STEVEN FURTICK wrote another essential blog for every church planter. I’ll repost his blog here and would make my own comment after:

Here’s one of the most frequent questions we get from church planters:
What position should I hire first in my church?

It’s taken me almost 4 years of reflection, but I think I’ve finally formulated my answer.  Any guesses?  I’ll bet some of you immediately thought: Worship Leader.  Nope.  Important, but not most important.  You can pray and preach your way into the presence of God without any music for a while if you have to.  Children’s Pastor?  Again, it’s definitely a priority.  But not the first priority.  At least, not in my experience.

The very first position any church planter needs to fill is the Minister of GCD.  That’s short for Getting Crap Done.

Notice I didn’t advocate a Minister of GTT (Getting Thoughts Thunk) or HLM (Having Lunch Meetings).  The most important thing a senior pastor needs in the earliest days of starting a church is a support person that will enable him to fly at a high altitude.  A good GCD Pastor is willing to be your children’s pastor, administrative assistant, executive director, and custodian.  In the same day.  A natural born CGD (Crap Getter Done) will learn to live for the thrill of freeing up the leader to do what only the leader can do.  And the vision will flourish.

Over time, your needs will become much more sophisticated.  You’ll want to hire specialists and people who deal in big ideas.  But in the first year or so, you don’t need theorists.  There’s no room for that on the payroll.

The more limited the budget, the more important it is to fire the show horses and hire folks who know how to execute.  Someone who specializes in follow through.  Someone who’s not afraid to get his/her hands dirty, and can morph into whatever is needed from moment to moment.

Here is my comment:

I have some of the best ministers of GCD!!!

My 1st hire was Pastor Bojo aka mr. all around. In the first year Bojo was my administrator, youth pastor, campus worker, associate pastor and one of the youngest GCD I have ever known. Bojo – thanks for filling up the gaps that I can’t fill. You are one of a kind.

Sheryn aka GCD 2, thanks for staying through the rough first year of our church plant when we had no office, no phone, no fax, no nothing – just pure passion to get things done. Sheryn was our finance director, worship services administrator, pastoral care admin, and discipleship ministry admin during the first year of our church.

My 3rd GCD staff is Pastor Larry Uy – the head of the GCD department. My ever reliable partner in crime fighting and church planting. My weakness is Larry’s strength – so that makes us work together really well. Larry thanks for picking up the ball when I fumble. Larry is our kids church pastor, associate pastor, building adminstrator. Yet – larry’s wife was our children’s church director.

They were the first few staff of our church in Greenhills. We now have added to the roster of the GCD. Really glad to be working on a great team!

PS: Pastor Chinkee was not hired. He paid us to work for the church but he is the GCD of all GCD.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful who you hire. It is easy to hire not easy to fire.