Mike 
My friend, Geoff Surratt, writes great blogs that make me think or laugh or both. Several weeks ago, he wrote on “Leadership: Four ways churches are doing it wrong.” The third point particularly grabbed my attention as he talked about the practice of “high grading” staff and weeding out poor performers. Geoff says:
The logic and results of this approach are hard to argue with. The challenge is this isn’t how Jesus’ led. He didn’t force Peter to resign because he just didn’t get it. He didn’t suggest to Thomas that he might want to look around for another rabbi since he didn’t seem to buy into Jesus’ vision.
My initial reaction was to disagree. If you don’t do performance evaluations (and act on them), isn’t that an invitation to mediocrity? And yet, I can’t argue with Geoff’s point about how Jesus led.
So what does this mean for leaders? I believe that Jesus should be our model for leadership and that our churches and ministries should have low turnover. But if we’re going to use Jesus as our model, we need to look at the entirety of his leadership. When it comes to how Jesus led his “staff,” here are three other things that all ministry leaders should keep in mind:
- Jesus prayed deeply before “hiring.” In Luke 6:12-13, we see Jesus seeking the Father’s guidance in the selection process. If we are 100% confident that God had led us to hire a staff person, we should be very reluctant to fire that person. Of course, we won’t arrive at that confidence with a cursory prayer right before making a job offer.
- Jesus “coached” his staff. I often hear people say that the twelve would never have been selected by a committee that was looking for a “movement planting dream team.” But I don’t hear people say what Jesus did to address their shortcomings. He invested heavily in the twelve, constantly teaching and coaching them. He told a parable to the masses, then he explained the meaning to the twelve. He sent them out, then he brought them back to debrief. One of the great mistakes in many ministries is the idea trying to hire “wind up” staff members – just wind them up and turn them loose. If you don’t have time to invest after they come on board, don’t hire them in the first place.
- Jesus wasn’t afraid to correct. Coaching is more than a series of warm, feel-good conversations. When necessary, Jesus spoke words of correction, even rebuke, to his followers. He did it out of love and out of a desire to help them grow as leaders, but it still must have stung to have the Master say “get behind me Satan” or “where is your faith?” Having hard conversations is often the best way to avoid having termination conversations.
