One of the old adages in ministry is that the pastoral task is like a 3 legged milk stool. It's held up by three primary tasks: Preaching, Administration, and Counseling/Pastoral Care. I love this analogy. I've often used it to describe and categorize how we should understand the scope of our calling, identify our strengths & weaknesses, and how to shape a pastoral job description. It works.

But just because something "works" doesn't mean that we shouldn't evaluate it. One of the most dangerous phrases in leadership is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's fine on your car, but in a church or organization, just because something works doesn't mean it's healthy or best. Ideas and practices always have a shelf life, and when something cruises because it works we can often overlook our need to evaluate and possibly alter it.

​That's where I think we are with the milk stool.

It's not that Preaching, Administration, and Pastoral Care aren't critical elements of a pastor's calling. They are. But the fourth thing that holds it all together is vision. The three milk stool legs are great. They help us shape our day. But they don't cover a key element, vision. If we're going to faithfully lead the congregations God has placed us in, we can't be content to do the tasks of ministry. We must lead with vision. We must point our people to the place God would have us go. We must chart the course, take the risk, and lead our churches towards what God has.

Vision is the stool itself. 

Vision holds together our Preaching, our Administrating, and our Pastoral Care.

Our Preaching Points to Vision - Whenever we preach, we have the option to do a couple things. One is to faithfully preach the text. We may do it in series. We may do it in topical exposes of whatever is going on in culture. We may do it through one-off messages every week. The second though is to be both faithful to the text and preach it as it was written and capture vision. My desire as a pastor is for our people to be captured by the Gospel, shaped by the Word, have a biblical worldview, love their neighbors and the nations, and fall into worship. When we preach with our vision in mind, towards the place God wants us to go, we're not just telling people what the Bible says, we're pointing them towards a place to go.

Our Administration Supports the Vision - If Preaching is the public part of our ministry, Administration is the behind the scenes. This is the skeleton of our pastoral work. And it supports the vision if we seek to align our processes, our budget, our resources, our volunteers, etc. towards the vision. If your church has as its vision "we want to reach young families" but you're not dedicating budget resources, volunteer training, facility space, and staffing towards family ministry, you're not really serious about your vision. Administration is where we take the vision and we seek to align what our church does, what our money goes to, what our staffing looks like, and how we spend our time towards the vision.

Our Pastoral Care Reinforces the Vision - Pastoral Care is the time part of our pastoral ministry. And this is where we spend time with people one-on-one or in small groups. We're visiting and ministering toward the sick and hospitalized, we're working through family dysfunction and trauma to see redemption come as a fruit, we're helping walk people through the day-to-day of their Christian life. Pastoral Care reinforces the vision because it reinforces the one bringing the vision. If you're in pastoral ministry, your ability to lead and influence comes through the strength of relationships that you have. And you develop those relationships slowly over time when you're laboring in the trenches with people. If all people see of you is a talking head on Sunday and you don't love them enough to visit them in their distress or hold their hand after their spouse dies, you can't lead them. Pastoral Care is, as Maxwell says, walking slowly through the crowd.

Fire away with comments!

We're in a really unique, interesting, fun (depending on the day what word we use) with our dinnertime prayer. Both our boys love to do the prayer, and they each have a very unique way they go about it. Meanwhile Mommy & Daddy are hungry and want to thank God for provision and eat our supper before it gets cold, again.

So our 7 year old takes time to thank God for our food, for the day he had, for people in our family, for his friends who aren't in church, and occasionally a request we're able to go to Disney World. The 4 year old will ask God to "help daddy's eye feel better" (I had floaters one night before supper), to "help mommy's face" (still not sure what that's about), and that he can have a roll and dessert. There's also interludes of praying for every piece of food on his plate, for his special little potty, and more.

Parents, your prayer time at dinner is an incredible opportunity to be a part of your child's faith formation. Each dinner, each prayer, each awkward request, each time God is thanked for mashed potatoes, is a chance to help shepherd our children's hearts toward Jesus. I loved what my oldest's devotional said "Nothing is too big or too small for us to bring to God."

