The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Most Overlooked Role on Your Staff
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There's a rule that often gets ignored in churches, not because it's not important, but because we don't always know what to call it Middle managers are the glue in church leadership. Now maybe you're a solo pastor and you're thinking, todd, we don't have any middle management. But middle management might not be paid staff. It might be volunteers, and in this episode we're going to talk about why middle managers, and even volunteer middle managers, matter more than you think, and how you can make it or break your ministry momentum, and how you can support those people quietly holding everything together. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast and also one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, who's translating your senior pastor's vision into Monday morning reality? Okay, it's probably not the visionary. It's likely a middle manager, someone in the middle, somebody who's connecting the dots between top-level strategy and boots-on-the-ground ministry. But in most churches this role goes unrecognized or unsupported and uncelebrated. So today we're going to try and fix that. Okay, so let's talk about why middle managers matter in ministry. Maybe you're like Todd why are you talking about middle managers? That sounds very corporate-y, very business-y, and perhaps maybe it is. Maybe I should have picked a different title for that, but I want you to hear what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:If you're a senior pastor, maybe you're a solo pastor, but you have a vision and a direction for your church and as you develop that vision, you need people. Maybe they're not paid staff because you're a solo pastor, but maybe they're volunteers that help propagate the vision and the mission and the work of the church right. And if you're a senior pastor maybe you're a senior pastor at a large church you have people around you Maybe they're executive pastors, maybe they're department heads that are all working with you to get out and to implement that version of your vision that you have. These people, whether you call them middle managers, executive pastors, high capacity volunteers, whatever you want to call them these I'm going to call them middle managers just because that's what I have on my notes they will bridge gaps in communication and they will translate goals into plans and they will coach your team, whether they're staff or volunteers, to execute with excellence and honestly. Without these type of people, your team will drift, your vision will lose traction and your execution will just feel really disconnected.
Speaker 1:So what happens when this role is missing? What happens? Ministry silos develop, staff burn out, volunteers burn out because they're under-supported. Senior leaders, senior volunteers, get dragged into the weeds. Staff and volunteers get unclear or have conflicting direction. Staff and volunteers get unclear or have conflicting direction and that's because this middle layer is not bureaucracy, it's bandwidth, okay. It is the healthy structure that prevents chaos and confusion and it prevents a lot of leadership bottlenecks along the time. All right, okay, todd, I get it.
Speaker 1:Middle managers those that kind of help propagate the vision of the ministry from the leader on down and out. They're very important. How do I support and empower these people in my ministry? First of all, you need to define the role clearly. Don't assume that people know what a team lead is, or a director or a key volunteer, what they're supposed to do. Give them access to top-level conversations with you and train them in conflict management and coaching and delegation. Maybe some of those things that you've had to take on in the past you can delegate out to them and equip them to not only do those kinds of things but to lead meetings and to manage systems and to solve problems. You got to give away some of your control and by doing this you can recognize their leadership publicly as well, because if they feel invisible, chances are they're going to act invisible. This middle manager concept, this idea that you've got people around you to help you get out the mission and to carry out the mission and vision that you're providing to your church, it's really key and it's really vital. So here's the bottom line the most important role on your church team might not be at the top or at the very bottom. It might actually be right in the middle, with these middle type managers. Don't overlook them, don't burn them out, don't leave them unsupported.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear your comments on today's podcast. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to hear from you and if there's any way that I can come alongside your church in hiring or developing a healthy church staff systems and just a healthy church staff compensation analysis, any of those kinds of things, I would be happy to help your church. Just reach out. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right? That's it for today's podcast. This was helpful and beneficial to you or at least maybe helped you reframe some of the thoughts, even in a smaller church or a huge church, about the importance of having people on your team that can help you carry out the vision that God has given to you All. Right, that's it for today. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll be right back here tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Have a great day you.
