Developing a staff and ministry team has probably been one of my favorite area’s in church planting. I love nothing more than to see people in our fellowship and on our staff reach their potential for Jesus Christ. A strong, committed ministry team and staff does not just happen. It takes focused attention and a great deal of time to develop key leaders. I’m a bullet point type of guy so here are some random bullet point thoughts on developing a staff and ministry team.

Concerning staff:

• Hire heart and attitude over resume and talent every day of the week!

Trust me on this one, I’ve found out the hard way. Give me a person who has a servants heart and great attitude and I promise you God can do something in their lives. However, give me a person with all the talent in the world and a bad attitude, and I’ll give you someone that God can’t trust.

• Hire with your limitations in mind.

This requires humility and honesty with yourself. You must know who you are and what your limitations are as a leader. Be secure enough to hire those around you that are strong in area’s you might have limitations in.

• Do not micro-manage your staff.

If you hire someone, give them clear direction and then let them fly. Don’t change everything they do. You don’t want your staff constantly looking over their shoulders. Trust in their abilities and gifts and let them soar. If you constantly have to re-do what they have done, then you either need to change or you hired the wrong person.

Concerning non-staff leaders

• Expect a lot from them.

Just because they are not paid doesn’t mean that things should not be done well and right. In the early stages of Mountain View, I required each of our ministry leaders (volunteers) to meet with me once a month for leadership training. It was required. Since we now have a decent sized staff, they now lead these.

• Stretch them

Expose them to books, conferences, other churches that are doing what you would like to do. Last year, I took all of our staff and ministry leaders to a church about 35 minutes from our church and exposed them to a church that is doing ministry better than us. After the service, we went to dinner and talked about our observations.