Church Staff Archives - Charles Stone

Are You a Catalytic Leader?

2 Comments / Church Staff, Leadership, Ministry, Pastors / By Charles Stone

The book, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leadership Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, highlights the value of what the authors call, ‘leaderless’ organizations. Although I don’t advocate leaderless organizations, one chapter describes tools that successful non-leader leaders use to catalyze their respective organizations. These qualities also apply to catalytic leaders. I’ve summarized them below. Qualities […]

Are You a Catalytic Leader? Read More »

Reprimand at the Moment or Look for a Teachable Moment?

2 Comments / Church Staff, Leadership, Ministry, Pastors / By Charles Stone

If you lead people in any way … in a church, a business, or a team, those you lead will screw up, fail, and often disappoint you. When that happens, and that employee or team member needs correction, when is the best time to correct? In the past, when a staff person who reported to me made

Reprimand at the Moment or Look for a Teachable Moment? Read More »

Great Staff Meetings Require these 7 Rules

1 Comment / Church Staff, communication, Ministry, planning / By Charles Stone

Leaders can’t lead without meeting with others. Sometimes meetings go well. Sometimes they don’t. Often team dynamics derail productive meetings simply because someone misspoke or misheard. As I began to realize this, several years ago I asked a psychologist to help me create some rules for talking in our staff meetings. I call them conversational ethics. Here are the 7

Great Staff Meetings Require these 7 Rules Read More »

7 Mistakes Pastors Make in a New Church Job

Leave a Comment / Church Staff, Life Balance, Ministry, Pastors, planning, Uncategorized / By Charles Stone

Getting a new church job can be scary. And pastors often overlook pitfalls in those new jobs. In this post, adapted from my book on on-boarding for pastors, I list 7 pitfalls pastors must avoid in a new church job. A quaint story circulated among Methodists describes a young pastor fresh out of seminary who

7 Mistakes Pastors Make in a New Church Job Read More »

What Snorkeling Taught me about Selecting Leaders

3 Comments / Church Staff, Leadership, Ministry, Pastors / By Charles Stone

Several years ago I spent ten days with my family vacationing in the Bahamas in a condo literally steps from the beach. The snorkeling was dazzling. I saw over two dozen varieties of fish, excluding the nurse sharks, dolphins, and a giant starfish I found. My experience with three specific fish reminded me that we leaders must

What Snorkeling Taught me about Selecting Leaders Read More »

Church Staff

Are You a Catalytic Leader?

Reprimand at the Moment or Look for a Teachable Moment?

Great Staff Meetings Require these 7 Rules

7 Mistakes Pastors Make in a New Church Job

What Snorkeling Taught me about Selecting Leaders

Persuade Like Jesus.