Most senior pastors will tell you that some of their greatest joys come from working together with staff as friends, and also with lead volunteers. And they will probably say the same about the saddest experiences of their careers. Same source.
How can that be?
A number of reasons go into this: We are all rather human… We’ve gone with our hopes instead of our gut feelings when we hired or recruited staff or volunteers… People don’t change much, and we might’ve hoped some new teammate might really work on strong changes…. Sometimes we don’t check references enough or believe them when they do caution…. Life is hard…. And we are all very human! (Did we already say that?)
But maybe we can all do better. And maybe if the three of us talk about our experiences and the lessons we have learned, we can save you some accidents or head-on crashes!
No question that lead volunteers and paid staff are crucial from a human standpoint to our success in following Christ as churches. May we learn from others and from our past experiences and from our Friend and Savior!
Click here to read or watch the latest Pastorpedia (from CE National) with Jeff Bogue, Jim Brown, and Knute Larson.