In addition to treating your staff members as individuals, it is also important to build a sense of community among them. They not only have to work with you but with each other. What you want to create is a sense of commitment that allows each of them to support each other with the common goal of advancing the mission of the church.
From a work perspective, it will help to set aside a day or more each year to plan the church’s overall program. While many things will occur during the year that will affect the plan, this planning retreat will help both the staff and the church to avoid calendar glitches, tension over competing programs, and communication within the church. Late spring is probably a good time for most churches to schedule such a retreat.
Midway through the year, probably in late January or early February, depending on the Easter schedule of the year, you can schedule a staff day that is separated into two parts. The first part is to simply review the calendar and see what adjustments need to be made. One can also spend some time in dreaming of what might be in the future of the church. The second part of the day should begin with a nice lunch paid for by the church, and then an activity in the afternoon that is pure fun. Some activities that I have offered are: a ropes course, a pottery making time, a day at an arcade center, a trip to a museum, etc. Their favorite was a trip to the Barnes and Noble. Their first task was to spend an hour in a section they normally would bypass, learn something in their browsing, and return and report to the group. The second task was to choose personal books up to $75 which I would pay for, and return and explain to the group what they had chosen.
The point was to have fun, bond together, and feel appreciated for who they were.