When we get frustrated at what our kids pray for, when we try to hurry them along, when we cut them off and say Amen! before they can finish (Guilty - and don't lie, you've done it before too), we're implicitly showing them and teaching them that there's some things we shouldn't bother God about. But God's not like us. We get frustrated when our kids constantly ask us to watch them, want to tell the same story over and over, or want to give a detailed commentary about the palm trees. We don't like to be bothered. But God does. When we cheer for our kids when they pray about the smallest thing, we're teaching them that God loves them enough that He wants to hear about the mashed potatoes or for daddy's eye to feel better.

Another thing we do is that we use the time before dinner to shape our children towards gratitude. Each time we sit down for a meal, even if it's Hamburger Helper, it's a reminder of God's provision for our family. We have the money to buy the groceries. We have the house to live in. We have the table to eat at. We have the gift of family. Is it always what everyone wants to have? Of course not. Your kids may be the same as mine, they could survive and be happy with a steady diet of Goldfish crackers and Chick-Fil-A. But even when it's not something we're thrilled about, we eat it with a grateful heart. Or we at least try it.

But finally, dinnertime prayer is an opportunity for us to shape our children's hearts through our own prayers for our kids, namely that they would come to treasure and trust Jesus. So while your children are making their way through the last few things they got in trouble for or what they want for dessert, take time to pray for them to trust Jesus. Pray their heart would love the Word. Pray they would be loved and encouraged by God's people.

Everyone in basketball hates the Warriors. Everyone in football hates the Patriots. Everyone in baseball hates the Yankees. Everyone in college sports hates Alabama, Duke, and Kentucky. The most common reason? "They win all the time." What's lurking below the surface is something more than fandom: resenting success. Think about it. Everyone in college football gets the same number of scholarships. Everyone in the SEC has the facilities, coaches, and fans. But Alabama still wins. Everyone in the NBA gets the same salary cap, draft picks work against good teams, and everyone gets the same TV money and exposure. But the Warriors keep winning. The NFL is designed for parity and punishes successful teams with scheduling. But the Patriots keep winning.

Maybe we all have a level of hater to us, where we just get mad and resent when someone else is doing better than us. Maybe it's jealousy because our favorite team languishes behind a more successful rival (I'm a lifelong Louisville fan, the Kentucky success is maddening).

But before we put ourselves spiritual and blameless, let's be honest. As pastors, we sometimes find ourselves in the same spot. The church down the road has money to take on a major building project while you're praying the AC units hold out. The pastor on your social media feed who gets a book deal and is speaking at a conference. The megachurch across town is bursting with young families and your median age are Civil War veterans.

Pastor, let me encourage you to be content in where God has placed you. He's the one who called you, who sustains you, and who has asked you to be faithful.

Celebrate Others' Success - It's really easy for us to get jealous or resent when someone else's church has a spectacular VBS or has a note-burning ceremony. But whenever great things happen to churches in our community, Jesus wins. It's not about us and our little kingdom, it's about His. So don't resent when others have great moments. Celebrate them. Text that church's pastor and encourage him. We're all in this together.

Don't Belittle Others' Failures - The flip side of the coin is for when we have a great moment or a really "successful" ministry to not be a jerk about it. Your church had a youth camp where a lot of kids got saved, and the church across town had to cancel theirs because no one signed up. Don't gloat. Your win today came because of God's grace to you. 

Work Together - Churches that work together do more ministry than they could do apart from each other. Are you looking at launching a sports ministry? Maybe the church down the road with a big field could be where you host the games? At our church, we're hoping to partner with a neighbor congregation for Upward. They have a gym, we have a big field. We can do more work together than we could do apart from each other. And it doesn't matter who gets the visitors or prospects. Jesus wins, not us.

