Should Your Church Have No Staff?
Last month, Adam McLane posted an attention-grabbing idea: “Here’s a centuries old tried and tested church growth strategy we have rejected: With no staff your church will grow.”
He observes that despite the number of people on church payrolls around the country, the church in the US isn’t growing. By contrast, in countries where churches lack the resources to support a full staff, the church is growing rapidly. Adam isn’t arguing that a church shouldn’t have people in charge of its different functions, but that there should be an emphasis on church members doing things for the church without being paid.
He describes the church experience that prompted this idea:
At some point someone decided that everyone needed to be on staff at the church. So we hired a music pastor. A worship pastor. A youth pastor. A children’s pastor. An associate pastor. An administrative pastor. A senior ministry pastor. And all of that staff required administrative support. Oh- and they’ll need offices and space– so we’ll need a bigger building.
If I put my businessman’s glasses on I examine this trend and say: You’ve added a lot of overhead. Your business multiplied by 25 times, right?
Wrong. The strategy didn’t work. But now we have an entire industry of church workers in an environment where they are reaching fewer and fewer people with bigger, more expensive programs. Now we’ve created an entitlement that simply isn’t sustainable nor is it leading to the growth long ago predicted.
It’s almost too easy for me to point to examples of this in other countries. (We certainly saw this in Haiti.) But it’s also true among the exploding Latino and African-American churches in the United States. With almost no infrastructure they reach thousands. In your own community it is likely that there is a church kicking butt with nearly no overhead of staff or a building.
Adam qualifies his statements at the end of the post, so be sure to read the entire essay.
Do you agree with Adam? How would your church be different if there were fewer people on the payroll?
I posted this comment on Adams blog – then remembered I went there because of your article – so I am posting my thoughts again here … sorry I know they are lengthy.
As a former non salaried ‘worship leader’ I see that some of the problem is the culture changes in the church. My congregation moved from a piano and song leader and hymn books, to a worship band with power point lyrics on a screen. All of a sudden we weren’t just picking out songs to sing at the beginning of the service – but creating a worship atmosphere, that required often times hours of preparation in bringing songs together, changing keys, writing parts, practicing, creating slides, finding ways to create a flow so as not to disrupt the ‘worship’. What used to be 10 minutes, turned into a part time job of 20 or more hours a week.
That’s great for a volunteer who has someone else in the house bringing in an income to support the family – but when that income was lost (my husband lost his job) – and I needed to help support my family monetarily, I could no longer find 20 hours to complete those ‘new’ worship tasks – along with a 40 hour a week job, the role of mother, homemaker, taxi driver, etc… I had to stop volunteering. If the congregation (church) had offered to bring me on staff – it would have helped my family quite a bit – but that wasn’t an option. And …. I am glad.
That being said, at times I have to wonder – are salaried church workers involved in more than the activities they are paid for? It seems like some paid staff members are at the church during the hours that they are paid – but when the rest of us show up after our day jobs – where are they? Or when they know they are coming back at night for a bible study they are attending (not leading) they take off a few hours during the day – cause they know they will be back. Kind of a sad state of affairs in the Church when we get to that point. Kind of like I am paid to be a Christian. And I hate that I think that way. It is kind of like judging others.
I spent so much time – working (even though it was volunteer) that when I resigned my position, I realized I had built no relationships with the people there. If I didn’t have that position, I had nothing there. I didn’t know who to talk to anymore – now that I had all this free time on Sunday morning. We ended up coming in and leaving, often times without talking to anyone – cause everyone else was so busy ‘running ‘ the services. That was wrong. I am ashamed that I let it get like that. But sometimes it felt as though if you were not part of the busy-ness, then you were not doing your job as a Christian.
I totally am all for a community of believers who gather to honor and worship God and find ways to bring glory to Him thru serving the community, instead of trying to create an atmosphere in a building and creating overhead to pay for power point projectors and loud sound systems to reach people with a ‘show’ – but actually not having anytime to fellowship with the congregation. I would much rather be reaching out a hand and reaching people with your heart.
“I’m coming back to the heart of worship … and it’s all about You Jesus” is a great song – but so contradictory when it is sung thru the 1000’s of dollars of stage equipment in a show of lights and ‘atmosphere’
In our quest to reach people with the culture of today – We are losing the ‘culture’ of the church.
Give me a small spot of grass under a tree with the birds singing and the sun shining and this grateful heart doesn’t need a contrived worship setting that someone who is paid created. (I can worship in the rain too!)
Sorry to take up so much space!
Dawn, thanks for sharing your thoughts! This sentiment in particular struck me as painfully true sometimes, “But sometimes it felt as though if you were not part of the busy-ness, then you were not doing your job as a Christian.”
“In our quest to reach people with the culture of today – We are losing the ‘culture’ of the church”
Sorry. I grew up in a hymn and organ church and now I see people (11,000 in the past 11 years) rescued from a Christless eternity. I miss hymns, but I’ll console myself with stories of alcoholics living in recovery, marriages saved, and suicides prevented.