Church Organizational Questions

Recently on my Linked-In Profile, I decided to post a poll to see if I could get an unbiased response from Pastors regarding their views on Church Organizational Structures.  I was surprised to see the results.  Look below:

Of course, there were many discussions and comments surrounding Biblical structure and denominational structures.  Casting all of these discussions aside, let’s spend some time looking at this topic from a behavioral and human resources stand point.  I will take each of these topics in numerous posts beginning with the highest percentage first.

How Do You Do It?

Chances are, you have taken some time to read earlier posts on Choosing the Right Church Structure.  If you have not, I would strongly urge you to take a glance over it when you have some time.  The first decision to be made must be which structure you are going to choose.

The next stage of the process will depend largely on the current church structure and the amount of change required to embrace the new church organizational structure.  When you find yourself ready to begin contemplating who should go into which position, I would suggest a couple of the following to consider:

• Post the New Positions: From a compliance standpoint, it is always good to post any new positions to enable anyone interested in the position to apply and go through interviews.  Although this is labor intensive, it is the best way to ensure all who are interested in a change express it, and that you are presenting positions in a clear, open, and fair manner.  One of the negative sides of this practice is the exposure to having to have difficult conversations with those who may not qualify for the position they applied for.  On the flip-side, posting such positions may give someone an opportunity to express a need for a change in their current role.  Even if they may not qualify for the position, as a leader, you now know there is an opportunity to coach someone who is potentially needing, feeling, or wanting a change.
• Talent and Passion: In an earlier post highlighting reorganizing your team based on strengths, we spent some time discussing possible ways to use individuals’ strengths as a way to align them.  Sometimes, I have seen teams with individuals who were miserable in their positions due in large part to their “misdiagnosis” in their job.  It is critical to conduct interviews with each team member to discuss those things they are passionate about.  What gets them up in the morning?  When it comes to Kingdom work, what gets their fire stoked?  As you are talking with them, you should be able to tell the answers to some of these questions by their behaviors.  I have seen in some cases where simply swapping one person for another person on the same team has produced great results.  By conducting these interviews with each of your team members, it may help provide some direction to the leadership on who may apply for which position.
• Accurate Job Description: We discussed church job descriptions in an earlier post and will spend some more time in following posts.  As discussed in these posts, be sure to accurately describe what you are looking for in the position and then be prepared to honor those qualifications.  The worst thing to do is write a job description and hire someone who does not meet those qualifications.
• Dual Communication: Depending on your by-laws, you may have some verbiage dictating how decisions will be made (whether by a council or board of directors, etc).  My one major suggestion / strong recommendation is to conduct these announcements in a one-on-one manner with at least two people facilitating the conversation.  Again, one of the mistakes commonly made is not to have someone else in the room to communicate the impending changes.  This will ensure a buffer for anyone who may not take well to the changes and will also provide a witness for each of the conversations.  You would be amazed with the impact of having someone else in the room not only to help you as a communicator with anxiety, but also help ease the overall tension of the situation.

We will spend some more time discussing the other aspects of the poll results in following posts.  If you have particular questions you would like to submit, please email me your questions at trent.cotton@gmail.com.  Also, if you would like to learn more about the poll results, you can visit the poll by visiting it by clicking here. I look forward to exploring these topics with you.

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

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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.