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    Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration
    Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration
    Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration
    Ebook272 pages5 hours

    Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration

    By John Zehring

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    About this ebook

    A guide for pastors to become highly effective in leadership and administration. The role of the minister and your personal enjoyment of your vocation requires skills to develop vision, provide hope, tend to church leaders, build a staff team, deal with conflict, manage time, plan strategically, craft policies that serve you, create vibrant worship services, implement an effective visiting plan, and negotiate for yourself.

    This book builds your skills to enhance your leadership style, emphasize the right things to do, provide leadership in raising annual and capital funds, build attendance and participation, evaluate staff, and get ahead and stay ahead in worship preparation. Creative tips are provided for how to be among your people, encourage vision, connect with your people when preaching, solve problems, develop the art of the business lunch, avoid common mistakes that can get you into hot water, and administer the work of the pastor. Few of these skills are taught in seminary. This is the iceberg that lies beneath the surface and which is largely unseen and unknown. And yet, when others speak of you as an effective pastor, these are the skills and the arts which undergird your ministry.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Zehring
    Release dateDec 6, 2017
    ISBN9781370112913
    Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration
    Author

    John Zehring

    John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

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      Book preview

      Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration - John Zehring

      Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration

      John Zehring

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

      Copyright 2017 John Zehring

      Pastoral Leadership and Church Administration

      Introduction

      Leadership: Wisdom from the ages

      Encouraging leaders and staff

      Managing time

      Priority One: Worship

      Making visits

      The pastor’s role in fund-raising

      Building attendance and participation

      Policies

      Evaluations

      Clergy negotiating guide

      About the author

      Adapted from…

      Introduction

      "It is more important to do the right thing than to do things right." Peter Drucker

      Baseball player Lou Brock said No one wants to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby. So it is with pastoral leadership and church administration. People may speak of a caring pastor, an inspired preacher or a prophetic leader. But a great church administrator? Hardly a compliment. The art of administration is to not let it show too much. And yet, undergirding the heights of the caring pastor, inspired preacher or visionary prophetic leader lies the foundation of great administration. The art and skill of administration multiplies many times what a pastoral leader can accomplish.

      To what end? Effective church administration and pastoral leadership is other-directed. It is not primarily so that you can get more done but so that you can meet more needs. Is that not your goal as a pastor, to meet the needs of your people? They look to you to guide their spiritual renewal and worship of God, to learn about their faith and how it applies to their daily living and to know what they are going through and to be there for them in time of hurting or need. Your people view you as the leader of their faith community. One woman said Sometimes it feels like my church is more like my family than my real family. You are looked up to as the one who shepherds the church family to healthy and vital relationships. You are needed to inspire, challenge, teach, counsel, uplift, strengthen and call to action. You are pastor, priest and prophet. Perhaps your daily mantra is to rise in the morning asking Who are my people? What are their needs? What do they value? How can I be more effective in meeting their needs? This, by the way, comes from a mantra taped to the desk of many great business leaders: Who is my customer? What does my customer value? Am I delivering? You observe right away that this is a customer-centered philosophy. Pastors benefit from adopting the same centeredness: how well am I meeting what my people value and need?

      Their needs can be overwhelming, which is why good administration helps you to put first things first and to choose the right things to emphasize. When I served in higher education, I brought in a consultant to evaluate a department, its mission and its staffing. There was one administrator who was always busy. She worked hard and everyone knew it. Many would say She is a hard worker. Hard worker, by the way, is sometimes code for someone who works long and hard but not necessarily smart. She was efficient. The consultant’s evaluation of her work: It is not so much a matter of doing things well but of doing the right things. No question this administrator did things well. The problem was, she was not tuned in to accomplishing the most important goals of her department’s mission. Good administration helps you to choose to do the right things.

