An Update on One of Our Heroes

Owen Hollingsworth has pastored our Senior Adults (aka “the Advance Class”) for the past 16 years. He has been something of a “hero” to those of us who serve on staff. After retiring as Senior Pastor of our sister church in Poulsbo, Owen chose to stay involved in ministry joyfully serving as a shepherd ”part-time” at Crossroads. (Those who know Owen understand the quotes around part-time). Pastor Jerry says that having Owen on our team is one of the greatest gifts Crossroads has ever been given. He has been one of those that I hold in high esteem as a mentor.

Regretfully, due to significant health challenges, Pastor Owen has resigned from his position. As one would expect Owen had already identified qualified teachers for the advance class for just this moment, and he’s had the privilege of working with a great group of leaders who faithfully care for the members of the Advance group. Owen certainly desires to be back at worship services, and hopefully he will be able to teach periodically in the Advance class as his strength returns.

At an appropriate time in the near future we will have opportunity as a congregation to express our appreciation to Owen. In the meantime, you can drop him a personal note at ohollingsworth@cbccross.org.

Do We Really Need More Staff?

The recent season of hiring has raised the question? Do we really need all the staff we already have? And why are we hiring so many more. That post on staffing explains some general principles, but let me give a few “Executive Pastor” perspectives on they issue since staffing fits into my responsibilities.

Sometimes we find “holes” in our ministry and discover that filling them will take time and skills beyond that available to the average volunteer. Some of those holes have become painfully obvious as we have worked to restructure our ministry team in light of 40% growth in the last three years. We just cannot continue to pile more work, more oversight, more responsibility on all of our current staff - both pastoral and support staff - so something has been missed. Most obvious to us has been missed opportunities in equipping and shepherding adults. We have re-allocated some of our pastors primary responsibilities. For example, I have been greatly freed up from many administrative tasks by the addition of a Business Administrator so I can better work with Jerry, the Elders and the other staff. Pastor Jim Wright has added focus on Men’s Ministries, and we hoped to address adult ministries with other staff changes that just have not worked out as we thought. So now we intend to add Tom Bell to our Pastoral team (congregational approval permitting) to oversee the connecting, equipping, serving, and mission of our adult groups which we believe are strategic to our future. As a well qualified pastor, Tom will help much!

The rule of thumb is that a healthy church will have a ministry staff member for every 120-150 regularly involved in the church. With worship attendance each weekend at 1500 and over 2000 calling CBC their church home, we are pretty much on target.

Most of the hiring we are currently doing is replacement hiring for staff that have moved on for various reasons. We just hired two children’s directors to take on what had been one pastoral position. Matt Chapman’s call to missions creastes a need in the Junior High ministry (one of the most vital ages to guide well). With Jayson’s move to Saturday preaching and Adult Ministries two years ago we sought to shepherd our collegiates using interns. We have decided to fill that ministry with a more permanent ministry staff memeber. And our two part-time women’s ministry directors have stepped into the void left when Paulette Gledhill retired. Finally our search for a music pastor, minister or director has been ongoing and, of course, that too is a replacement position.

So, even with lots of staffing activity we are not increasing our personnel count as much as it might appear.

We Changed our Minds

A few weeks ago I wrote about a staff transition in Children’s Ministries. At that time we had been in a search for a Children’s Pastor or Minister for several weeks knowing that this would be a most difficult position to fill. We received several applications and connected with a few interested individuals yet none of them fit who we are either doctrinally, philosophically or programmatically.

In the meantime Charla Mills, and the entire Children’s coordination team, have been doing a wonderful job - not just holding down the fort - but continuing to develop ministry as well. In fact, you will not find a more motivated team anywhere else in the church (and we have some great teams!) so it was an exciting moment when we discovered a way to bring effective leadership to this ministry without making much of a change at all. We have hired Charla as Children’s Ministries Director serving about 25 hours weekly. We added depth by bringing on Faith Sodefi (formerly the departmental administrative assistant) as Co-Director to assist with the oversight of the ministry. Both of them will be accountable to the Executive Pastor and will be working with several Elders on the Children’s Ministries Task Group.

Sometimes God likes to change our minds about something. This is one of those times.

Adding an Associate Pastor

Most are aware that the Staff and Elders have been working through a renewed vision and strategy for ministry at Crossroads. A significant element of our emerging plan is the commitment to more effectively see to the “shepherding” of our flock - encouraging all towards connecting, equipping, serving and  mission. Adult ministries - especially our Sunday Fellowships and Home Groups - will be a very important part of this growing strategy. That’s why we have been seeking to add an additional pastor to our staff overseeing Adult Ministries. You can check previous posts for more information.

