Disclaimer: I completely ripped these questions off from Seth Godin’s post earlier this week, “16 Questions for free agents” but with good intentions. Many leaders I talk to lack clarity in their role. Let’s face it: the job of the pastor and staff member today looks very different than what it did just five years ago. It’s time to revisit the tough questions and begin to rethink how we approach our leadership roles in local church ministry.

  1. Who are you trying to please?
  2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?
  3. How will the world be different when you’ve completed your time in professional church leadership?
  4. Is it more important to add new members or to increase your interactions with existing ones?
  5. Do you want a staff  or a team?
  6. Would you rather have an open-ended program that’s never done, or programs that solve or address and immediate community need and comes with a natural end points?
  7. Are you prepared to actively represent your church, or are you expecting that people will just walk in the door of your church and beg to become a member?
  8. Which: to invent a new way of providing pastoral leadership or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?
  9. If you take money for your position, are you prepared to perform (get measurable results) at the level at which your are being compensated?
  10. Are you done personally growing, or are you committed to things that will force you to change and develop yourself?
  11. Choose: teach and lead and challenge your members, or do what they ask…
  12. How long can you wait before it feels as though you’re succeeding?
  13. Is perfect important?
  14. Do you want your members to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?
  15. How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we’re on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)
  16. What does busy look like?

Not that you didn’t already have enough on the agenda for the next staff meeting or staff retreat, but I’d highly recommend asking and answer these questions individually and as a staff. It will change you, your staff, and your church.