A repost of Pastor Steve Murrell’s blog

This morning, I spoke to our Every Nation and Victory Admin and management teams during our two day skill development and team building retreat on top of a mountain in Antipolo.

Message theme: “How to be Professional and Spiritual” at the same time.

Here are some summary statements from my talk:

– Working here is more than a job – it’s a calling. Every day we deal with life and death matters, actually eternal life and eternal death. Therefore, we must be professional and spiritual people.

– We are committed to hiring only the BEST at every position in this organization. That’s why we hired YOU.

– Over the years we have had to release (fire) people who were very spiritual, but their professional skills did not keep pace with the growth of this organization. We have also released (fired) people who were at the top of their game professionally, but their spiritual life didn’t honor God. We must continually grow both professionally and spiritually.

I talked about 3 areas of tension and conflict as we attempt to grow professionally and spiritually:

1. People vs. Policy
While policy, principles, process, facilities and systems are all valuable– people are more valuable. After all, Jesus did not shed His blood for our policies, principles, systems or facilities – he died for people. Our decisions must reflect the value of people.

2. The Whole vs. My Part
Twenty years ago, every staff member had the same job description: “whatever needs to be done, whenever in needs to be done, however long it takes – it is your job.” As we grew as an organization, we began to hire highly skilled specialists with specific areas of expertise and detailed job descriptions. The challenge is to keep the servant culture and the “whatever it takes” attitude in an age of focused specialists. It is easy to cover laziness and selfishness under the cloak of “that’s not in my job description” or “that’s not my department.”

3. Church vs. Work
Almost every member of our admin/management team is leading a church-based small group and many also serve as kid’s church volunteers, worship team members and ushers. What happens when your church’s morning prayer meeting causes you to be late for work? What if your pastor’s discipleship group, which includes you, has a time conflict with your office hours? When is it appropriate to do discipleship, crisis ministry or church volunteer work during office hours? Painful but powerful discussion points.

If you are leading a church or ministry, you will have to wrestle with these and other tough questions. Let me know how you deal with them.