Successful church staff members possess the following three qualities: competence, godliness, and loyalty. Competence is the ability to do the job well. Godliness is a righteous life. Loyalty is what enables staff to relate as team members.<\/p>\n\n
Staff organization is necessary to help ministers and employees within the local church remain competent, godly, and loyal. It should not bind them or burden the organization.<\/p>\n\n
Peter Drucker, the father of modern church management, says that every soldier has one right: the right to competent command. In other words, if the leader expects competence from the staff, the staff has a right to a competent leader. Someone has to be in charge, and that person needs a clear picture of where the church is going and how to enable staff members to help get there.<\/p>\n\n
Almost all church staffs are divided according to program and support people. Program staff<\/em> includes pastors and others who plan and implement church ministries, such as worship services, Christian education, and pastoral care. Support staff<\/em> enables the program staff to get their jobs done by providing secretarial, custodial, and other technical help.<\/p>\n\n An ongoing debate concerning the organization of program staff is whether to organize by age (children, youth, adults) or by function (music, evangelism, pastoral care, discipleship). On paper, it is a stretch to make everyone fit into one category or the other. In real life, it is impossible. The realistic solution is to allow some overlap.<\/p>\n\n Once the basic structure for staff organization is in place, three ingredients go a long way toward making it work:<\/p>\n\nKey Ingredients<\/h2>\n
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