The People That Make Our Church Great - Part 4

I've been talking about the people that make our church great.  So far all of the groups and teams that I've mentioned serve in volunteer roles.  No church can be great without passionate, committed, hard working and competent volunteers and FCBC is full of them.  And I'm so thankful to pastor a church with such amazing volunteer leaders.

But a great church also has to have a great staff and at FCBC that's what we have.  Besides myself we have six paid staff members and everyone of them has tremendous gifts and strengths.  While I don't have the space to mention all that each person brings to the table I do want to share a couple of strengths of each of our staff.  Feel free to add to the list in the comment section.

Brian is our Student Pastor.  He's also a stay home dad which I think is amazing in and of itself.  Brian not only loves students and wants to see them commit their total lives to Christ, he also has a unique ability to understand their culture and help them translate their faith into that culture.  Brian has a unique way of communicating with students that not only helps them understand biblical truth and how it relates to their lives but also challenges them to be different people because of their faith and relationship with Christ.

Another strength of Brian's, that I've come to appreciate, is his ability to reframe a discussion in a way that creates unity.  Many times our staff and other teams need to have discussions about how to move forward, make a change or do something new.  Sometimes those discussions, because they are so important to everyone, can get serious and passionate and occasonally heated (it's actually a healthy process.)  Because he has the ability to understand different cultures (including generations) and their languages Brian has the ability to re-frame the conversation in a way that give clarity and brings people to the same page.

Cathy's title is Ministry Assistant but that title does not do her justice because of the many ways she serves and the many hats she wears.  Cathy manages the office, directs much of our communication, produces most of our publications, provides support for special projects and events, gives administrative support to staff and teams and the list goes on.  It's a position that requires a lot of flexibility and Cathy is one of the most flexible people I know.  Because we have a church that embraces change and is constantly in a state of movment there's always an element of chaos around.  Cathy also has the ability to do great work in the middle of that chaos.

She's also always willing to jump in where ever she is needed and has the ability to push through and do whatever it takes to make a ministry, event or project a success.  Her role on our team is very much behind the scenes and she deserves a lot of credit for our church's successes.  In writing this one of the things I've come to realize is that Cathy's work, in one way or another, touches every ministry, every event, every project - literally every aspect of our church.

Carolyn I. is our Pastor of Fellowship.  She wears several hats and leads two important areas in our church - small groups and hospitality.  Carolyn has the spiritual gift of hospitality and that gift is evident in the warm, friendly and inviting atmosphere she has helped us create on Sunday mornings.  In fact the number one positive feedback we get from first-time guests has to do with our hospitality ministry.  Carolyn also coordinates our small groups and since each of our small groups are unique with their own personalities this requires her to have a lot of flexibility, patience, and organization.

Another strength that Carolyn brings to our church is her experience in the corporate world.  Before joining our staff she was a nurse and adminstrator for Sunrise Assisted Living.  Time and time again she has used that experience as a pastor to support the senior adults in our church as well as our younger generations who have parents moving in to senior adulthood.  This can be a challenging time for entire families and Carolyn's willingness to use her previous experience has helped to support and encourage many of our families.

Carolyn R. is our accountant and all around financial expert.  Before she joined our staff our church's accounting had always been done by volunteers.  Those volunteers did a wonderful job with our finances but having a dedicated staff person in the position has made a huge difference and has helped us have even greater financial health.

Over the last few years Carolyn has made systematic improvements to the way we manage and report our finances.  She's worked along side of our Administrative Council to help us create financial policies that will protect our church and protect those who work with our budget and finances.  She makes sure that our church has transparency and integrity in all areas of our finances.  Carolyn is also a key part of our staff as she helps each staff member understand their area of our budget and helps them track their spending and plan for the future.

Elise is our Children and Missions Pastor and like most of our staff she wears lots of hats.  Elise was the first Children's Pastor in our church's history.  She also came to know Christ as a teenager at FCBC.  Children have always been a priority at FCBC and Elise, through her creativity and willingness to think outside the box, has brought a level of professionalism and a quality to that area of ministry that we didn't have before.  She has a heart to see children come to know God, grow in their love for him and allow that love to spill over into the people in their lives and around the world.

Elise is also passionate about "the least of these" in our community and in our world.  Over the last several years our church's heart has grow tremendously for the hurting people in our community and in our world and much of that is due to Elise's influence and leadership.  When she joined our staff Elise was one of just a couple of people in our church who had ever traveled on an international mission trip.  Today everyone of our staff have participated in a least one international mission trip and the number of people who have served internationally through FCBC is well over 50 people.

Elise' also has what I call a pastor's heart - she genuinely cares about people and is great in situations where people are going through a difficulty and need pastoral care, support, guidance and wisdom.

Susan is our worship leader and she's a gifted musician and songwriter.  Leading worship is more than just creating great music, it's about creating an environment that helps individuals shift their focus and attention to God.  Through Susan's leadership that happens every Sunday morning.  One of the things I love about how Susan does this is the amount of prayer she puts into the process.  Not only does she spend personal time in prayer as she prepares, she also leads our team to be prayerful about what they do.

