Seeking Excellence in Church Administration-Spiritual Leadership Podcast

welcome to the spiritual leadership podcast with pastor Paul Chapel pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church and founder and president of West Coast Baptist College welcome to this edition of the spiritual leader podcast and I'm excited about today's topic Church administration or we could subtitle that the pastor in administration and I'm looking forward to sharing some truths with you you know when I think about spiritual leader podcast this podcast has been going for more than a decade and initially included a lot of our leadership lessons that we were posting and over the last few years we've been doing more personal lessons and thoughts that we're sharing sometimes with interviews sometimes not but our heart is just to take principles that God is using in our life in the ministry and to share them with men and women who have a heart to make a difference in today's society and while we speak primarily to the church ministry there are principles here that can be used in many different areas of life so I always appreciate when you tell someone about the podcast or perhaps tweet out about what God has done on social media or on Twitter we appreciate your encouragement of others to join with us on this journey of leadership development before I get into the lesson today I want to mention a couple of things by way of answering some questions that have come in and thank you for sending those along our way and the first question comes from an assistant pastor and he's had quite a journey it sounds like his pastor resigned two months ago he's 25 years old newly married smaller congregation and the trustees of the church are kind of directing the show so to speak and he's basically doing the preaching and wondering what to do during this time so let me encourage you with a few quick thoughts number one remember that your TrueNorth so to speak your focus needs to just remain on the Lord this could go a couple of different ways you don't know where it's heading but you know this that God's already there so just keep trusting him love your family be faithful to the basic things of walking with the Lord leading your family secondly love that congregation I would say to visit them in their home pray with the sick the elderly I would encourage you in the preaching to study to rightly divide the word and edify as best you can many things can happen in a time like this sometimes the assistant pastor is ultimately asked to be the pastor that is one of the options sometimes they'll bring in someone that's older and and then you'll have to reassess does this pastor have compatibility with you and you with him and it's almost starting the interview process all over again sadly some churches don't make it through this time especially smaller churches I'm gonna pray that through your faithful loving of the flock and faithful preaching that they will either stay vibrant and alive until they get a new pastor or until perhaps they would ask you to take that role if that's God's will for your life with respect to the Deacons kind of telling you when to preach and so forth or the trustees at this point that's probably about what their Constitution says and I would say that they're not necessarily stepping out of their bounds to to say we'd like you to preach next week or the next couple of months normally you're going to have a pulpit committee or a couple of older men in the church that are kind of guiding through that process obviously when they call a pastor then it would be awkward for a board to be telling the pastor when to preach or who to have preached but I would not let that issue bother me too much right now so I would encourage you to love the folks visit them preach edifying messages and keep your focus on the Lord during this time of transition the next question is this why does there seem to be a separation between the newer generations and the previous generations is it positive or negative you know we hear so much about this and we hear about baby boomers and Millennials gen Z and Gen X and all this let me just say that what we're seeing right now and I mean we've seen splits in conventions and we've seen splits and fellowships and we're seeing some dividing now different directions amongst even some of the independent or unaffiliated Baptist none of this is new some of the terms are new but I remember as a college student being warned about this mega church pastor watch out for this guy who has elders and is involved in Calvinism and so forth and and in some senses I needed the warnings but there were always younger men looking out to see what else was going on some of them went a little way some of them went way too far I remember as a part of the Baptist Bible fellowship college that I attended watching back in the early 80s and there was a definite just changing of direction it seemed like you had some men that were standing for soul-winning and mission staying with the King James Bible and other other such things yet on the other side men that began to drift and it was sometimes stylistically sometimes it was forms of either Calvinism or versions issues a lot of those men that went to the left are now either Southern Baptists some of them are dead others of the Conservatives regrouped and they've got their own fellowships and new college and so forth but that all started really the the the real start of that was back in the 80s and you know the terms are different but the issues are the same for example back then it was lifestyle evangelism today it's being really missional you know and back then I had a teacher that said we have to be exegetical in our preaching and now it's gospel centered you know but it was the same kind of a philosophy because one is saying we do it better than they do it and nobody wants to just use the Bible term rightly dividing the word of truth and so when these movements happen you hear these new buzz words everywhere I would just say be slow be patient stay in the word and for me I always chose to have older mentors who had seen some of these cycles who could walk me through it so that I didn't get off into something that would be detrimental to my family or to Church down the road there's just some