Can you do pastoral care over Facebook?

Today, I happened upon an interesting question:

 

Can you do pastoral care over Facebook?

 

We have a family at Cypress Creek Christian Church that has had a terribly long week of cancer surgery and recovery at MD Anderson (affectionately known as “the best place you never want to visit”). I was there to visit and pray with them early on the morning of the surgery, and did a follow-up visit late that night.

 

The week has moved on, and I’m out of town working on a new (and very exciting) search for FaithSearch Partners.

 

While in the middle of working, I saw my parishioner was online, on Facebook, while sitting in ICU. We had a brief visit via chat, and a nice interaction.

 

I left the chat wondering: does this count as pastoral care?

 

On the one hand, nothing replaces face-to-face interaction. That’s one of our core beliefs at church and at FaithSearch Partners. So nothing can sub for my time and prayers with them on the day of surgery.

 

On the other hand, I’m currently six states away, they are in ICU round the clock, where cell phones are prohibited, and Facebook gave me a great way to supplement my care for them given our realities.

 

I posted this on Twitter and Facebook and got a big enough response that I thought I’d post on the blog, and ask you the question:

 

Is this valid pastoral care? Do you have similar stories? I heard one friend in a very cool church say that he has even done counseling over Twitter. What are your thoughts and experiences in the brave new world of ministry and social media? Where are the limits?

 

Post a comment and let’s have a conversation.

Alternatives to Firing and Layoffs During a Recession

 

Everybody, and particularly every not-for-profit I know has been affected by the economic downturn. While most of our clients are growing and expanding, even they are growing at slower than projected rates, and have to keep an eye on the money like never before.

While the best solution for churches is obviously to get more people to give more money, leaders are having to find other ways to make the balance sheet work.

The Wall Street Journal recently posted seven excellent alternatives to firing or layoffs during a recession. I hope they are a help and idea machine for those of you facing tough decisions in your ministries.

1. Ask workers to take day off without pay. Field employees at Zurn Plumbing Service Inc. of Chamblee, Ga., take a mandatory day off each week without pay, their hours cut from 40 to 30. Office workers do the same every other week, saving the company about $7,000 a month in labor expenses.

2. Manage workers’ schedules more efficiently. At Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco, restaurant workers get a free massage when the owner doesn’t have to pay for overtime. It no longer allows its 60 employees to clock in early, even encouraging them to clock out early.

3. Find something for them to do. Anything. Infinite Care Home Health Inc. of Duncanville, Texas, found volunteer work for its 38 full-time employees at local clinics during down time. They get paid for their time, with some using it to recruit new clients.

4. Cut back on salary. Office workers, including executives, at All Steel Structures Inc. of South Holland, Ill., took a 10% pay cut. The owner himself stopped taking a salary, except for during the holidays.

5. Participate in work sharing. About 18 states have what’s called WorkShare, which gives companies the ability to reduce full-time employees’ hours by getting compensation through state unemployment insurance funds. In the Maryland program, in which employers must reduce hours by at least 10% but no more than 50%, the number of businesses signing up for work sharing has at least doubled this year from last year. In Oregon, work-sharing unemployment claims were up 433% in January compared to the year before.

6. Lend your workers to other companies. Rhino Foods in Vermont, which makes cookie dough for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, recently sent its 15 factory workers to Autumn Harp, a nearby lip balm maker, for a week to help the company with its holiday rush. Employees were paid by Rhino, which invoiced Autumn Harp for the hours worked.

7. Train existing staff to do more. Luxury Retreats in Montreal moved eight of its 75 rental agents from areas such as product development to sales and a personal assistant to the accounting department.

Staffing to Support a New Reality for Senior Pastors

Leadership Network just released their most recent study of Senior Pastors of large churches. I received an early copy since I participated in the study since in addition to my work at FaithSearch Partners, I also serve as Senior Pastor of Cypress Creek Christian Church. 

 

The study revealed a number of interesting facts that will inform pastors of larger congregations, particularly regarding staffing.

 

From my read, there are multiple takeaways for staffing. I’m sure there will be more, and would love your thoughts. For now, here are three initial impressions.

 

1. Churches need to shore up visionary leadership. Only about 1/3 of all pastors surveyed viewed “visionary leadership” as a key facet of their work. This should point churches, and senior pastors, toward hiring a constellation of visionary leaders that can collaborate, rather than leaning on one luminary to drive the church.

 

2. Churches need to hire field generals for pastoral care. These key hires could be the heart of the church, and could equip teams of volunteers to care for the flock. “Pastoring” ranked fourth in most important tasks listed by the surveyed senior pastors. When asked what issues “keep them up at night,” Senior Pastors answers were almost uniformly organizational (rather than pastoral) issues. These issues were a mirror image of the issues listed by executive pastors in a recent survey of their lives and work.  Congregations would do well to remember that while preaching draws people in, a sense of home keeps them in church. A recent study of large churches by LN revealed a very large back door in nearly all of large churches. One key to stopping the bleeding might be realizing that the Senior Pastor of large churches is not equipped to both lead and pastor, and addressing that need through strategic (and highly invested) hiring of those who can lead congregations toward a feeling of home.