      A pastor rose every morning, went to his office in the church building, spent time in devotions and prayer, read emails, sorted through catalogs and mail, talked at length with his staff, viewed his Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, worked on his sermon and was highly available and accessible to any who stopped by the office. Every time the door opened and a visitor entered, he hopped out of his chair to see who it was and tarried to chat with them for a while. Folks would pop into his office to ask if he had a minute to talk, often discussing with him personal challenges. At the end of the day, he felt satisfied that he had helped a number of people. When he got fired, he was dumbfounded. The problem was that his universe of those with whom he connected was the same small band of regulars who populated the church office on a steady basis – perhaps about ten percent of the congregation. He was seeing the same people over and over again. The other ninety percent never saw him. He did not visit. He did not call. He avoided nursing homes and retirement communities like the plague. By the time he got to the hospital, patients had already been released. The expectation of the congregation was that he would be among his people regularly and would visit and be there for them… for all of his people, not just those who popped in on a regular basis. Was he efficient in maintaining office hours? Absolutely, to the nth degree. Was he effective in meeting the needs of his people? No, except for a small contingent. It was not so much a matter of doing things well but of doing the right things. Good administrative skills, including self-evaluation devices, would have helped him choose to do the right things and to know what all of his people value.

      In the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, Jesus told a story about a man preparing to go away on a long journey. He called together three of his managers, explained that he would be away and entrusted to them the management of differing amounts of funds. The one to whom he entrusted five talents managed well and over time made five talents more. The one to whom he entrusted two talents managed well and over time made two talents more. The one to whom he entrusted only one talent did not manage well but dug in the ground and hid his master’s money so that it could sustain no loss. No risk, no gain but no loss. A long time passed and the man returned from his journey. His three managers came to him to report their results. The two and five talent managers were told Well done, good and faithful managers. You have given me joy. As a result, I will entrust to you even more to manage. The one talent manager made up excuses for the lack of performance. The man called him lazy. And worse. He got the axe. Good management ultimately leads to good results, joy and the opportunity to be entrusted with more responsibility.

      This parable defines stewardship: being entrusted to manage a task which belongs, not to the manager but to the one who entrusts. In the case of pastors, good administration and leadership is for God and for the people to whom God entrusts to the pastor. They were not your people in the past and in the future they will be entrusted to another, but for right now God entrusts them to you and expects that you will manage your ability well to meet their needs.

      Administrative skills undergird the ministry of pastors in our fast-changing times. The church of the 21st century is evolving as fast as climate change and perhaps going the same dangerous direction. In the 20th century, denominations lost their attraction and new attenders could care less about the church’s historic ties to a denomination. In the 21st century, droves of people stopped coming to church. Church membership declined and continues to deteriorate. Churches closed. Spiritual-but-not-religious became the defining phrase. When polls asked people for their religious preference, none of the above rose to first place for the first time in centuries, leading these folks to be known as the nones. The polls report that spiritual needs still exist. Those who no longer turn to churches to meet their needs say that many still believe in God, believe in the bible and believe in heaven although they tend not to believe in hell, they do not read the bible and God may be acknowledged but is rarely worshipped or praised. One denomination created a poster which read It’s true, you really can worship God anywhere. Do you? Todays nones tend not to. Pastors face increasing challenges as membership and resources decline. Doing-more-with-less has already surpassed its breaking point.

      How do contemporary pastors learn to excel at pastoral leadership and administration, especially if that is not a skill they already brought with them to seminary? You have studied bible, theology, church history and applied theology. You have received seminary education in homiletics and pastoral care. What about visiting? You may spend a quarter of your time making pastoral visits. Did you take a course in it? Did any course provide even an hour’s guidance on visiting effectively? Did any seminary professor have sufficient hands-on experience to teach it? Much of your ministry will involve recruiting and working with volunteers and church leaders, dealing with conflict, providing vision and a sense of mission to your people, supervising and evaluating staff, and guiding or at least serving as an important resource for annual and capital fund raising. You will coordinate the look, feel and message of communication venues like the website, newsletter, social media and the weekly bulletin. You will set the spiritual tone for the congregation’s strategic planning, membership development and management of finances and assets, including endowment. Talk to many pastors and they will tell you that these are things they did not learn in seminary. Rather, they learned them on the job, from denominational and church workshops, from sharing experiences with their colleagues or from reading and studying books like this.

