of church leaders. After all, what if the pastor leaves? Even so, the search team should follow the pastor’s lead.

4. I’m looking for loyalty in a staff member.

I search for someone who, after we have talked, I sense will be loyal to me their pastor. This is not an ego thing but rather a team concept. There are two kinds of people within the church: those on staff and those who aren’t. That is a permanent rule to always be understood. Therefore, the team God builds will need to be loyal to one another. A deflected bullet never hurts as much.

I once knew of a pastor whose church was looking for a minister of music. While guest-speaking in a church in another city, he interviewed the worship leader there, a man with whom he had been impressed. However, when that staffer began criticizing his own pastor, the visiting minister quickly ended the conversation. He correctly concluded if the man was disloyal to his own pastor, he would be disloyal to a new one.

5. The new minister will need to click with existing staff.

If I believe in the team God has already given us, I’m going to have to guard them from a new personality that would wreck our unity.

Honestly, I had not thought of this until Bo mentioned it. However, some years back I recall our ending negotiations with a minister whom we had brought to visit our church for the simple reason that he and his wife were social climbers and I felt they would not fit well with our team.

6. I’m looking for a staff member who would never consider himself to be part time.

It’s impossible to do ministry part time.

Bo was picking at me a little on this. But he makes a good point. A danger I’ve encountered in hiring seminary students–they’re always (ahem) part-time or bi-vocational–is some will see the employment as a meal ticket and not want to devote themselves to this ministry. Any pastor considering a seminary student or someone with a 40-hour job elsewhere will want to know how the individual sees his ministry.

7. Include others in the interview.

Talk to people around whom you respect, who can help you in making a decision about the candidate. Include them in the interview process. You might invite a minister from another area who you love dearly, to sit in on the interview, or at least to be a prayer partner and a counselor for you.

Again, I’d not thought of this. Great suggestion.

8. Believe and do not compromise.

Small churches will often settle on the first available person. Better to believe that God is a Big God and will bring in the person you need. Do not be afraid to say ‘no’ to a hire.

In the early 1990s, when my church was looking for a minister of education, we interviewed a number of candidates. In 2004, when I became director of missions for metro New Orleans, Freddie Arnold was the associate in that office. One day, he told me he had interviewed for our church vacancy a dozen years earlier. I said, “That’s strange. I have no memory of that at all.” He laughed, “I had to call you to ask where you were in the search because I wanted closure.” I said, “And what was the answer?” He said, “That the Lord was leading you elsewhere. That’s the same conclusion I had come to for my own ministry.” He ended up in a far superior spot, ministry-wise.

Bo ended, “I can probably think of more guidelines, but that’s it in a nutshell.”

Which incidentally is the title of George Lindsey’s autobiography: “Goober in a nutshell.”

Thanks, Bo. Good stuff.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

This is part three of a multi-article series by Dr. McKeever on how to go about seeking and calling a church staff more effectively. Part one is The Pastor Assembles a Staff: Scary. Part two is The Most Important Person in Your Office.

Recently I requested of some minister friends their advice and lessons learned concerning church staff relationships. What follows are some of the best of the responses, in no particular order.

1. Jim says, “Be very careful whom you trust completely.”

In over 3 decades of ministry, Jim says he has been brutally betrayed at least 3 times. It has made him wary about trusting anyone with anything confidential.

I’m recalling a time two churches ago when the personnel committee and I were dealing with a sensitive issue, long since forgotten. I said, “Can I say something in here and it not go any further?” The chairman said, “Pastor, I wouldn’t say anything in here you do not want to get out.”

That was a courageous thing for him to do. As subtly as he knew how, the chairman was warning me off from trusting some of the people in that room. In time, I learned he knew whereof he was speaking.

2. Andy says, “First, pastor the staff. Be their shepherd.”

Something inside us wants to protest that, well, the staff are all ministers and they don’t need pastoring. They do. In fact, preacher, so do you.

