One of the surprises for a person who experiences his or her first experience of being head of a staff is the need to be pastor to the staff. If, as a Catholic priest once told me, your family is your domestic church, then the members of your staff are your ecclesiastical staff. Some pastors resent that and resist efforts in that arena, but both the pastor and the church pay the price for such neglect. Whether we like it or not, congregants are quick to read a message about how we practice faith through how we relate to our staff members.
To paraphrase Henri Nouwen, at first paying so much attention to staff needs seemed to be preventing me from engaging in ministry until I learned that that was my ministry. How does the gospel apply to an insecure youth worker, an egotistical choir director, an associate who longs for the spot light, a secretary who doesn’t pay attention to the details, etc. If you don’t think that should be part of your ministry, think of how Jesus had to relate to a doubter, two who had anger management problems, one who spoke first and thought later, and one who would eventually betray him. That was the caldron in which the stew of the Gospel was first prepared.
In some ways, you may spend more hours with the members of your staff than you do with any members of your congregation and, sadly enough, maybe even more hours than you spend with your family. It is worth thinking deeply about how your faith informs you about both how you treat them and how you respond to their various behavior patterns. How you live out the Gospel in this context may be one of your most powerful sermons. Make sure that it communicates what you intend.