After considering more than fifty resumes and applications we are finally to the point of presenting a candidate to the Council of Elders, and the membership. Hiring a new Associate Pastor is a bit more complicated than hiring other types of positions at Crossroads (like Directors or Ministers). According to our by-laws the membership must approve and “call” an associate pastor. Lord willing, we will be meeting with our candidate over the weekend of May 31 and calling for a member vote two weeks later. We’ll have more details on the church webpage soon.

Five Words

My last two posts were about staffing at Crossroads. One of the key considerations we have as we go about the process is how each position and potential leader fits into our strategy and philosophy of ministry. Every church has a vision even if it isn’t clear or well communicated. The leadership at CBC has been working over the past year to redevelop our vision and strategic plan. Senior Pastor Jerry Mitchell will be talking more about this over the next few months, but we have already begun to arrange our staff around that vision and hire new staff with it in mind.

Worship. Connect. Equip. Serve. Mission. Those five words are at the core of what we want to do. We want every program, every staff member, and every member to be engaged in these important concepts.

 

Looking for Staff - Children’s Ministries

As I mentioned in the last post, we are in the midst of a significant season of staff hiring. Children’s Ministries is one of the positions we are seeking to staff.

 

Since October of 2007, Children’s Ministries at Crossroads have been in a transition. Children’s Pastor Jim Welles and his wife Sharon will be leaving Crossroads’ staff this Spring. Since October, Jim has focused on finishing up the Team 3 curriculum and materials (Team 3 is a unique children’s mid-week club program created by Pastor Jim and friends).  This great ministry fills our building with laughter, learning and happy kids on Wednesday evenings. This past year has had the greatest participation. What a great legacy Jim will be leaving!  In order to maintain the quality of the Team 3 programs we have hired Elisabeth Tasche part-time as Team 3 Director.

 

I’ve been told by many other church leaders that the most difficult position in a church to fill well is that of Children’s ministry leader. So, … while we are currently searching for a Children’s ministry leader, it may take some time - probably into the Summer - until the position is filled.

 

With Jim focusing on Team 3 ministries, Charla Mills has been serving as Lead Coordinator for Sunday Children’s Ministries.  She’s actually fulfilling the role of a Director (no matter what title we give her), and she has been doing it with grace, skill, and a wonderful servant spirit. The ministry has not wavered one bit in this time of transition. It is always amazing to see how God puts His team together.

 

Charla will be the first to say that having a great staff of coordinators and volunteers makes it possible to have such excellence. I have to agree - what a wonderful team of workers we have at Crossroads! Dian Williamson currently handles training and staffing for infants and toddlers, Anita Fossum is our Elementary Coordinator. Mindy Rowe covers so many broad administrative tasks, and Faith Sodeifi provides backup for all - including Team 3. Melissa Dideriksen has done a great job with the mid-week Children of the Word (COW) ministry in support of Women’s Bible studies. Saturday evening children’s ministries have been covered by Patricia Sessions (along with Joanne Dingman who has brought her expertise to overseeing the unique One Way children’s programs at the Saturday service). Our goal is to once again bring all of these diverse children’s programs under the oversight of a single overseeing leader.

 

 

A Season of Staffing

Since Crossroads is facing a staffing challenge this Spring I thought that I’d summarize some important principles regarding staffing that guide our leadership beyond the mere financial considerations.

• Volunteers. A basic philosophical principle for staffing at Crossroads is the development and use of volunteer leaders and workers within ministries as much as possible, in both shepherding and administrative roles.
• The need for compensated staff. Paid staff is considered when a ministry develops beyond the ability  of its volunteer workers to continue its vitality and growth (due to lack of specialized skills and/or time); and if the Elders determine that the ministry is essential to carrying on the goals and priorities of the church. As a rule, staff is not be hired to start ministries that do not currently exist in some form.
• Goals of the Church. A ministry position (and staff category) is evaluated in light of intentional commitments to ministry and goals as developed by the staff and elders.
• Goals of current staff. The goals and direction (both ministry and personal) of current pastoral staff is normally taken into account, evaluated, and prioritized as part of any long-term staffing decisions. Not only does  this help staff stay aggressive and creative, it also helps them to strategize and plan better, and chart a course for personal development.
• Source of Staff. As a rule, leadership should be developed from within the congregation before searching outside the congregation.

We are currently seeking to fill four ministry staff positions — Children’s Ministries, Adult Ministries, Junior High Director, and College Director. More about these in the next few posts.