I have heard that the typical ministerial staff wants the pastor to be their friend and the congregation’s pastor; the congregation, however, wants him to be their friend and the staff’s pastor.

My answer is: be both. I can pastor friends.

3. Chris says, “You will never have a ministry like Jesus until you’ve had a Judas at your table.”

Pastors should accept the reality that sooner or later one of their dearest friends and associates will turn out to be the biggest troublemaker in the church.

4. John says, “Staff members should stand up for their pastor.”

One of the most devastating assessments of a certain minister says he “tends to agree with whoever he’s talking with at the moment.” I suspect that in his mind this makes him a good guy and a friend to everyone. It also means he has no convictions, no courage, and no backbone.

Sometimes, to be true to Christ and to one’s calling, each of us will have to say to the fellow across the table something like this: “I beg to differ with you. The pastor’s not that way at all. He’s actually one of the godliest men I know.”

Amazing how those short sentences can stop a critic in his tracks.

5. Joe says, “And that knife cuts both ways. The pastor should stand up for his staff.”

The rule is: Defend him in public, but criticize him in private, person to person.

6. Mel says, “You can delegate tasks, but not responsibility.”

Even when I the pastor ask you to perform a task, it’s still on my desk, on my plate, on my mind. I’m still accountable to the church to see that this gets done. The pastor cannot stand before the deacons or some other heavyweight team of leaders and excuse himself of malfeasance because “I asked Tom to do that and he failed.”

7. Michelle says, “Guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Keep yourself close to the Lord—whether you are the lead pastor or the lowliest staffer—and keep the heart pure by constant prayer, daily repentance, and faithful service.

8. Linda says, “The best leaders lead by serving.”

A pastor friend tells me he’s about to lose a church family because the annual Thanksgiving dinner in which members of the congregation gorge themselves on turkey and dressing and all the trimmings has been turned into a community dinner, where the members serve the neighbors and unchurched who attend.

How strange is that, the idea that the church should actually “serve!”

Pastors and staffers will always want to set the example by their willingness to get dirty and do the lowliest tasks. Nothing endears a leader to his people than seeing him lay aside his theological degrees and clerical persona, gird himself with a towel and wash their feet.

9. Linda adds, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

She did not elaborate on that old maxim from political life. I’ve known of governors and presidents who appointed an outspoken critic to a job in the administration in order to shut them up, but also so they could watch them closely.

There are limits on that. I’ve also known of churches in which leaders wanted to appoint the pastor’s severest critic to a key committee thinking that would shut him up. All it tends to do is give him a platform and a bullhorn. Not a good idea.

10. Rocky had several “rules to live by” involving church staff members.

a) Do not ask anyone to do what you are unwilling to do.

b) Express appreciation regularly and publicly, but criticize privately.

c) Overlook mistakes. We all make them.

d) Free staffers to use their gifts.

e) Pray for one another.

f) Choose your staff carefully; they can make you or break you.

11. Monte says, “Everyone needs a Barnabas” (an encourager).

The other ministers on the staff are in the best position to encourage one another, because they know what you are going through. Monte says, “There are times when an ‘attaboy/girl’ is the balm that is needed to make it through a particularly rough situation.”

12. Monte adds, “Pastors, be sensitive to staffers who are single.

These ministerial staff members do not have someone waiting at home to bounce ideas off or get comfort from. She says, “It can be a lonely place.” So, what can a pastor do? “Maybe occasionally checking in with the single staffer to see how he/she is coping with their ministry would be helpful and healthy.”

13. Sam says, “The matter of coming in as pastor and giving leadership to a staff put in place by your predecessor has its own challenges.”

No question about that. I’ve known it to go both ways, for the new pastor to be given carte blanche to wipe the slate clean and bring in his own team, and for pastors to be told that “the staff are all loved by this church and we expect the new pastor will work with them.”

I suspect this deserves its own article, rather than just a couple of lines here.

In the meantime, we send this forth in the hope that something above will be of help to a staffer or the pastor who seeks to lead a staff.