Cultivate a Heart of Gratitude - You may not be on the speaking circuit or have a book deal or pastor a church recognized in denominational news. But you're at a church that hopefully loves you and loves your family. You're at a church that God called you to. You're pastoring people God has called you to love and lead. You're paid to study the Bible, prepare messages, visit and care for people. No matter where God has placed you, you have a lot to be grateful for. And that starts with our hearts.

What have you done to celebrate another church's success in your area?

Last night my heart was grieved yet again as I read (yet again) another essay from an older SBC statesman lamenting that things "ain't what they used to be." With more straw men and mischaracterizations and a healthy dose of fear mongering, I was grieved not because of how the Convention is portrayed or how its trajectory is mislabeled.

I was grieved because again I found myself saying "Is this really how you want to go out?" Several years ago during our national meeting, one of the architects of what can only be described as the miraculous Conservative Resurgence took his final address and stomped his feet about the changes he didn't like being proposed. Earlier this year we watched a tragedy unfold as a denominational hero dug in his feet and stomped and kicked. AFA published a hit piece on the newly elected SBC president and stirred up a storm predicting that it won't be long before the SBC descends into cultural liberalism. SBC entities are put under fire and accused of being accomplices with Soros and his global takeover.

As a Millennial pastor, can I make a plea to our predecessors? Don't go out like this. Don't sacrifice an entire lifetime of faithful service and personal cost. Don't give up an entire generation of labor and honor, taking the high road and preserving biblical fidelity. Please.

We are not liberal - One of the accusations lobbed at the shift in SBC involvement and leadership is that it's "liberal," whether it's cultural or theological. Predecessors, we are not. We are committed to historic orthodoxy, the orthodoxy you taught us. We are committed to biblical inerrancy, the same inerrancy you worked to reclaim. We are committed to the exclusive salvation through Christ, the same you preached to us that we heard and responded to. We have been taught and trained under an entire generation of professors and pastors who affirm without reservation key fundamental documents and theological positions. What you labored for theologically is safe.

We are not social gospel - Unfortunately the GA Baptist article pushed a view that the SBC and its younger leadership is moving towards a social gospel. But we cannot divorce the evangelistic commands of Mark 16:15 to "preach the gospel to every creature" from the call of Micah to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God." We cannot separate John 3:16 from James 1:27. We cannot put into conflict Romans 10:13 and Matthew 25:40. The same Bible that tells us that we are to go to the ends of the earth on mission is the same Bible that tells us to defend the cause of the weak and fatherless. It's a legacy we inherited from you to do disaster relief, provide food pantries, collect for benevolence, to volunteer in schools, to do clothing drives, and to host Cub Scout packs. 

We are not feminist - One of the central moves of the Conservative Resurgence was to return to a biblical model of pastoral ministry laid out in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 - that the office of pastor is reserved for qualified men. The backlash to the effort among many in the SBC to try to find ways to engage women in leadership has prompted many to question if women should be pastors. None of us are saying that. None of us, not even the women who are providing a voice for inclusion, are saying this. We are applying the same hermeneutics you taught us, to let Scripture speak. And it does. Women have a function and role in the church: Phoebe, Priscilla, Junia, and others did more than operate fellowships and walk around barefoot & pregnant. So when we recognize the giftedness and calling of women in the church, we recognize both what God has gifted them with and also the boundaries placed on the pastoral office.

You will not be cast aside - My fear is that many who hang on too tight or who go out kicking and screaming do so because they think they will be cast aside. Please don't feel this way. We want you, not just for your wisdom but for your friendship and impact on our lives. We want to learn how to be better pastors, better preachers, better counselors. And we need you more than you know. We learn a lot in seminary about exegesis, but it takes a seasoned mentor to show us how to hold a widow's hand as her husband of 60 years dies in front of us. It takes a seasoned mentor to help us navigate change in established churches. We need you. You will always have a place, you always have a seat at the table.