basics with me that have helped me I'm not gonna stop being a Baptist I'm not baptistin I have a Baptist I'm committed to the preservation of the scripture for the english-speaking people in the King James Bible I'm I'm not gonna take funds from a denomination that's just in various different forms of of array with respect to their convictions or beliefs and and I've always just you know said Lord I'm gonna be faithful to the heritage that you've given to me and and I've been one to speak out against issues that haven't been balanced or where sin hasn't been dealt with properly but by the grace of God and because of some older mentors I never overreacted and just completely went to a different philosophy and I'm thankful for that now at this point in my ministry I want to I want to be consistent double minded man is unstable in all of his ways I don't want to give that uncertain sound even in my own church I just want to be as faithful as I can be and so that there's there's a lot of different things that could be said but what I'm trying to just clearly say here to this question is that what you're observing isn't new it's cyclical and some of this stuff just seems to come up every 20-30 years and and the good thing is that if you just step back and watch you'll see these crowds identifying themselves you'll be able to see who's kind of staying true maybe to the position that you hold and who's really moving away you'll see that some that are moving are doing it with a spirit of kindly Ness and you know they're they're smiling along the way others are kind of sarcastic and you can see them on social media just they've got a rub you know they've got a they've got some kind of an issue and then you'll see on the same by those that are more conservative and traditional the same thing some that will have a good spirit and others that are just they act like they've got a rub they've got a problem so my final comment to you would be keep a good spirit as you observe these things and don't be discouraged God's still on his throne his church is still going forward final question and this is a question about soul-winning and the question is related to what's the difference between being an attraction alert and a soul winning Church and you know that is a question that I really believe is is again new because even the term attraction Elizab it new as relating to the church work but the attraction alert idea as I understand it is this idea that if you've got a you know cool enough choir or music or a program then you just kind of let it be known that you're there you got great programs great music and you're gonna attract people okay so we're not against having a sharp program or children's programs or whatever in in in moderation right it's not about the programs it's about the person Jesus Christ but what I believe in and this is one of those distinctions that goes back to the last question I believe in a soul winning church model and a lot of the churches today that are moving leftward are more attraction aliy based they're more into their band and to these some of these different things but you know Jesus said you know who among you if he had a lost sheep would not leave the 90 and 9 and go and seek after that lost lamb until it is found so you know Jesus modeled for us this idea of leaving our comfort zone going out into the field go ye therefore and then seeking until they are found Jesus didn't tell us to say oh there's a lost lamb that was that was foreordained I'll just stay here with the ones that we've attracted and that were ordained no no he said I'm gonna go after that one go into the highways and hedges compel them to come in and so when I think about attraction all versus soul-winning I want our ministry to be attractive I want it to be welcoming but but I'm commanded to go out and to share the gospel and whether that's organized soul-winning or carrying tracts or developing relationships to witness always can be mentioned but we want to be a soul winning Church and I hope that gives you some thoughts on the difference between the attraction and the soul-winning well today we're going to learn about church administration and I want to take this moment just to thank you again for joining with us and Church administration really sometimes revolves around the pastors administration abilities especially in a church between you know seventy and two to three hundred after that you begin to develop others around you who hopefully will help in the process but I want to just give you a few thoughts regarding administration first and foremost is what's the purpose of it I mean why do we need to continually learn the first book I read years ago right out of college was entitled in search of excellence and and why do we search after and seek to be excellent and I think that's an important question I think sometimes it's because we want to be sharp sometimes we want to try new things or have things look organized so that we're looking good and but the fact is the real purpose for administration is first of all to glorify God I mean we want him to be glorified in all things whatever we do do it all to the glory of God sometimes people walk on our campus I'm looking out the window right now at a beautiful gymnasium center at another educational building and some dormitories people walk on the campus and they go wow you've done a great job here but you know we love deflecting the glory back to God and we're thankful that our campus is is a unique place in our community of three or four hundred thousand people with respect to the way it's managed but we don't we don't want that just for ourselves we want to be giving God the glory because he's a God of order and not a God of confusion so we want to be administratively minded so God can be glorified also we want to provide time for the pastor in other areas so if if I can set structure that our staff and church family can follow through with and if we can administrate properly it's going to allow me to pull back then and do what God's called me to do with respect to study with respect to prayer and with respect to vision we're working right now on a brand-new strategic plan in which we're kind of pulling back looking at our schedules looking at our structures and saying how can