STRUCTURING CHURCH LEADERS FOR A CHURCH OF 200
In one of our Church Transformation Track classes, we talked about having enough administrative support for your ministry. I pulled out something Michael put together on what your leader and department structure should look like for a church of 200. We will work on a recommended structure for a church of 65 and a church of 500 (those are the typical barriers), but adjust accordingly for your church.
Your structure should look something like this at 200:
- 1 Senior Pastor (include spouse if married and both are leading)
- 1 Associate Pastor
- 1 half to full-time Church Admin / Receptionist
- 5 Volunteer Overseers (AKA Elders – this is your Core Team) who oversee up to 5 Leaders each.
- 25 Leaders overseeing up to 15 small groups and up to 10 Department Leaders
Departments would eventually include the following, with more as you grow:
- Worship and Sound
- Welcome – Ushers, Greeters, Guest Reception
- Children’s Church
- Nursery
- Youth and Young Adults
- Outreach and Marketing/Promotion
- Events and Conferences
- Healing and Sozo type ministry
- Web, Graphics, Video
- Adult Training
Pastors lead down two generations.
- The primary commitment of the pastors is to the overseers (weekly personal meeting if possible). Your overseers are developing leaders but you must also be touching those leaders on a regular basis. It reinforces the training they are receiving while at the same time providing quality control feedback on how your overseers are doing.
- Secondary commitment is to leaders (monthly personal meeting if possible)
ONLY WHEN THIS IS IN PLACE DO THE FOLLOWING THIRD AND FOURTH COMMITMENTS:
- Third level commitment is to meet with new visitors (every week after second attendance)
- Fourth commitment is to call or meet with members in crisis – (only two or three per week). Members in crisis should ideally be ministered to in the small groups by other members as a first line of defense, and if they still need further help, then pastors should get involved.
A Key: Teach people how to minister to each other.
A Key: The Gift of Administration
One of the keys is to supply your pastors with proper administrative support so the pastors can focus on the things only they can do (developing the core team and secondary leaders) — and the administratively gifted people can focus on what they do best: organization and support etc. You need to lift up and value the spiritual gift of administration. If you don’t have a budget for administrative assistants, ask for volunteers or interns. We suggest you have at least one full-time admin per two pastors and even more if possible.
A Key: Mobilize people according to their gifts and calling!!! and that’s one of the things that week 6 of the Church Transformation Track focuses on. Lead and motivate with vision.