We love you. We're grateful for you. We cannot say enough how much we appreciate the hard work and sacrifice you made. We will take care of what you built. It won't look exactly like you built it, because each generation leaves its imprint on its legacy to pass down. But it will be cared for well, because we, like you, will stand before King Jesus and give an account for how we cared for His Bride.

So please, my dear brothers and sisters, don't go out like that.

Lay off grammar police, it's Monday.

But beyond the awful structure of that title, it's a helpful reminder of one of the most important words a leader can learn to say: no.

I get it, we don't like saying no. We like validating people's ideas and passions. We don't like conflict. We like seeing new things start. We don't like stifling creativity. But we can't say yes to everything. We can't jump at every opportunity, even if it's a great one.

Leaders have to say no when it doesn't fit the mission/vision/purpose/strategy - You cannot do everything you want to do. That's something you have to recognize quickly or else you'll burn out and overstretch yourself. Neither can your church. You don't have enough time, volunteers, money, facilities, or resources to do everything. So you have to funnel ideas and initiatives through the filters of mission, vision, purpose, and strategy. Does it fit with what you're called to? How you're doing it? Where you're going? What you're doing? If not, say no. Don't force a fit where it's not supposed to be.

Leaders have to say no when it requires more than you can give - Jesus told a parable about two builders, and the wise one was the one who counted the cost before beginning. Many times churches fall into "new puppy" syndrome with new ideas. Just like a kid promises to take of the puppy, new ideas spark short-term interest and excitement. But after that fades, mom is left picking up the chew toys, and the church is on the hook for a commitment they didn't really want or could handle. What are the short term (and long term) costs? What people needs are there? Do you have strong volunteers who can fill the gaps?

Leaders have to say no but try to find a yes - It's hard to say no, but when we do we should try to find a yes somewhere. Not every idea is a terrible one. You'll get those too. But most of what people bring to consider are good ideas from a good heart. The idea might not fit the filter, and it may be more than what you think the church can provide. The response then is to try to find a way to make a yes:
1. Existing - A lot of times we need to say no because it already exists. Is there something you can direct the person to that's already happening?
2. Redirect - Maybe there's a ton of zeal for door-to-door evangelism, but you live in an area with a lot of deed restricted communities that forbid soliciting. In something like that, redirect their focus towards one-on-one evangelistic training, towards equipping people to serve and share with their neighbors. Don't stifle their passion, but find a way to make it work if it fits the filter.
3. Accommodate - Accommodation isn't bad on its own. It becomes bad when it morphs into enabling bad behavior. But sometimes we need to accommodate an idea for it to work. It's possible that with some wiggling and adjusting, a new idea can spark existing ministries and provide a catalyst for impact.

Leaders have to say no, and hold their ground loosely - I don't think leaders have to put lines in the sand and not budge when they say no. When we die on our hills, we need to make sure they're worth dying for, and not anthills we've staked our flags on. It's hard to say no--you'll hurt people's feelings, you're going to disappoint them, and you might even face criticism or backlash for it. But leaders have to make those hard decisions. All that said, hold the ground loosely. Don't dig in unless you have to. Take a step back, pray, think, ask around, and don't be too proud to give back ground.

What do you do as a leader when you have to say no?

The social media outrage patrol turned its attention last week to a small church in Central Kentucky that had sent out letters to a large number of inactive members stating their removal from the membership roll. Once the Lexington Herald Leader got ahold of it, the headline became an over-sensationalized "Kentucky Church Kicks Out Members Over Common Transgressions." The article itself was a lesson in bad theology and sloppy reporting, which was called out by Hershael York of Buck Run Baptist in Frankfort.

Here's one of the realities of our denominational tribe in the Southern Baptist Convention: we have ridiculously inflated membership rolls. Take a look at this infograph from the SBC website which shows the number of members on our rolls vs. our average weekly attendance.