 

3. Recreation = Retention. Sports were listed as the far and away leader of how pastors spend their leisure time. Whether leagues, memberships in health clubs, or time playing tennis or golf, Senior Pastors deal with the stress and constant “on call” nature of their jobs through sports. In fact, “sports” was listed as the number one way pastors maintain their sanity. Wise churches will take note of this and offer avenues for their Senior (and other) Pastors to enjoy such activities as part of their compensation. Corporations have realized the value such benefits (and the reduced insurance costs related, with many offering health club memberships and other sports packages to employees. In an age where retention of good employees is becoming more and more challenging, this could be an easy win for a church board with their employees. 

 

Read the report. Let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear your thinking.

 

William

New Search for COO of Major Methodist Church

God continues to afford us the chance to help large churches find key staff.

I am excited to announce the search we are managing for the Executive Director/COO of a large Methodist church of over 7,000 members in Houston, Texas.

The church is well known both regionally and nationally within the Methodist denomination and is led by a visionary, mission-oriented senior pastor. The COO role is newly created and will serve as right hand to the Senior Pastor in completing and implementing a strategic vision for the  church.  In addition, the position will directly oversee outreach and communication ministries, including a television ministry.
Successful candidates will have substantive experience in an operationally administrative role in a large church.  Alternatively, corporate leaders with strong management skills seeking to positively impact a significant ministry will also be considered.

A more detailed document describing the opportunity is available upon request.

If you are aware of interested and qualified prospects for this position, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Candidates may contact us directly by sending a current resume to the email address below.  All inquiries will be held in strict confidence. Thank you for your time and assistance!

 
Blessings,
William

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William Vanderbloemen
Senior Vice-President
Ministry Practice Leader
FaithSearch Partners

william@faithsearchpartners.com

832-606-8905 – mobile (US)

Tony Morgan Joins FaithSearch Team

Tony Morgan FSP Ministry Partner

As many of you know, I spend the bulk of my time helping churches, mainly large ones, find key staff. The model we use at FaithSearch Partners is a highly relational one, and relies heavily on personal interaction and discernment from our consultants with their clients.

God has been very good to our firm, as we have seen tremendous growth. To respond to that growth, and to expand our capacity for the future, we are slowly adding to our team in the ministry practice. We have been praying and planning for God to bring us a handful of outstanding people to partner with as we move into a newer, larger phase of our work. Prayers have been answered.

I’m thrilled to announce that our first new ministry partner is Tony Morgan. In addition to his consulting, coaching, and writing, Tony will be helping FaithSearch with our executive recruiting work.

Tony brings the FaithSearch Ministry Practice a wealth of experience, knowledge, and networks in the largest, fastest growing churches in the United States. His expertise is particularly focused on Executive Pastor roles and searches regarding strategists for churches seeking to reach a new level of growth and effectiveness.

Many, if not all of you, know Tony. His expertise in strategic thinking and executive pastor work is some of the finest in the country. His website has reached over 1 million unique visitors. His coaching networks are thriving and his demand as a speaker and consultant grows daily.

For more than 10 years, Tony served on the senior leadership teams at NewSpring Church (Anderson, SC) and Granger Community Church (Granger, IN). With Tim Stevens, Tony has co-authored Simply Strategic Stuff, Simply Strategic Volunteers and Simply Strategic Growth–each of which offers valuable, practical solutions for different aspects of church ministry. His newest book, Killing Cockroaches (B&H Publishing), was released in 2009.

Tony has also written several articles on staffing, technology, strategic planning and leadership published by Outreach Magazine, Rev Magazine, the Christian Management Association, Pastors.com, and PurposeDriven.com. Tony and his wife, Emily, reside in Anderson, South Carolina with their four children–Kayla, Jacob, Abby and Brooke.

Tony’s reputation, wisdom, and network are beyond compare in the world of Executive Pastors. He is going to take FaithSearch to a whole new level, and we look forward to seeing how God uses this new partnership to help churches find the right leaders.

If we at FaithSearch can help your church or faith based company, or if you have any questions about what we do, please feel free to contact me directly. I’d love connect with you.

William

Where Can You Find Hope?

If you would like to hear the message I preached on this subject at Cypress Christian Church on this subject, click here. Come see us sometime, I would love to shake your hand and say hello.

 

Where can you find hope?

I have hope for the future. God has hope for your future. He has promised it.  And so I believe you should enter today choosing to hope.

 

But what does that mean?  Where do we find hope?

 

Sometimes, people think that hope can be secured by living well enough. The thinking goes like this, “If I invest well, my future will be secure.” Or, “If I follow the rules, if I keep my nose clean, if I do what is right, then I have a reason to hope.”

 

But if you have read the news at all, you know we cannot invest well enough to secure a hope. If you have lived long enough, you have probably realized that none of us are able to keep all the commandments, or live well enough to secure our hope.

 

This week, I studied and found that the word hope does not occur in the Bible until the book of Ruth. That may not sound important, but a little reflection brought me to  an important realization. The word hope cannot be found in the first five books of the Bible, the books that our faith has called “The Law.” My realization,

 

You will not find hope in the Law.

 

You will not find hope in your behavior. Nor will you find it in what you know.  You will find it in a different kind of relationship with God, one that is based on a heart to heart connection.

 

Maybe you have been trying too hard to build your own future, or secure your own hope. Let today be a day that is committed to a new kind of hope, one that is based on a heartfelt connection to God. When you do, behavior will flow out it. And hope will flow through your life.

 

Hopeful,

 

William