What does your church staff consider important? Hopefully, some things will come to mind immediately, such as the Great Commission, the Great Commandment, and the vision of your local church. Have you ever considered the values that help you work together as a staff? Have you considered how you press towards these essential goals?
Staff core values can help you focus on what’s vital for you and your staff. These values can keep you on task, eliminate distractions, clarify your direction, and draw your staff together. Quite simply, core values help you identify what’s important.
At First Baptist Church Bartow (the church I pastor), we are guided by eight core values:
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- We will work as a team. A church staff must be committed to teamwork. Ministry silos are not conducive to effective local church ministry. At our church, we intentionally look for ways to help one another. There are no doubt times when we must focus on our particular areas of responsibility. By and large, however, we seek to serve as a team.
- We will be loyal. Loyalty is integral to our church staff. Our loyalty does not extend to concealing anything immoral or illegal. However, it does extend to giving each other the benefit of the doubt and having the backs of one another. Jesus is loyal to His followers, and we believe his followers should be loyal to one another, particularly those serving on the same staff team.
- We will be encouragers. There’s a lot of discouragement in our world. A church staff should not be a source of additional discouragement. Instead, a team of gospel workers should be a source of encouragement. When staff members lift up one another with godly joy and encouragement, greater ministry effectiveness can occur.
- We will work hard. It is heartbreaking to see a church staff not reaching its potential because of laziness. No workers should be more committed than ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Make no mistake: working hard does not equate to overworking. Our staff is committed to hard work so that when it’s time to rest, we can rest well.
- We will communicate well. Poor communication can destroy a church staff and, at times, destroy the church itself. Our church staff is committed to preventing this from happening. We seek to communicate well. We follow up. We clarify. We have the extra conversation. We answer emails, texts, and calls. Healthy communication is essential to healthy church work.
- We will be guided by humility. At our church, we believe the closer you get to arrogance, the farther you get from Jesus. We seek for all our staff members to be guided by humility. Humility is not always easy. Our natural inclination is to think of ourselves first and foremost. The fight to be humble is a struggle worth pursuing.
- We will have fun. This value is one of my favorites. Our team has fun together. We joke around. We share meals together. We celebrate birthdays. We sit and chat about a movie or memes. None of this is to the detriment of our other core values. Quite the opposite. Having fun together weaves a relational bond that undergirds all our other core values. It also produces a joy in our hearts that feels like a gift from God.
- We will serve with integrity. We believe that consistency and character matter. We aim to practice the other core values and live godly lives, even when no one is watching. If our integrity is compromised, the entire ministry could be compromised. Our church staff serves in a way that is above reproach and unashamed.
What values are significant to your church staff? What are your thoughts on the values listed above? I’d love to hear feedback from you. If you are seeking to develop your church staff in a greater way, consider checking out My Church Staff from Church Answers. Building an effective staff may be easier than you think.
Posted on February 13, 2025
8 Comments
At First Baptist Church Colorado City Texas, our staff created an acrostic with our 9 staff values:
Family first (prioritize before ministry and
church); Faithful (consistent, excellence,
focused)
Integrity (honesty, confidentiality)
Real (authentic); Relational (clear and regular
communication, loving, patient, peacemaker)
Servanthood (humility, putting others first,
willing to do whatever is needed); Spirit-filled
(prayerful, sober-minded, alert, Christ-
centered)
Teamwork (cooperation, encouragement, have
fun); Teachable (personal discipleship/
spiritual growth)
Very nice. Thanks for sharing, Greg.
Matt,
Thank you for the article. You asked two questions…Have you ever considered the values that help you work together as a staff? Have you considered how you press towards these essential goals?
Unfortunately at the two churches where I served on staff, neither ever asked these questions. We served in ministry silos. I fear that many smaller churches never ask these questions.
I agree with all of the values but I struggle with the implementation of # 2 We Will Be Loyal. What that meant at the churches I served at was that you are not allowed to ask questions when you have concerns. If you did, you were accused of having a critical spirit, even when the questions were asked after much prayer and in humility. I suppose if we lived the other values of teamwork, communication, hard work, etc, loyalty would be easier to address.
Thanks again.
Tim
Tim,
Thanks for commenting! You hit the nail on the head when you said, “I suppose if we lived the other values of teamwork, communication, hard work, etc, loyalty would be easier to address.” Each of the values are much easier to come by when they are all being pursued.
I’m sorry you experienced that challenge in churches where you have served. I wish I could say that the problem you described is rare in churches but, unfortunately, it’s not. By God’s grace, we can start to do better as church staffs.
Blessings to you!
We have what we call Lakeside’s Top Ten
1. Work for excellent not perfection
2. Work the hours you are paid to work.
3. Have a ministry mindset–not job mentality
4. Pick-up and clean-up after yourself when using shared spaces.
5. Ask what can I do to help make disciples
6. Know to whom you are accountable.
7. Work as a team.
8. Know your tasks and areas of ministry.
9. Embrace the vision and the mission of the church.
10. Take care of your relationship with God/Family/One Another.
Great top ten, Carl! Thanks for sharing.
Great article. I think values are actually the intrinsic realities that are and always have been present (Patrick Lencioni). What you have listed ate operational expectations. They are great.
However, core values do not have to be developed. They are naturally present. Ours are teamwork, dependability and respect. Staff should not have to try to do these. They must be present not something we practice.
Operational expectations are things we practice. We have three of those as well. I love the article but I just think a value is ever present and “we will’ and expectations and practices.
Thanks for the interaction, Gregg. These terms certainly can be used in more than one way. For example, the term “artifacts” is used often when discussing organizational culture (see Edgar Schein).
However, among our staff, these are things we have identified that should be important to our staff. In other words, we value them. We developed the list and then we proactively seek to demonstrate through our actions that these core values are, in fact, valuable. So, we seek to be proactive in living out our values, rather than simply identifying that which appears to be valuable to us.
Blessings to you!