In any given Sunday, an average of nearly 10 million people who claim membership in an SBC church are absent. If we take into consideration a fairly conservative estimate that our weekly attendance is roughly 75% of our active membership (factor in vacation, kids sports, sickness, travel, work, and other factors that occasionally hamper church attendance) we're left with an "Active Membership" of roughly 7 million. Not even half.

We can discuss the causes of this another time, but what many of us in ministry are finding is that our church records are horribly inaccurate. We have members on our rolls who have moved away, who we've lost contact with, and in some cases who are already dead. What Cave City Church did was nothing more than update its roll sheet to accurately reflect its current involvement.

​A lot has been said about those who are homebound or unable to attend because of illness or nursing home situations. If they have been removed from membership, then Cave City has an obligation to restore that. Our members who are homebound or unable to attend still are part of the family. Hopefully the leadership at Cave City is working to make sure those who have been removed have been removed for the right reasons.

That said, I defend what Cave City Baptist Church did. They're getting blasted for it, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Here are my 4 reasons why what they did was right.

Faithful Church Membership is Biblical - When we read Hebrews 10:24-25 we see that there is an expectation for corporate attendance because the exception are those who "neglect to meet together." In Acts 2:42-47 we see the regular (daily) gathering of Jesus' followers for worship, ministry, prayer, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, and pastoral care. Matt Chandler from Village Church has a great essay from 9Marks about the biblical argument for church membership. And Thabiti Anyabwile has a book on what a healthy church member looks like. 

Pastors Have a Responsibility for Their Flock - One day I'll have to stand before the Lord and answer for how I as a pastor cared for those God has given to me. How do we know for whom we will give an account? Biblical church membership. Hebrews 13:7 talks about the hope for leaders to have joy about them as they lead and care for those entrusted to them. The only way to recognize the parameters of who is and who isn't part of the flock is through membership. 

Church Membership is a Covenant Relationship - When we join a church, we're not just slapping our name on a list or being able to use the gym for free. We're joining together with a people for encouragement, love, fellowship, instruction, and edifying. Sometimes that edifying takes the form of correction, where our mistakes and shortcomings are lovingly handled through the teaching of the Word and the work of God's people. Sadly, so many people (and churches) treat membership without the level of covenant commitment it requires.

Restorative Church Discipline is Biblical, and Good - Whenever we see stories like this or others where people are "excommunicated" from a church, we immediately throw up our guard and get mad and say things like "Jesus would never be ok with this!" Well... He was. And He told us how to do it. Matthew 18 gives us a plan for restorative church discipline. It's important to emphasize the restorative part. It's not punitive. It's not being mean. It's restorative. It's restorative of the relationship between the person to God--if there has been unrepentant sin that has fractured the relationship between that person and God, the process of confrontation and repentance is healing. It's restorative of the relationship between that person and God's people. We were never meant to exist in a bubble, the people of God has always been a communal or corporate identity. So when we pledge our membership to a church, we're part of a body, or a family, and most powerfully the Bride of Christ. What a rich picture of joy. When someone falls away through sin or through constant inactivity, the body isn't whole. That's where the restorative process comes in, which ultimately leads to the removal of someone from what we would consider the membership roll. It's not to punish, it's to leave open the door for restoration.

The tough part of all this is that for all we know, Cave City and its leadership are trying to do the right thing by cleaning up their records. It's the honest thing to do. We can't keep reporting these giant inflated membership numbers that are inaccurate. Let's pray that good comes from this, and that for some who received that letter it spurs them to love Cave City Baptist Church, come back into fellowship, and see the mission of God expand from there.

One of the roles that we have as leaders is Chief Storyteller, where we have the opportunity to share and direct the narrative of our church, ministry, or organization. If you think about it, that's all we have. It's not our church. It's not our organization. We're stewarding a position of leadership that has been given to us because of the trust people place in us. We're not going to be in that position forever; all of us are interims.

And that's why it's important for us to be urgent in what we want to see replicated. We want to see behaviors, habits, beliefs, and action replicated. We want to see people inviting lost friends, connecting in Gospel conversations, serving in the church and their communities, sacrificially giving, investing in the next generation, building strong marriages, and more.

