Staying Sane While Serving a High Maintenance Congregation
10 min 20 s
Rev. Dr. Jill H. Small
- How the pastor / physician analogy can help
- How I deal with ultimatums and criticisms from parishioners
Conflict Management
Managing Difficult Staff Relationships
9 min 17 s
Rev. Philomena Hare
- Don’t shy away from conflict, but….
- Is it ok to have staff changes during the interim time?
- Congregations usually know there is a problem, but…
- Why staff performance evaluations are so important
Managing Staff During the Interim Time
10 min 58 s
Rev. Erica Avena
- Going in with an open agenda
- Knowing which problems can be fixed and which can only be managed
- Letting the congregation know up front what you’re willing to do and not willing to do
- Dealing with a staff problem the lay leadership has been avoiding
- Process tips for terminating an employee
Walking into Staff Conflict Unawares
10 min 04 s
Rev. Lynn Carman Bodden
- Managing staff conflict
- Seeing the pattern of conflict within the system
- Asking questions they might not think to ask
- Complexities of multi-staff congregations
- Getting clarity about your role vis-à-vis other staff
Is it Ever Okay to Terminate a Staff Member During the Interim Time?
08 min 45 s
Rev. Dr. Jonathan New
- My take on the role of the interim minister in assessing, firing and hiring staff
- Asking the question: Does this staff member continue to be a fit?
- Even if you have the authority, don’t make the decision to terminate by yourself
What is the Value of Having an Intentional Interim Minister?
12 min 33 s
Rev. Cindy Mueller
- Helping a congregation understand the value of having a trained intentional interim minister
- Difference between an “interim minister” and an “intentional (trained) interim minister”
- Guidance for lay leaders as they approach the interim time
- How to lower the anxiety during the interim time
Working with Churches that Have Building Issues (Hint: Don’t start by talking about the building…)
16 min 36 s
Rev. Dr. Rochelle (Shelly) Stackhouse
- The book of Acts is an underutilized resource for discerning about the building
- There’s more than one way to solve the problem…
- Solutions to the building problem only surface by going deeply into discerning your relationship with the community around you
- What might you have to do to your physical space to make other people want to use it?
- Learning not to underestimate the beauty of our spaces… > Dealing with idolatry of the building
The gift of conflict
10 min 50 s
Rev. Pegi Ridout
- The difficulty with conflict isn’t that we have it, it’s that we don’t know how to do it well.
- How do we treat conflict as gift? How do we get there?
- Respectful communication guidelines developed by Eric Law at the Kaleidoscope Institute
- trust, respect, listen, then speak.
- Conflict skills/muscles are built through practice;
- Pegi’s 3 types of practice for building our conflict muscles;
Church Bullies: Taking the Person more Seriously than the Behavior
11 min 59 s
Rev. Pegi Ridout
- Why understanding and managing bullying behavior effectively is so critical to the health of a congregation;
- Pegi’s 3 types of church bullies (Canaries, Porcupines, Skunks)
- Strategies for dealing with each type of bully;
- Some bullies have an important message for the congregation;
What to Think About When a Staff Person is Also a Member of the Congregation
12 min 51 s
Rev. Holly MillerShank
- How to have good conversations around boundaries with staff who are also members of the congregation;
- Navigating the tension between the need for job performance by staff and the need for compassionate pastoral care to them;
- What obligation – or responsibility – do interim ministers have to initiate those difficult conversations with staff?
- What options do we have as the interim, when a staff member, who is also a congregation member, is no longer able to perform their staff duties?