Susan has also created a great team.  I'm so impressed with her ability to take a group of passionate and creative people with many different personalities and shape them into a unified team.  That's no easy task and requires a lot of patience, humility, organization and love.  Another strength that I appreciate about Susan is her ability to spot talent and incorporate that talent into our worship team.  Our team is made up of a lot of voices and a lot of different instruments and Susan has found a way to blend them all into some truly great music.

As I said behind every great church is a great staff.  I'm so thankful that our church has a staff that loves what they do, has the gifts and talents to do it well and works together as a team to ensure the church's best interested are our focus.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about what makes our church great.  Whether it's our staff or our volunteer leaders and teams, what qualities do you appreciate most?

10 Things You May Not Know About Senior Pastors

I have several people that I consider mentors in my life.  Some of them I know very well and in person, others I only know through their books, speaking and blog posts.  Ron Edmondson is one of those people.  I've never met him in person but have corresponded through Email with him a few times.  His blog is one of the few that I follow daily and his wisdom has helped me tremendously.

Today he wrote about "10 Things You May Not Know About Senior Pastors."  As someone who has been both an associate and senior pastor I have either witnessed or experienced most of the things on his list.   I've known and even worked with senior pastors who have dealt with all ten of the things Ron describes.

Looking at Ron's list I realize how blessed I am to serve and lead such a healthy church.  Our church is also blessed with a great staff that is mature and healthy and supports, encourages, and prays for each other.  And I'm so fortunate to have a wife who understands the dynamics of leading a church and supports and encourages me every step of the way.

Here's a link to Ron's post.  May it remind you to pray for and encourage your senior pastor.

The People That Make Our Church Great - Part 3

This is part three of a four part series.  

I love the church I serve in.  And I love it not because of the programs or the buildings or the great office that I have, but because of the people that I have the joy and honor of serving together with in making a difference in our community and our world in the name of Christ.

There are so many people and groups that make our church great and make the work that we do as a church possible.  Most of those people and most of those groups work quietly behind the scenes.  I want to mention three groups today that do that and do it with excellence.

Our Missions Team is made up of people who are not only passionate about doing missions outside the walls of our church but are passionate about bringing other people along in that journey.  For a church our size we do an extraordinary amount of mission work, local and international.  

Our Missions Team works to make sure we continue moving forward without taking on more than we can do with excellence.  They also have the responsibility of making sure that the way we do missions is such that it strengthens rather than harms the communities we are serving.  Many churches never give thought to how they are serving and if their methods are truly good for the community.  Our Missions Team is constantly asking questions and making sure that when we serve in another community we do no harm.  The team also tries to ensure that in all we do, the local church in the community is the hero rather than our teams.

The Missions Team has spent the last year working very hard to develop a mission team manual to guide our teams and to ensure things are done well, within the values of our church and that everyone is as safe as possible when serving.

The Vulnerable Children's Team works to lead our church to understand the needs of vulnerable children in our community and internationally and to work with our strategic partners to help meet those needs.  Our church serves vulnerable children locally through our partnership with FACETS and internationally through our partnerships with Nairobi Gospel Centre, The Royal Diadem for Excellence and Samaritan's Purse.

Much like the Missions Team this team is made up of people that are passionate about the vulnerable children in our world but also passionate about bringing other people into the conversation to be apart of the solution.  

Many times we don't even realize we are serving vulnerable children when in fact we are.  For example when we collect supplies for the FACETS Backpack Program we are supporting vulnerable children in the Fairfax area.  The children and families that receive the supplies would not be able to afford them on their own.  By helping to meet this need we help these children get a better start to the school year by having the supplies they need.  Providing quality education plays a major role in breaking the cycle of poverty.  That's also one of the things we are doing in Kenya.  Right now our efforts as a church support a program operated by Nairobi Gospel Centre.  We are currently making it possible for a young boy named Ancent to attend a private school which is far better than his community school.  Our goal is to be supporting ten children by the end of this year.

We also support vulnerable children through our work with Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child.  I love that OCC is more about relationships than anything else.  The shoe boxes that we pack and send give local pastors in developing countries a tool for building relationships with children and families in their communities.  The relationships allow the pastor and church to not only share the gospel of Christ with these families but it puts them in a position of being the hands and feet of Jesus as they meet real, physical and emotional needs.

There's no way to possibly list every group that makes our church great and the problem with doing a series like this is the risk of leaving a group out.  There are many individuals, teams and groups that lead annual events, events that only happen once and who serve in so many different ways throughout the year to make our church great.  There are volunteers who show up and fix equipment and make repairs to our building.  There are people who minister one on one to others in our church who are in need.  And there are people who quietly serve and without everyone doing what they do we simply could not do what we do.

That's why I love our church and that's why it's great. because of the people that I have the joy and honor of serving together with in making a difference in our community and our world in the name of Christ.