Church Staff Sabotage - Leadership Session from Pastor Kevin Gerald

We had a great leadership session today at our weekly Champions Centre staff meeting that I wanted to pass along to you. Pastor Kevin brilliantly hit on a topic he calls, "Staff Sabotage". Staff Sabotage = When leaders do all the work of ministry versus attracting, equipping and empowering the people of the church to do the work of ministry.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up - Ephesians 4:11-12 (NIV)

Here are six negative effects that happen to the Church and team when a staff falls into "doing" all the work rather than teaming up and equipping the church.

Staff sabotage looks like...

1. The leader feels overworked.

When we don't equip and empower others we feel stressed out and overwork. It should not surprise you that you have more to do than you can do in your day.

2. The leader feels resentful of demands placed on their department.

When we try to take on all the work ourselves we get easily stressed out with new and expanding vision.

3. The church members feel unneeded.

The people in our churches are trying to find out where they're needed but they won't find their fit if we try to do all the work on our own. We all have a basic need to be needed and want to be a part of something great!

4. The church member hears no call to commitment - assumes ministry is supposed to be done by paid staff.

The call to make a difference and be a part of something significant places a huge demand on us that brings the best out of us. When we don't put the call out there to our church to fully give their lives for the cause, they will miss out on their full purpose.

5. The church member takes no real ownership and finds it easier to be gone.

The reality for all of us is that if we aren't expected to show up or needed, than we can easily slip away and fall prey to retreating away from community. Invite your church beyond attending to owning the vision of what God is doing in your church.

6. The Church budget is exhausted on staffing and has less for outreach and ministry resources.

For a church staff member we can all have a default mode to think that the answer is to hire more staff. But we must consider the larger impact on the expansion of the gospel; if too much of the church budget is being dumped into church staffing we sabotage our potential for expansion.

Primary Action Step: See our main role as equippers and servant leaders more than doers only.