Recently, I was asked to describe briefly what staff development looked like at our church. After taking a few minutes to sketch out a response it seemed like something that might benefit others so I took a little more time to do this well. I don’t believe this is perfect. I’m sure that there is more that I could and should be doing, or things that I could be doing more effectively, but here is what it looks like in general right now. I’m 100% sure it will change. Here is a year in the life of staff development for me at Mosaic Church . . .

I don’t know about you, but in my role as an executive pastor, I am having to simultaneously manage two seemingly conflicting realms. There is the 35,000 foot view, where I must be able to see the vision that needs to be crafted and executed. In addition, there is also the boots-on-the-ground view, where I am involved with the details that help a team arrive at a destination.

If I am not careful, I can easily fall into the trap of consistently giving my thinking and energies to what seems most advantageous at the moment. The result is that I am very liable to miss longterm strategic thinking and planning. There is no lack of busyness, but I end up looking back and thinking “Why didn’t this get done like we planned?”

Have you heard about the new app that is just killing it? It’s called Sarahah and it has quickly risen to the new #1 app in the Apple App Store.

It’s marketing push is simple: “Get honest feedback from your coworkers and friends.”

I love to run. For me, it is exercise, solitude, soul care, prayer time, thinking time, learning time, me time, all rolled into an hour or so, three times a week. Like many runners, I’m also incredibly goal oriented, so I sign up for half marathons several times a year. And I have a long term goal of running a half in all 50 states. I like to say that I don’t pay gym fees, I pay race fees. (Are runners goal oriented or are goal oriented people drawn to running?) Recently, I found myself in a race hole. One race ended without another one on the books anytime soon. Through it, I learned some important lessons about having ongoing maintenance goals as well as big deadline goals and it’s having an impact on my pastoral work life as well.

I get embarrassed over how many times I have to ask a new contact for their name…a second time.

It’s like they just told me their name and by the end of the conversation, I am asking, “So…tell me your name again?” And even then there might be a chance that I struggle to keep that name with me.

Why does that happen?

Email is like a visit to the dentist. You don’t really want to go. You’re a little nervous about what you might find, but at some point, it just has to be done. It’s painful to open your inbox after only a couple hours of meetings to find dozens of new emails dying for a response. It doesn’t have to be this bad. But here’s the deal – to quote Smokey The Bear, “only you can prevent forest fires”. With each new crop of interns that come through our church, I share some simple tips for making e-mail less painful for those around you. These are rules I try to live by. I thought I’d share them with you in hopes that together, we can reduce the volume in our inbox, and the length of the emails in it. (Plus I wanted to link to this article in my own e-mail footer, maybe you should too!)