This coming Monday our now 1-year old church plant will hold it's first staff meeting. For some of you that might seem crazy. "You haven't been having staff meetings? What kind of leader are you?"
Let me explain a little about what we have been doing. First we have had a deal called Leadership Community that meets once a month on Friday nights. This is open to any and all volunteers AND is a first step for new volunteers. We meet from 7pm - 8:30pm and we always have lots of food and fun too. We did meet in my house until we out grew it and now we meet in community clubhouses.
Here is the beauty of doing this for a year instead of rushing to appoint people as staff and give them a title. Even if you started your church with a staff I know it wasn't a full staff so this applies to you too. In a church plant you don't know people. You just don't. The ones that will jump in and serve on the front end are usually from other churches and with that comes "baggage." More than likely your church plant is not like most other churches in your area or else you would have just got a job there. So combine your new way of doing church with a group of people that are used to things being done a traditional way and it doesn't take long for sparks to fly. Sure it will be smooth sailing for a while and you will want to give people a title, and a place of leadership, but remember this... Once you give someone a title, once you call them staff or a leader, it is very hard to ever take that away without there being damage to your church.
So for the first year no one at Church of the Suncoast had a leadership position. Now that doesn't mean some people didn't emerge as leaders, but that is the beauty of doing a Leadership Community deal instead of a staff meeting. You get to see who "gets it," who gets the vision and the strategy of what you are doing. After you get to know them and trust them then start paying them or giving them leadership positions. If you would like more info on what Leadership Community is all about just e-mail me at brian@canthisbechurch.com
