Honest To God

When I served as the Associate Pastor for a large church I needed a way to connect with all my staff each week. In the same way, not that I am leading a smaller church, I want to ensure my staff feel cared for. Therefore I created a simple email process I refer to as “Touch Base Weekly.” It is a simple way I ask the staff to communicate with me about their job and their life. Allow me to explain:

What is it?
In an effort to make sure we are continually measuring our mission, and in order to guarantee the leadership is staying connected to the staff, I will send an email to each staff member, and elder as appropriate, called, “Touch Base Weekly.”

This is a weekly email that is sent to the staff giving them a few questions to answer that are “qualitative” more than “quantitative.” The questions allow the staff to share with me areas of concern both professionally and personally. This is a highly relational way of managing as it gives each employee the chance to share their life highlights and concerns with me as their leader.

How does it work?
I send out an email on Wednesday or Thursday mornings to all my staff – direct reports and those who work for them. The email usually has a small word of greeting and then asks them to “Touch Base” with me on by answering the three following questions. I also include my  answer the questions in return for them so that they (1) can have an example of the types of answers I’m looking for and (2) so that they can get a peek into my life.

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Photo Courtesy of iStockphoto.com, © renphoto, File # 10328317

Finding the right time to sermon prep has always been a task for me. Ever since my preaching ministry began, I’ve struggled to ensure that my time outside the pulpit best prepared me for my time inside the pulpit.

For years I seemed to always be in fear of the next time I spoke because I was preparing right until the final moment. I soon realized the word “deadline” had “dead” in the word for a reason – when I was doing things last minute it was sucking the life out of me and my sermons. My stress went up, the Cheetos and junk food came out and sleep was nonexistent.

Not anymore. I soon resolved this was not pleasing God, nor was it fair to my family or my body. So here is my newfound schedule that seems to be working:

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Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/PeskyMonkey

I will never forget the first days on a job when I realized my boss was going to manage primarily through email. It was overwhelming to say the least. Every few minutes my computer would “ding” as a new email arrived.

His management style was a turn off for me. In fact, I am sure there was more than one occasion where I swore that I would NEVER manage through email if I could help it.

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