Thursday, January 22, 2009

Instruct My Staff?

I am now interim pastoring in Edmonton for the next several months. Mainly I preach and lead the staff. I have preached before, but have never worked with a church staff, let alone led one. In my previous pastorate I spent many hours alone in the church building.

Today I discovered that not only do I have three co-workers whose company I can enjoy around the office, but that I have an Administrative Assistant who, from no coercion of my own, actually intends to help me with stuff!

I have already told my colleagues that everything I learned about leading a staff I learned from the West Wing (which isn't totally true, but almost). This could be perceived as a good or a very bad thing. So tomorrow is my first staff meeting and I am thinking of playing the following clips from the show. They are pretty funny, and one is pretty bang-on for how I feel coming to grips with "having a staff". (By the way, I don't really think of the staff as "mine", but you get the drift).



5 comments:

Colin Toffelmire said...

Brilliant! I wholeheartedly endorse your use of those two clips, but are you endorsing the Toby-style leadership or the Will-style leadership that we see later in this episode and the next couple (with the interns)?

D+ said...

That's great, Jon. So which chuhrch are you at now? Would it upset you if I prayed that you enjoy the pastorate so much that you don't want to leave? See, PhD's in theology are a dime a dozen, but a good pastor is REALLY hard to find. Of course, one could always pastor with a PhD :)

D+ said...

PS. Whoops. I realized that maybe my previous comment could be taken to imply that I thought you should be avoiding education and teaching. My apologies! I had only intended to convey my high regard for theologically-minded folks like yourself who also have an aptitude for pastoral work.

Anonymous said...

Hey John, Ben from my old site has started up another site and we are talking about other things regarding religion, check it out if you want.

www.noworthytitle.blogspot.com

Joel

Jon Coutts said...

I knew what you meant Dustin. I'm not convinced many churches want theological pastors, but maybe we'll see.

Colin, I'm not sure I plan to copy any of the West Winger's leadership styles, but I sure do love the office ethos on that show.

Joel. Thanks for the invite.

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