we do better and one of the goals with that is so that the staff can lead and so that the church can go forward to the glory of God the pastor needs time to study he needs time to focus he needs time to clarify vision and also I would say not only for the glory of God not only for the help of the pastor but I would say thirdly for the encouragement of the people I mean nobody likes to come to a church where you know there's trying to figure out what song to sing or the bathrooms didn't get cleaned the day before or the sound wasn't checked there's a myriad of items that need to be prepared for the work of the Lord and so we want to meet those needs along the way so there there are some definite biblically based purposes for being a man and a church that is administrated properly so let me share with you then some of the patterns that I see in effective administrators first of all an effective administrator is identifying the needs and vulnerabilities of the ministry at early stages you're you're a man you're a woman who in administration and we have we have for example I think of Lisa stoner who's over all of our secretaries and a lot of the administrative flow of our church an amazingly gifted woman but but Lisa sees things that others sometimes don't see and as a pastor there's things that I'm trying to see constantly and I'm writing them down on the bulletin writing them down on a three by five card I'm trying to watch for vulnerabilities and that those vulnerabilities might be someone spiritual development a financial vulnerability I'll be teaching this year at the spiritual Leadership Conference the second week of June here in Lancaster on how to establish a ministry dashboard what are the twelve areas of the ministry that we put on that dashboard and those are areas dealing with a ten decisions membership Sunday school involvement financial areas and so forth why do I live with those kinds of reporting systems because I need to see the vulnerabilities in the early moment so that I can lead and lead well so an administrator is looking for the needs of the ministry and making assessments all the time secondly he is then involving the team for the work of the ministry so you're gathering in you're taking note you're then identifying what area this falls under rushers secretarial Sunday School Director and then you're creating those lists by those Department when you meet with those leaders you're discussing the need this is a great mentoring opportunity I was telling our staff this last week sometimes in the meetings as even as we're just assigning things and talking about needs there's a mentoring side to that we're training as to why this is important and as to how this should be done and sometimes when it comes to involving it might be taking someone with you on soul-winning having a having lunch with someone but just taking the time to make sure that they understand what they're going to need to do for a particular area really that should also begin with a job description that's given to each of these folks up front but as the administrator as the overseer I'm looking for the needs I'm identifying them by category and then I'm meeting with the people who lead those particular categories now there's a purpose for it there's a pattern that I see with administrators and that's a pattern of oversight watchfulness and trying not to miss things but then let me just give you a little process for your administration just some things that I think might help just not only with the capturing and with the sharing but then the process of that oversight first of all you've got to take the oversight you've got to see yourself as the owner of that ministry if you have an area what can you do every day to make it better the Bible says in 1st Peter 5 to feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind so it's important that first of all you take oversight of yourself in this sense that as a man or woman of God you are going to be daily disciplined spiritually dying to self a life to the Spirit walking in Christ but that you're going to say these areas that I have I'm going to lead them effectively that's very very important people are going to respond more to what you do than to what you say and so you want to be someone who's accomplishing and who's working out that responsibility as well and then and then you take oversight for the ministries that God has given to you and that will include not only writing list and meeting with team members that will include creating a calendar a lot of times in our ministry at least once a year for our main planning meeting all the staff men will give not only their activities that they're over the main activities I'm talking Easter Christmas Youth Conference youth camps the main events but they'll give all the lists leading up to those events and that's a discipline that requires a lot of hours I mean it's easy to say we're going to go to camp in July it's not so easy to tell the date you're gonna reserve the bus the date you're gonna buy the gas the date you're having your teen workers meetings the date you're ordering the t-shirts there's a thousand steps that go into having a camp so in taking the oversight we want to not only enlist and involve the people but we want to develop the plan or the calendar we have a soul-winning ministry director brother Jerry first so he's a great compassionate soul winner and I told him the other day I said I know we have a lot of soul-winning events we've been moving ooh Saturday outreaches where we do have big blitz and neighborhoods once a month we have events at the fairgrounds and downtown at the time when they're the Farmers Market and I said but would you put all of those on a 12-month calendar now I did that for two reasons I did that for him to just see it but I wanted to see to make sure that every month we're making major touches on our Valley so calendars and planning help us to see you know where we're going and that's so very important so as you're taking oversight you're meeting with the people and then you're planning the calendar accordingly now one of the challenges that we have in this process and this is one of the more critical points today is that we have to really then prioritize the work I think the pastor as the overseer