      Or, maybe not at all. All too many church governing boards have met privately, usually away from the church, to discuss what to do about the pastor’s skill deficiency in meeting their expectations. Perhaps the pastor sits in the office too long instead of getting out among the people. Perhaps the pastor becomes absorbed in tending to all the little details about everything, including changing the lightbulbs in fellowship hall – at the expense of neglecting the big things. Perhaps the pastor has worn herself or himself out because of a skill deficiency in managing time, priorities or self-care. Perhaps the pastor works harder, not smarter. Perhaps the pastor simply does not know how to supervise, evaluate and motivate staff… or even to replace them if necessary. Perhaps the pastor is feeling that the decline in membership, participation or giving is her or his fault and that diminishes the joy of ministry. Many of these are my friends and my colleagues. I have heard their pain and felt their hurt and I write this book for you. It is not so much a matter of attitude, losing a sense of calling to ministry, weariness or laziness. Rather, it is a matter of sharpening skills or even gaining new skills where there is a current deficiency. No pastor can be good at everything or own every talent needed for the job but you can become more skilled at leadership and administration if you want to. Is that not the key? If you are motivated to become better at any skill or art, you are half the way to accomplishing your goal.

      It is the goal of this volume to help you develop skills and strategies for highly effective ministry so that you may strengthen your ability to meet the needs of others. You will gain insights to improve your work with people, finance and infrastructures. Topics include coordination of worship planning, working with boards, recruiting and supervising volunteers, raising annual and capital funds, management of investments and endowment, crafting church policies, creating and implementing an effective visiting plan, supervising staff, implementing strategies for church growth, promoting the mission and ministry of the church, planning, evaluation and providing vision and hope, even in an era of declining membership and resources. The role of the minister and your personal enjoyment of your vocation includes areas such as dealing with conflict, time management, negotiating for yourself, and taking care of yourself. All of this is the iceberg that lies beneath the surface and which is largely unseen and unknown. And yet, when others speak of you as an effective pastor, these are the skills and the arts which undergird your ministry.

      What’s in a word? Leader. Manager. Administrator. Minister. Servant. Volumes have been produced about each, sometimes promoting one at the diminishment of another. To some, leader = good, manager = low level. To some, administrator = paper shuffler. In this volume, let’s assume they are all good and all important. Let us also assume that clergy as leaders are different than other kinds of leaders, like a CEO, president or a boss. In some denominations, the congregation is in charge. In some, the pastor is the CEO. In others, someone outside the church like a bishop may be in charge. And yet, there are leadership arts needed to be practiced by clergy regardless of the church’s polity. Indeed, one of the most important leadership arts is to understand how leadership really happens in your congregation, which is sometimes not obvious at all. Perhaps the highest leadership art is captured by Lao Tzu: A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

      As I considered how to put into this volume the principles about which I have taught, written and practiced, I landed upon a format which excites me. Instead of a textbook format covering everything there is to say about every topic, I have mimicked the creative genius of E. B. White in his classic work The Elements of Style (by William Strunk and E. B. White). E. B. White is one of my heroes.

      The Elements of Style has been my other bible for decades and that is the book I now imitate as I attempt to share the basic elements of pastoral leadership and church administration. Its goal is not to cover every facet but to provide the basic and classic elements which, I pray, will be helpful to you as you continue to shape your ministry, lead your people and manage for a heightened joy and sense of fulfillment in service to God.

      A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS BOOK

      All scriptures in this work come from the New Revised Standard unless otherwise noted.

      I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered the author’s reference to God as he. I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father. Whichever pronoun is used, consider God as a loving parent.

      Some of this work is adapted from other books or eBooks I have written. My website can be found by searching online for John Zehring books.

      John Zehring

      Leadership: Wisdom from the ages

      Of all professions, clergy are unique when it comes to leadership. In some settings, the pastor guides and leads the congregation in collaboration with church leaders and is looked to for leadership experience, wisdom, direction and initiative in taking the lead. In some settings, particularly those which are congregational by nature, clergy are not so much the leader but function more as a resource to church leaders. In other settings, clergy function like a Chief Executive Officer where they are the topmost leader. The range extends from zero to one hundred.

