Staff effectiveness erodes.
I have heard it said that with every 500 attendees a church grows they surpass the leadership capacity of two staff members. If true, this is a sobering number. Families never outgrow family members, but a healthy staff sometimes will. Does that sting? It does for me, but it is still true.
The difficult reality is that a family-style staff never reassigns anyone, never tells the truth about someone’s leadership capacity and would rarely let someone go based on job performance. Organizations do this all the time. Instead of allowing allegiance to keep a person in a role they’re not longer suited for, they love the cause enough to make a painful transition. Your church deserves the best— give them the best team.
Breakthrough decisions are not made.
Breakthrough decisions are hard decisions. Breakthrough conversations are hard conversations. A good litmus test for how impactful a decision will be is how difficult it is to make. Family organizations struggle to have the hard conversation or make the painful decision. If it threatens the family it is pushed aside. The cause falls victim to the family.
A good example of this is a truth I picked up from a much larger church. I was told that churches with over 1,000 in attendance need to grow proficient at letting people go. That sounds odd for those on a family-style staff, but it makes sense. Larger ministries have to deal with more staff, meaning more issues, more behavioral problems. To keep the team positioned for growth, the leaders have to have the guts to release people who are bad for the team. Great for the family does not always mean good for the team.
Growth stalls.
A staff led like a family will eventually stall the growth of the church. The church will grow to the capacity of your highest leadership. For all of the reasons listed and then some, attendance and spiritual growth reflect your leadership structure.
Church leaders are called to reach people. Our job is to position our teams to do so with the most effectiveness. This does not promise to always be easy. This transition out of a family mindset of staff is one of the most difficult things to do in ministry.
Love your team and care for them— but not at the expense of the cause.
Shelve your feelings for a minute. Ask yourself, “If I left today and someone who had no emotional investment came to this team, how would they structure it to be most effective?” Now pick your feelings back up and go love those people enough to be honest with them. They deserve it. The cause is worth it.
Kevin Lloyd is the executive pastor at Stevens Creek Church in Augusta, Georgia. This article was originally posted on Lloyd’s blog, LeadBravely.org.
