Customer Reviews

Staff Your Church for Growth: Building Team Ministry in the 21st Century

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As the pastor of a church with an average attendance of 200, our church board decided that it was time for us to consider hiring a second pastoral staff member. We had little idea of what to look for in a second staff member. So I purchased this book to find some direction, and I was not disappointed.

McIntosh offers some clear opinions that were helpful and well reasoned. Ideally, the second staff member should be someone very different from the senior pastor. The idea is to compliment him, not replicate him.

The first four chapters touched on this subject. He did seem to lean too much for my liking upon the opinions of Lyle Schaller (who writes from a mainline denominational viewpoint; Schaller knows his stuff, but there are significant differences between the needs of a typical mainline church and a church in an evangelical denomination or an independent evangelical church; conservative churches generally tend to be more active and pastors are less like chaplains but more creative and aggressive than their liberal counterparts, hence they need additional staff earlier). McIntosh does not seem to communicate this distinction (of course he may just disagree with me:).

The book's title and subtitle truly communicate the nature of the volume. It deals with two distinct subjects: finding the right staff member(s),which occupies the lesser portion of the book,and working with and nurturing staff, the majority of the book.

The latter part virtually ignores staffs with two or three pastors, but assumes a large church format. Okay, you can't make everyone happy. But I still did not like that (there, I feel better).

Although I skimmed through the latter section, it did seem to offer advice that could be adapted to smaller situations. You will enjoy the book greatly if you are a staff or board member from a congregation with a large staff; if you are simply looking for good advice about what to look for in a second staff member, you will find the first few chapters quite relevant but will probably not finish the book.

All in all, a good book.

This book wasn't exactly what I was wanting, but it will undoubtedly be helpful for many pastors and church leaders facing a multi-staff situation for the first time. McIntosh offers an excellent overview of the rationale for having more than one staff person, and the pitfalls to avoid in hiring additional staff. For anyone leading a church from a single staff to multi-staff ministry, this book is not one to miss. The graphs and tables he offers are particularly insightful.

When I purchased this book, I was looking for an aid to keep a multi-staff church moving smoothly, not something to start it effectively. McIntosh's work is very weak in the help it offers to senior pastors who are looking for insights into better leadership of existing staff. If you want that kind of volume, then look elsewhere.

This book is an easy read and yet is packed with useful and informative material. My copy is now dog-eared on almost every other page as I marked the key points to share with colleagues and to follow-up. The contents may be common sense and obvious if you are a church consultant or have many years experience in managing church affairs, but they can also be viewed as being insightful and brilliant to those of us new to this challenging topic. I highly recommend this book to every board and staff member of a church, whether you are considering hiring a new staff member or simply want to do more/better with those you have. This book will help you hire better, manage your existing staff better and make the most of the volunteers you have to support your staff (including board members). The advice in this book would cost thousands of dollars from a consultant and you can get it for about $10. A heavenly deal!!!

Very helpful for church staff going through the growing process and wanting to learn how to grow.