Help you or help me? Staffing Decisions

I briefly mentioned something in my post last Thursday that I wanted to expand on because in my mind it's a pretty big philosophy decision McKinney Church has made in the past. We work really hard here to make sure that the church reflects our commitment as a staff to help others have significant ministry, rather than seeing them helping to make our ministries significant.

It may seem like a semantic difference, but it's not semantic at all. The philosophy's roots extend to every area of what we do. This week, I want to highlight some of the decisions this philosophy has led us to make:

The first is that we resist the urge to be "staff heavy." Most churches of 3-4000 people like McKinney have full-time staffs of 40 or 50 people. McKinney has 11 full-time ministry directors, 3 full-time communications specialists, a business manager, accountant, and 4 full-time admins. We have a few part-time staffers, mainly in the children's ministry, but that's it. The more people we have on staff, the more our congregation expects the staff to do the ministry, and we're not about that. We're here to equip others to do the ministry, not to do the ministry. Our staffing decisions reflect that.

Don't we end up with burned out leaders? Honestly? Only the ones who aren't committed to the philosophy. The philosophy of equipping others to have great ministry rather than the staff equipping others to help us have great ministry gives us the freedom to not burn out if we're truly doing my job. Guys who don't get it, and end up trying to build programs and execute ministry initiatives by themselves inevitably burn out - but not because of the philosophy... in spite of it. I've got a team of 4000 gifted people who can help lead/lead any ministry initiative I believe God has laid on my heart - it's my responsibility to train, empower, and commission them to do it.

Instead of 40 or 50 guys/girls doing the ministry for a church of 4000 people, we've got about 20 or 25 people equipping 4000 people to do ministry. If we're successful in equipping those people, I like those odds when it comes to maximum impact.