Church Organizational Structure-Divide or Don’t Divide, that is the Question

As we continue with the series on Church Organizational Structures, our next topic will be one that will hopefully address many of the questions you have on the topic.  Two key items we will begin discussing will be that of :

1.  How to structure your team

2.  How to determine who goes where and communicate the change.

How to Structure Your Team

One 0f the key issues facing any key leader when tossing the idea of reorganization is the structure itself.  How do you do it?  What should it look like?  Where do you start?  Should you even attempt it?  These are all important questions that I have asked myself in the past both as a leader and as an HR Professional.  This decision and process can be grueling if you allow it, but we are going to take some of the sting out of it and approach it like any normal business decision.  Need vs. Delivery.

Let’s say you are the pastor of a church and find yourself needing to do an overhaul on your current structure but you do not know where to start.  First question you need to ask yourself is: Where is the greatest need in your current set up?  To further break this question down, determine if you need more support on logistics or ministry, day to day operations or congregational ministry, business or ministry needs.  Do you see a common divider?

From the outside looking in, it would appear there are two “churches” of thought/need within most any church.  You have the needs pertaining to the ministry and those pertaining to general operations.  So based on the answer, how would you set up the organizational structure for the church?

Let’s say that for the most part, in your church, the internal and external ministries are growing faster than you and your current team structure can keep up.  This is a great problem to have, but honestly, if a church cannot attend the ministry needs of its members, what is its real function to begin with?

This is a handy flow chart for you to use when dealing with both ministry and operational support needs.  Once you determine the needs are more ministry and less operations, you then have to look at your current team and determine are they right for the task at hand.  Sometimes, this will require you to make a shift of responsibilities.  Example?

Let’s say you have someone on your team currently in a ministry position who is not necessarily the best at the “caring” part of the ministry, but best at the logistic/operations portion.  On the other hand, let’s say you have someone else on your team in charge of support/operations who does great with getting everyone motivated and on target for completion, but just doesn’t plan thoroughly enough.  Now reading this, the answer seems pretty clear but we are often faced with such situations and are unable to diagnose the right prescription for the illness.  The obvious answer is, swap the two and sit back and watch the progress, but sometimes, in the real world, the water is a bit more muddy.

Once you sit down and decide which area needs help and decide on a structure, it is most likely in your best interest to consult with someone in your church who has a background in HR on the execution and placement.  As a resource, Christian Management Consulting Group could help with some of the preliminary discussions and if there are major changes, we could bring in our partners at SourcePointe to help with the realignment discussion as well as other pertinent HR issues you are facing.

Continue to follow our discussion on Church Organizational Structures and if you have additional questions or would like some more information on a particular subject or scenario, please either comment with your request or email me directly.

If this article was of interest to you, please check some of the others in this topic by clicking on one of the titles below:

Divide or Don’t Divide?  Church Organizational Structures

Questions for Church Organizational Structures

Reorganizing your Team According to their Strengths

Building the Right Church Team

Church Organizational Structures : A Bit More

Discovering The Right Church Organizational Structure

Discovering The Right Church Organizational Structure – Part II

Subscribe in a reader

If you currently outsource your payroll, I would encourage you to give me a call today so  I can work with you on strategies to save money, while providing you additional support through our company, SourcePointe.  As a very high-level over-view, we provide the following:

Ø  Payroll Administration including-

• Online reporting
• Garnishment administration
• Employee tax status changes
• Direct deposit
• IRS and DOL audits
• State and federal unemployment tax reports
• W-2 forms & Specialized reports

Ø  Benefit Administration including-

• 401(k) retirement plan
• Medical plans
• Voluntary life insurance
• Short & Long-term disability
• plan administration

Ø  Human Resources Administration and Compliance including consulting on-

• Fair labor standards act
• Family and medical leave act
• Equal employment opportunity
• Wage and hour regulations
• On-site consultations provided

Please enjoy the information provided to you and consider giving me a call if you have any further questions at 205.868.1557.

About the Writer:

Trent Cotton has spent a number of years in management and business consulting. After spending some time in the field, he joined the HR department, beginning in recruiting and eventually serving as the Department Head of HR for one of the major lines of business. With such a varied background, he works to bring all of these together to help churches and other Christian organizations incorporate some common business practices into their ministries to enable them to better serve the Kingdom. He currently works for SourcePointe, an HR Outsourcing Agency while continuing to own and operate Christian Management Consulting as a ministry. In his free time, he also writes a lot on Church Development as a Church Consultant.