I’m on my way to a Vineyard church in the Northeast. They are bringing me in to help them reconfigure their staff for the growth they are anticipating. Presently they are growing and opening new campuses in the area, so the stress on staff is growing also.

I will meet with each staff person and ask each of them the following questions:

  1. Tell me about what you do at the church?
  2. What do you like the most about your ministry here?
  3. What do you like the least about your ministry here?
  4. If you could do just one thing in the church, what would it be?
  5. What is your heartburst – what can’t you live without doing?
  6. Where do you feel the most strain in your ministry?
  7. What do you think are the biggest holes in the church at this time?
  8. What haven’t I asked you that I should have?
  9. Any thing else you want to tell me?
  10. What is your biggest hope for the church?

Of course at times their answers might take me in a different direction and cause me to ask different questions.  But the goal is the same – reconfigure the staff for growing.

Once a church grows beyond 100, how it is staffed and restaffed as it grows determines whether it continues to grow or move off the plateau or end the decline. This is an important moment for this church, and it might able be important for you church.

Once a church grows beyond 100, its staffing determines whether it continues to grow.
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That is why I’m sharing this post.  Nothing is more important than how you staff the church.  You not only need the right people on the bus, but you need the right people in the right seats.  Often you can have a staff person struggling in one area who could soar in another area.  Matching people’s gifts and passions to what you expect them to accomplish is the key. That is the primary reason my partner, Bill Tenny-Brittian, and I wrote the book Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: Finding and Keeping the Right People, published in November by Baker Books.

Question: Which of these ten questions do you believe is the most important? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

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