Staff Meetings

Unity isn’t an accident looking for a place to happen. I often hear youth ministers, preachers, administrative assistants, and other team members talking about either bad or practically non-existent relationships among those who work out of the church building. I ask about their staff meetings, celebrations, and the time they spend together. The answer often is, “We don’t spend time together.”

I’m not surprised that camaraderie isn’t great without aiming for and working for it. I’ve enjoyed having other people on the team in four of six interim congregations. We’ve had weekly staff meetings.

These weren’t always welcomed. As we began at one congregation, I asked, “What kind of staff meeting would you like?”

More than one person replied, “None.” They told me previous staff meetings were times when they were reprimanded and embarrassed. I can understand their aversion to that kind of meeting.

In some congregations, one or more elders attend staff meetings. Some rotate, and in others, it’s the same elder each time.

I begin with rules. Family rules are usually unconscious, unspoken, understood, and contradictory. I spend the first meeting discussing and negotiating rules for staff meetings. I like to discuss them, agree to follow our negotiated guidelines, then review them six months from the beginning and adjust to achieve better results.

Here are guidelines for the staff meetings at Northside, the church I’m serving now:

For Staff Guidelines in PDF, click here

For Staff Guidelines in Word document, click here

There are three parts to our staff meetings:

1. Bible study and prayer. We read a book of the Bible, a chapter a week. We spend about 30 minutes reading and discussing the chapter. The way we select a book to read is to give everyone a piece of paper. Each person writes the book they would like to read in staff meetings. We draw one to start, finish it, then draw for the next book. Eventually, everyone gets to study the book he or she suggested.
2. Coordination. We discuss what’s going on in the congregation: regular services and projects, special events, the bulletin, people’s schedules, and other things that need to be coordinated.
3. Staff development. This consists of reading 3-5 pages from a book encouraging growth in a group of people who work with others. It often takes a year or longer to read a book. But at the end of the year, we have ideas and a vocabulary enabling us to work more effectively. Some of the books we’ve read in staff meetings:

• Leaders Who Last, by Margaret J. Marcuson
• Friedman’s Fables, by Edwin H. Friedman
• Transitions, by Willam Bridges
• Managing Transitions, by William Bridges
• Generation to Generation, by Edwin H. Friedman
• How Your Church Family Works, by Peter L. Steinke
• Healthy Congregations, by Peter L. Steinke

Conrad — Alabama Star;
30+ years at Northside!

Our staff has times of celebrations. We celebrate birthdays. It’s the responsibility of the person having a birthday to remind us it’s time for a birthday party. We go to a restaurant of their choice. Different groups have their own rules for paying for meals. In some, each person pays for the honoree’s meal and brings a card for the birthday. In others, elders allot money from the budget to pay for everyone’s meals. In one church, we enjoyed birthday parties so much that we celebrated half-birthdays. Six months after each person’s birthday, he or she alerted us the half-birthday was coming up. We went to a restaurant of their choice; each person paid for their meal, and the honoree brought a birthday card for himself and told us why he deserved it.

It’s also good to schedule a time to say goodbye. When a staff member is leaving, we have a meal together and say what we need to say to reflect on our time together.

When the preacher, youth minister, administrative assistants, and other people who work from the church office like each other, get along and work well together, people learn that. They notice the relationship, appreciate it, and may imitate it in their interactions with those close to them.

The opposite is also true.

I’ve observed that time and money spent on developing better staff relationships are wise investments that produce valuable dividends.

How have you improved staff cooperation?

[reminder]