      Most church leaders are volunteer. Ask some pastors and you will hear them say their leaders do not want to do anything… which means it sometimes falls to the pastor to do it all (not healthy) or little gets accomplished. Consequences: high clergy burnout. No leadership development. No teaching lay leaders how to lead. Ulcers… and worry that things will get done correctly. Or, consider a church comprised of Alpha leaders. In their professions, they are in charge. They provide vision, cast the direction, set the mission and take the lead. They are natural leaders. When they come to church, they have little or no interest in being followers. Forget what the bible says about servanthood, their destiny is to take the helm, control the reins and to direct. Their natural leadership instinct continues, they volunteer or are tapped for top church leadership positions because they are seasoned leaders, and they know what they want to do: lead. Just like they do on the job. In an Alpha church, the pastor can be something of an appendage. The pastor is not expected to lead and the pastor’s counsel is rarely sought (not healthy). Church leadership can be functional or dysfunctional, healthy or unhealthy. The best is when pastors and leaders collaborate, with mutual respect for the other’s gifts and talents, to lead the congregation into being the most a church can be. Then, it is a joy for both volunteers and clergy to lead.

      Is leadership an art? A science? Are you born a natural leader, with obvious gifts? Or, can you work at developing leadership skills? As you consider your own leadership role, style, gifts and desire to grow as a more effective leader, perhaps the best placed to turn is to the wisdom of the ages: to experienced leaders of many generations for their guidance and recommendations. Their quotes throughout this book guide us to think about excellence in leadership.

      Encouraging vision

      Shared vision is best. As a pastor, you have a vocabulary and theological framework to describe the vision. You have thought and read considerably about the mission and calling of the church. You have attended or participated in local, statewide and perhaps national forums with distinguished speakers. You talk with your colleagues in ministry about the future of the church, cultural trends and demographic shifts. Indeed, when it comes to thinking about a vision for your church, you inhale and exhale visionary thinking. It is natural, then, for you to take the lead when it comes to casting a vision for the church. Careful. Landmine ahead. Your people likely do not want a top-down casting of vision.

      In best cases, the congregation participates in laboring over the thinking and framing of words to describe their church’s mission. They are aware that they or their descendants will be there long after you have passed through their lives, so they are stakeholders. If a congregation is blessed to have people like that who care and a pastor like you with the skills and wisdom to guide them, the church is poised to leap into visioning its future. The key word is collaboration. Even when you know better than they do about how to describe a vision for the church, you are wise to bite your tongue while they engage in lively dialog… guided along the path by your mentoring.

      Some of them will not favor ecclesiastical language in the vision statement. Some will be gifted wordsmiths who can offer their talents to edit a polished draft. Others will be gadflies, challenging conventional wisdom and requiring people to defend their positions. Many minds always produce a better outcome. Be an advocate for collaboration. Do not allow a congregation to shift the major responsibility to you. That would forsake the excellent learning opportunity of grappling with process of understanding the vision. And so, you do not provide the vision. Rather, in best cases, you encourage vision. Ideally, your people will consider that the vision emerged by their own hand.

      Of course, not all pastors have had the benefit of learning how to help a congregation discover and describe its vision. Some may simply not know what to do or how to proceed. If that is the case, consider the wisdom of the ages and the sages. So much wisdom is distilled into a brief quote. Also, if you sense that it has been a while since your congregation considered its calling, direction and mission, one thing that you can always do is to be a convener. You need not be an expert on helping congregations confront their vision. All you need to do is be the one who takes initiative to raise the question, assemble groups, bring in outside experts or resources (perhaps from your denomination’s staff) and describe that you sense a need. Trust that the ones you assembled will have collective wisdom, guided by you, to move forward productively.

      Encouraging vision is more than producing a vision statement or a mission statement. It is an ongoing radiance

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