But then those things don't happen. Might I suggest that the reason they don't is that they're not celebrated, so they're not replicated? When we celebrate what we want to see replicated, we're visibly displaying victories that help propel us towards our mission & vision. When we don't, we get frustrated because the status quo continues to reign. But if we don't challenge the status quo by championing values and actions that push the mission, how will anyone know what it looks like?

Celebrate Stories & Testimonies - During our weekly gatherings, we'd be remiss if we didn't pause to celebrate what God has done. After all, the stories we're telling aren't about us. We're not the heroes. God is. And God is the one who saves a troubled marriage. God is the one who changes a heart towards generosity. God is the one who cultivates a servant's attitude. Brag on God. He's worthy!

Recognize Key Contributors - Typically only a small fraction of the people involved in the success of a ministry are ever visible. The overwhelming number are working hard behind the scenes without the luxury of a spot on the platform. But as the visible leaders, we can change that. I've seen churches recognize a "Volunteer of the Month/Year" or to call up a faithful teacher on their anniversary or do video montages of ministry contributors in action. Or it can be as simple as thanking the people who painted and renovated your fellowship area.

Funnel Resources Towards Replication - Church or ministry mission and vision statements only mean what they're willing to fund and support. So whatever we say we value or we say we want to see replicated, if we're not investing people resources, financial resources, facility resources, and undergirding with significant prayer, then we're not really serious about seeing it replicated. But if we truly believe it's important to replicate, then we'll give it the attention and focus it needs to succeed.

Privately Appreciate Replicators - So often what happens in our visible, public worship services is a drop in the bucket of what happens in the weekly life cycle of a congregation. Beyond the public cheering for replicators and replication, it's important for us to privately show our appreciation to those who are championing the vision. It can be as simple as the brief conversation I had today with one of our children's Sunday School teachers to thank her for her hard work. It can be a text message or email or a surprise of their favorite Sonic drink. 


What else can you do to help celebrate what you want to see replicated in a church?

Earlier this week I recorded a podcast episode talking about younger ministry leaders being involved in doing staff evaluations. One of the things I commented on was making sure to use an objective standard for doing those evaluations, the job description.

But that opens up a whole other discussion of job descriptions in ministry settings. My suspicion is that many of us are serving in churches and ministries without adequate job descriptions to lay out what is expected. I don't mean this as a knock, churches call faithful pastors & ministry leaders and most of those who are called are faithfully laboring, working 50+ hours a week, and giving their all to their calling.

That said, it's crucial to ensure that we have good job descriptions. And in the podcast episode I argued for fluid job descriptions. Much of this comes from Jim Collins' "who then what" philosophy on hiring, that you get the right people on board first and fill the position second. I think there's a lot of carryover to ministry from that mindset. When we bring a leader on board, we're not just filling a role, we're bringing in a person first. We're bringing in a unique gift set, a unique calling, a unique perspective, and a unique expectation. My argument is for job descriptions to be fluid because of three major shifts in ministry life:

Circumstances - Maybe the position moved from part-time to full-time or from a dedicated role to a "Slashy" role where responsibilities are combined. No church is able to maintain for its lifespan its current staffing structure. It's just not possible. Ministries grow or shrink, financial health changes, leadership philosophy changes. If a church has experienced significant growth in a particular ministry area to the point that a part-time leader cannot handle the load, it is both foolish and abusive to levy expectations in an outdated job description.

Person - You are not your predecessor. And you are not your successor. You are you. Whatever job description you've been given, it likely wasn't written with you in mind. What I'm not arguing for is for a leader to write their own job description, that can be a recipe for disaster. I watched a church do that once and had a key staff member revise his description so much that he had no responsibility and no lines of accountability to deal with those issues. But your job description needs to reflect who you are, your giftedness, your calling, and your abilities. And we as senior leaders in churches and ministries should be willing to adjust our staffing parameters and model based on who God has sent us.