has to make sure that we're keeping the main things the main things and and there's there's a few steps I'd like to share with you on how to get that done and this is for the senior pastor this is for a staff member today when you have a lot of administrative projects coming to you a lot of things coming in there's four steps I want to encourage you to take in that process first is the step of accumulation I mean that's that's gonna happen normally can you help me with this can you do that can you do that you're writing stuff down that you want to do yourself and so now you've accumulated all of this administrative work and that's where some of you are you're living with post-it notes on your computer and you know a yellow pad full of stuff and stuff on your computer that you've typed to do so you've accumulated now then you need to sit down once a week maybe it's Sunday afternoon maybe it's Monday morning and you need to secondly determine what are you going to admit into your workflow so accumulation is kind of happening the second step here is admission what will I allow onto my to-do list what am I going to throw away what am I going to delegate but admissions really critical because if your whole goal is just to please people you're gonna take everything in flounder maybe get a bad attitude get discouraged and quit okay if your goal is to work effectively then you'll admit what you know you can do well in a reasonable time maybe go to your senior pastor if you can't see how you can get it all done and say I want to admit what you want me to admit here I want to do what what is the priority for you want to help but help me with prioritizing that's always an acceptable meeting to have and then the third act the third aspect is just action all right so you you accumulate you admit now you're gonna begin to take action and this is where I think it was Steven Covey that wrote years ago on the seven Habits of Highly successful people or Highly Effective People that that you establish a priority list by a B and C and you begin with the A's and you begin working through in your action then the fourth step is assessment all right that's assessment is a daily process and that's where you look at the list that you've admitted and said these are the things that I'm going to do you you're basically crossing off what is done and reprioritizing and then going back to action so just remember that's a good little phrase that has helped me accumulation admission action and assessment all right jot those four down remember that principle don't admit what you should delegate don't admit what is not related to your your calling and then what you do admit manage it well going forward so take the oversight and then prioritize that work and then as you continue on just a final thought here on this on this subject of just the process you're taking the oversight and then you are prioritizing the work let me say finally that you want to oversee the work until completion and how are you going to get that done how are you going to take that administrative list and so again let me say review the work daily look at your work and make those daily assessments secondly pray for the needs daily okay so that's where you're going to have empowerment is through the prayer and just say God give me wisdom I ask every day James 1:5 Lord would you give me wisdom for this let me say thirdly seek counsel I mean prayer gives empowerment counsel is where you get the education you're like boy I've got to reorganize the Sunday school and I haven't done that I've got a preached on this text and its new get counseled in the process and then and then let me say develop a plan that is workable that goes back to the issue of admission don't don't get involved and committed and to the point that you cannot literally get it done and then let me say this enlist helpers enlist helpers along the way and then finally report the progress back so whether that's to your senior pastor whether that's to the congregation whoever you're working with report the progress back that has been made along the way so I want you to think about this as you consider the administration there's a purpose that's to bring glory to God right there is a pattern and that is to identify the vulnerabilities and to begin making those lists and preparing but then there is a process that process of taking oversight involves you determining not only that you'll accumulate but what will you admit what will you take action on and then how will you assess and then with the administration of the ongoing process you're always reviewing so that you could have proper understanding you're always praying so that you can have proper power you're always seeking counsel because their safety and counsel and you need the education you're always recruiting workers so that you can involve others in the blessing of glorifying God and then you're reporting the progress back to those to whom you are accountable so these are some principles of administration that I trust will be a help to you because there's no question in my mind that you're accumulating the question is what do you allow in what do you take action on are you having those weekly assessment periods and are you daily revolving the A's the B's in the C's creating that new list and then tackling that administrative process God's Word tells us that he is not the author of confusion and I pray that our leadership will bring clarity and will allow our people to see we're ready for them when they come on this campus when they come to your campus that they sense someone's been preparing for today and that together it brings great glory to God thanks again for joining us today don't forget that you can send questions in @qa at Lancaster Baptists org and we'll be glad to answer there any questions on our next podcast I look forward to introducing a guest to you next month until then may God richly bless you if there's a question or topic you would like Pastor Chapel to address in future episodes send an email to QA at Lancaster Baptists org [Music]

Channel: Paul Chappell

Views: 3,131

Rating: 4.9375 out of 5

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Id: hQdbiZjPpQM

Length: 27min 49sec (1669 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2019