Reviews & Rest
“Am I doing a good job?” “Do I need to change anything?” All staff needs to regularly hear that they are hitting the mark with their work. An annual review is good too … a time to officially hear of their strengths and limitations … a chance to talk through hopes for future growth. Hear some wisdom from one pastor:
One thing I want to do is avoid the typical evaluation, which is more about what’s wrong and needs improvement. I have never liked evaluation meetings which I go into wondering what I have done wrong this past year and what I am going to have to change or improve. Granted, some of that is necessary, but for that to be the main impression is not good.
—David Kasselman, Central Church of Christ, Amarillo, Texas
Webster defines “Sabbatical” as: “A period of time during which someone does not work at his or her regular job and is able to rest, travel, do research, etc.” Does your church have a Sabbatical Policy? If so, who gets one? Just the Senior Pastor? Just the Executive Team? All the pastors? How often?
Sabbatical Policy
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church---items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below is the Sabbatical Policy from Bel Air Presbyterian [...]
How to Develop an Effective Employee Handbook
In this webinar, Fletch interviewed Eric Rojas, the XP of Christ Community Church, a multisite, 5 campus church of 5,500 in the western suburbs of Chicago. Eric has been on staff at CCC for [...]
True Confessions of a Decent Horse
“My good Horse, you’ve lost nothing but your self-conceit. No, no, cousin. Don’t put back your ears and shake your mane at me. If you are really so humbled as you sounded a minute ago, [...]
Sabbatical On-Ramps and Off-Ramps
One of the keys to a successful sabbatical has nothing to do with what you do on your sabbatical itself, but everything to do with how you transition into and out of it. For twenty years I have [...]
Pastoral Review Plan and Forms
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church---items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and opportunity profiles. Below is the 2012 Pastoral Staff Evaluation Plan and [...]
The Spiritual Benefits of a Sabbatical—For the Servant and the Kingdom
Just the word Sabbatical conjures up all sorts of mystery. You might be contemplating whether you should take a sabbatical—if your church provides one for you. Perhaps you are thinking of asking for a sabbatical [...]
A Plan for Beating Burnout
Burnout is a major problem for many non-profit organizations, and it seems to be growing. Are volunteers just getting more lazy and irresponsible, or is there really something to burnout? Everyone gets tired once in awhile from hard [...]
Senior Leadership Review Form
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church---items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and Opportunity Profiles. Below is a review form for the Senior Leadership [...]
Linchpin—Are You Indispensable?
This book is a must read for snowed-under ministry leaders like you. Not only will it add some fun in your schedule, but Seth Godin's Linchpin is like a mental kaleidoscope for opening up [...]
Strengthening Your Staff
As an experienced executive pastor, and as the founder of XPastor, I often have people contact me with questions about ministry. One of the most frequent issues that church leaders bring to me is about [...]
Get the Most From Your Sabbatical
Recently, our church gave my wife and I the gift of an eight-week sabbatical. It exceeded my expectations, by a long shot. My last sabbatical was devoted to writing a dissertation. Thankfully, this one was quite [...]
Developmental Paradigms for Leaders
My developmental paradigm for leaders is assess, challenge and support. The threefold paradigm of assess, challenge and support comes from The Handbook of Leadership Development (McCauley, Moxley, and Velsor, editors). The assessment needs to be honest and [...]
Sabbatical: Siesta, Study or Sayonara? Summary Article
“I talked about my sabbatical from the pulpit,” said Pastor Mark Brewer. “I even brought up the Elders at each of the three services, and brought up all of the pastoral staff. But, the congregation [...]
Sabbatical: Siesta, Study or Sayonara?
“I talked about my sabbatical from the pulpit,” said Pastor Mark Brewer. “I even brought up the Elders at each of the three services, and brought up all of the pastoral staff. But, the congregation still had [...]
A Contrarian’s Journey through Staff Evaluations
I never would have called myself a contrarian until recently. Now I can look back and see the seeds of it being planted in my college years during the turbulent ‘60s. The school of architecture [...]
How to Hold Difficult Conversations
Holding a tough conversation is arguably a leader’s most difficult and draining responsibility. Many leaders dread these talks … and understandably so. But strange as it may seem, a tough conversation can be the most [...]
The Secret of Improving Staff Performance
I really hesitated using that title but I did because I get so many questions related to staff performance. Every XP I know deals with this issue of getting people to do better and do [...]
Breaking the News, Without Breaking the Leader
One of my more challenging tasks as a leadership coach is to figure out a way to break the news to an Executive Pastor or Senior Pastor that they may not be doing as [...]
The Fun and Fright of a 360 Evaluation
I still remember the day when I received the results of my 360 performance evaluation as an XP. I seriously wanted to either quit or beat the stuffing out of someone (in a Christian sort of [...]
Family Turmoil and Church Leadership
It’s Sunday and you and your spouse have had a wonderful morning worshipping at church. You are one of the key leaders on staff. You are curious because your 21-year-old daughter missed church that [...]