Return to Table of Contents

Encouraging Staff Members

Whether paid or volunteer staff, people need encouragement from their senior pastor.

Appreciation

Appreciation can go a long way in sustaining successful ministry. Your personal ministry to your staff could include: (1) inviting them to your home for dinner or just to relax and talk, (2) meeting them for coffee or lunch, (3) going on visitation or to a local sporting activity together. Take time to be involved in their lives; pastor your staff.

Recognition

Find ways to publicly recognize—in church services, at banquets, or at sectional and district events—those who work with you in sharing the gospel.

Quality

Sometimes showing appreciation is not enough. The quality of the effort conveys how much you really appreciate your associates. Poorly planned affairs that put the maximum on economy may be worse than doing nothing.

Love

Associates are encouraged and rewarded most by the attitudes you reflect toward them. Are their personal needs really important to you, or are you only using them?

Team

Associates must know you consider them an integral part of the team—"our" church rather than "my" church. Involving them in planning, implementing, and evaluating ministry and activities gives ownership.

—Clyde Harvey, Duluth, Minnesota