Is the Church today a phenomenal place to work? How does working for your church compare to elite companies? How should a pastor encourage and lead church staff to fulfill your mission? On today’s episode of the Thriving in Ministry podcast, we interview Dr. Michael Steiner on how you can improve your church’s work week culture.
Dr. Michael Steiner Bio
Dr. Michael Steiner is the Vice President of Innovation and Communication at Southeastern University in Florida. Michael has a PhD in Organizational Psychology and is on a mission to help pastors make churches incredible places to work. He and his wife have 2 kids and while not pastoring, Michael enjoys encouraging church leaders through his TikTok channel @drmichaelsteiner.
I’m Kyle Willis, Founder of Talanton Church Services, and Dr. Dace Clifton, from DailyPastor.com, and a pastor from Central Texas is out on sabbatical.
Notable Quotable:
- "The New Testament does not prescribe any particular structure of Church governance. What it describes is a set of gifts that the Holy Spirit has moved upon the Church and has anointed people to do certain works at specific times. It describes what they could do, but it doesn't prescribe." (15:01)
- A Church Government Revolution - Peter Haas (17:22)
- "Every organization on the planet is trying to manufacture purpose. (Businesses) are spending millions of dollars per year in their HR department to manipulate and convince their employees that they are working on a cause greater than themselves. You as the Church already have that naturally; you don't need to make that up. Think about how radical that is. You are a part of growing and building and being an essential worker in the Kingdom of God." (19:33)
- The Living Reminder - Henri Nouwen (23:40)
- "The ultimate move of the Enemy is not to get you to hate God or hate the faith... the move of the Enemy is to get you to forget why you started in the first place." (23:45)
- "The word decide means to "cut away". So when you decide on a strategy that means you are cutting away a bunch of things that you could do, so that you can do the one thing that you were called to do. That is where you have to get as a Church." (28:28)
- Measure What Matters - John Doerr (30:33)
- OKR System - Objective and Key Results
- Neurobiology of Leadership: "Making decisions is the number one calorie activity in your body. There is nothing that burns calories more than making decisions. The prefrontal cortex accounts for 20% of all calories burned in a day. Making decisions takes a ton of power. Your brain will do whatever it can to avoid making a decision. That is why we created leaders." (35:14)
- How does a new person become adjusted into an organization? (42:11)
- Role Clarity - Does a person understand what they are doing and why they are doing it?
- Self-Efficacy - Do they have the confidence they can accomplish the thing they are supposed to be doing?
- Acceptance - Are they a part of a web where they feel valued and they value that web in return?
Websites and Other Links
Dr. Michael Steiner TikTok @drmichaelsteiner
Daily Pastor Online Content
Talanton Church Services