Culture - The way we do ministry now is much different than it was in the 1990s or even the 2000s. It's shifted greatly from program-oriented ministry to person/discipleship oriented approach. But in many cases our job descriptions don't reflect that shift. I was handed one in a previous stop that required me to be responsible for a youth choir. Sounds nice but 1) Those were largely a product of the 90s and weren't as common, and 2) I'm completely tone deaf. As the way we do ministry changes, we need to be fluid in our job descriptions to reflect that.

I want to give you 5 suggestions for how to audit your ministry job descriptions:

1. Annual Review - Hopefully your ministry is doing annual staff reviews. Use the job description as the evaluative basis for that, but be willing to ask questions like "Is this job description accurate for what you feel you need to do to be most effective?" or "Are there things we need to consider adding or taking out of this?"

2. Zero on New Hires - Whenever you bring in a new hire, as much as possible start with a Zero Description. Obviously you'll have some general parameters and expectations, but as much as you can start with a blank slate. That way you're seeking to best use a candidate's giftedness when they come on board your team, and will be able to contribute in ways you may not have initially expected.

3. Make Amending Them Easier - If it requires an act of Congress to change your job descriptions, you've made them too complicated to amend. Whatever policy and procedure adjustments you need to do in order to make amending your job descriptions easier, do them. Ours were attached to our Constitution & Bylaws, which required significant time and effort to amend (as they should). But as part of our work of reconstituting and rewriting our bylaws, we intentionally left out job descriptions. Instead, we build a Personnel Manual which can be amended by our Church Council (Leadership Team).

4. Think Person > Position - Whenever we emphasize the position over the person, I believe we turn ministry service into just a job, just a role. Instead, we need to remember that when we have someone on board our ministry team, we're bringing them on just that: our team. So we need to consider someone serving on our team as the goal, not filling a position necessarily. Again, not saying we abandon positions, but we do need to make sure that the person is more than the role. And if you're serving in a senior leadership role and you have a key staff member you want to keep who may not be in the best role, explore the possibility of a role adjustment. A good team is worth hanging on to, more than making sure the roles are filled.
*For more on teams and developing a healthy ministry, check out my book Dream Teams

5. Like, Don't Love Them - At the end, it's important that we like our job descriptions but avoid falling in love with them. Things we're in love with are difficult to change because of the emotional attachment to them. Job descriptions are a tool. Use them like one. And don't fall too much in love with a tool, because eventually it will need to be replaced. And an unhealthy attachment to something intended to be used is going to lead to misplaced priorities.

What does your church do with job descriptions?

This week's episode of the U40 Ministry Leaders podcast is about staff evaluations. Many times as younger ministry leaders we find ourselves having to do staff evaluations or being evaluated, and we don't often know how to do them or what they should look like.

In the episode, I wanted to provide a few things to take to do evaluations well, so that they truly become an honest assessment of a leader's performance but also are a way of shepherding and encouraging greater effectiveness.

One key distinction is to evaluate on process rather than results. It happens every year that football coaches are dismissed because they simply didn't win enough games. Or in a stock brokerage one trader constantly loses money or costs clients key trades. Those are results. They can be measured and objectified. But ministry needs to be evaluated on process rather than results. Process looks at faithfulness, effort, intentionality, team mindedness, and teachability. For example, a student pastor transforming culture and developing a vision is going to see people leave. It's inevitable. On results, that's a "failure," but on process that's successful.

Evaluations should be 360 - It's important to make sure that whenever you do an evaluation, or you're being evaluated, that you get a 360 perspective. Self-evaluation is the critical first step, because a leader should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. But there also needs to be supervisory and "others" input to help develop a full picture.

Evaluations should be expected - We can't just spring evaluations and think that's a good idea. They can't be ad hoc, they need to be planned and expected for staff. If it's not expected for staff to be evaluated and supported in their positions, then we can't be surprised when the evaluations flop.

