What is your biggest frustration as someone working on staff in a local church? This is not necessarily specific to your area of expertise, (worship pastor or creative arts pastor) but rather to the idea that you are part of a staff or team. Your thought and input are greatly appreciated.
Communication is the biggest frustration. We need a point person to pick up that slack.
I agree Communication is a huge frustration for me
I totally agree. Most of the time it isn't the lack of communication. its the type of communication. sometimes makes me feel incapable.
Communication is a tremendous source frustration and problems in ministry. But, the most frustrating problem I ran into was at the last church I served as Music Minister. I was a bi-vocational minister (full-time mental health and substance abuse therapist) The problem I had was the Senior Pastor was very insecure (he was the only full-time minister with 5 part-time staff). Don't get me wrong, he was a very good pastor and really a great preacher. He was charismatic and very likable and truly cared about the people of the church. But, he was very insecure and needed frequent affirmation. He was pretty young and this was only his 2nd church (less than 10 years in ministry). Under his leadership we went from 150 average attendance to over 400 in 5 years and were still growing when I left. I had been there 1 1/2 years before he was called. I was about 10 years older than him and had been actively involved in ministry longer than he had been a Christian (over 20 years).
Part 2 So, that's some back ground. The problem was his insecurity made him a little paranoid. Over the 5 years we served together he seemed to grow farther away from me and several times he picked arguments with me. I feel very strongly about the importance of respecting spiritual authority and it seemed the more I tried to submit to his authority the more he would pull away.
Part 3 Finally, I chose to resign as things had gotten so bad I was not happy and it was interfering with my ability to minister effectively and even worship consistently. I really loved that church but it was taking it's toll on me and my family. It became clear to me he was trying to push me out. He accused me of having hidden agendas in a couple of staff meetings and then later would come and apologize to me in private. I had to leave as I was beginning to resent him. I left the church and decided to step back from ministry for a while and found a great church where my only responsibility was to play bass and occasionally, trumpet. After over 20 years of both full-time work as a therapist and part-time work as Minister of Music I needed some time to just worship and heal. Of course, I say part-time ministry but anyone who has been in ministry knows there is no such thing as "part-time" in ministry.
Part 4 Interestingly, he left the church about a year later. I don't know the circumstances but I know everyone I spoke with was shocked--there never expected it. I have worked with a lot of people over the years and I never had that kind of problem before. I have spent a lot of time praying for him and I know God uses him in a powerful way...I can't help but wonder how much more God could do through him if he wasn't so insecure. He will gain more confidence with time, but I continue to pray for him. About a month, or so, before he left the church I requested to be his friend on facebook. He accepted and said, "I'm surprised you want to be my friend." LOL
Part 5 I share this because I think it might be of benefit to someone else. My father was a pastor for 47 years--I learned a lot from his example. While I was still in college and on my first part-time ministry (youth) I was having some problems with the Senior pastor. Looking back I now realize I didn't like the way he told me what to do...I was having trouble submitting to his authority. I don't think he ever knew about my trouble since I never told him. My father's wisdom was to pray for him. I said, "I don't want to pray for him." "He's not showing me any respect--I'm the victim here." My father was stubborn and made me promise to pray for him. I did, and within 2 weeks everything was better. He was treating me better. I truly believe, the rest of the story, is after praying for him and his ministry and leadership God began to change me and my attitude and built the foundation for my respect for spiritual authority. Well, I didn't mean to type so much. Sorry.
Thanks for sharing your story. I have been in music ministry for 15 years as a part time person with a full time career as a public school music teacher. Recently our senior preacher gave up being our administrator to one of our younger preachers and he's doing a good job, although he's making some communication faux pas only because he is young and doesn't have the people experience at his age. Since he has had this position, I have been asked not attend staff meetings because I am a part timer. (There are six staff members, I am the only part time person). I report to the tech person and she answers my questions and responds to my requests, but I find out things that were discussed in the meeting by other people that hear about it in passing. It's somewhat embarrassing when your members of your ministry are telling you what's going on in the church. Of course, praying always fixes this-thanks for the reminders!