Evaluations should be objective - The easiest way to be objective in an evaluation is to use a clearly written job description to measure against. There's a whole discussion in the podcast about the need for fluid job descriptions, but we can't evaluate people against a standard that doesn't exist.

Evaluations should be written - It doesn't exist if it wasn't written down. It's as simple as that. Have everyone involved in the evaluation sign and date the written evaluation.

Evaluations should have a corrective plan - The difference between good staff and great staff is that good staff are content to float through their evaluation, and great staff are going to seek ways to improve their effectiveness. So a corrective plan must be developed with clear goals and a time frame in order for the leader to grow and improve.

Evaluations should be gracious - Even difficult evaluations in ministry should not be punitive, but should be gracious. Graciousness is where we are willing to look beyond the immediate to see if there are any underlying causes or factors impacting performance. And in those, we seek to work with them to improve and lead to greater effectiveness.

Evaluations should be accountable - Any evaluation we do means absolutely nothing if there's no clear expectations or accountability to them.

Here's some tools and resources that we use for our evaluation process that are available for you to use!
90 Day Evaluation (for Support Staff)
Personnel Manual - Includes Job Descriptions & Staff Expectations
Evaluation Form

What does your church to make sure that evaluations are fruitful and helpful?

Last week I got to attend a seminar on Mental Health, specifically about the integration of faith into counseling. I'm deeply indebted to the hard work that Samaritan is doing to serve people in our region who are battling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more issues that are much beyond the scope of what we as pastors can do to care for them.

But there was one thing that was shocking in the presentation: Florida ranks second nationally among adults with serious thoughts of suicide. The study found that 3.44% of adults in Florida have serious thoughts about suicide, which is over 500,000 people. That's staggering. And all I could do when I read that was ask "Why?"

On the surface when you're in Florida you're surrounded by beaches, Disney World, sunshine all year long, no cold (except those days when it dips below 60, and yes that is cold) weather, and tons of amenities and things to do. We've often commented that it's hard to have a bad day with palm trees in your yard. But behind that is a staggering number that over 500,000 of our neighbors and friends are seriously thinking of suicide. For so many around us, paradise is an illusion. It becomes a veneer they hide their pain and hurt behind.

I want to propose 4 ways to help us think about how to lead well in this:

1. In our preaching, don't gloss over the effects of the Fall - When we read Genesis 3 we see that sin (and with it death) entered and threw all of creation in a tailspin. The effects of the Fall are more than Adam & Eve's expulsion, it impacts our minds, our hearts, our relationships, and ultimately our souls. We cannot simply gloss over the fallenness of the world around us, which we rarely do with cancer but often do with our mind.

2. In our preaching, point to Jesus as the source of hope - The opposite of the cumulative effect of the Fall is the cumulative effect of the Gospel to bring hope and healing. When we are found in Christ, we're more than just saved for heaven, we're transformed from within. And with that transformation comes something we're all longing for: hope. The ultimate of that hope is that one day we'll spend eternity with Jesus, but the temporal of that hope is that we can face tomorrow because He lives.

3. In our pastoral care, be wise - I firmly believe that almost all pastors have the best of intentions when they meet with someone going through difficult times. They genuinely want to help, they want to offer hope and lead them to the peace found in Christ. But in our pastoral care, we must walk wisely with people. That wise walking means that we have to be honest about our limits of what we can do, both for schedule and for expertise. Typically that means having a set number of appointments before seeking additional care. It's hard to be rigid on that, but I would strongly discourage from having more than a few appointments so that you don't become overwhelmed with just doing pastoral care. But we also need to recognize our limits of expertise. In some cases, what someone is dealing with is chemical/biological, and we cannot assume that our pastoral care is enough for someone in need of medical treatment. Or someone may be dealing with issues beyond what we're able to delve into with our training and experience. These are times when we're best for their sake to seek a referral.