New Churches Podcast | Season 1 | Episode 789

Creating a Positive Staff Culture

Ed Stetzer & Mark Lee

Episode 789

Host Ed Stetzer returns with pastor and planter Mark Lee to discuss the impact of creating and maintaining a positive staff culture within the life of your church. Here’s how you can lead your team to multiply leaders within their ministry spaces while cultivating a spiritual and professional environment where your people can thrive.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • The marks of an unhealthy staff dynamic
  • How to sustain your staff values when the going gets tough
  • Ways to help your team balance responsibilities and manage stress
  • The pros and cons of hiring a small church staff
  • Why servant leadership is key for head pastors

Helpful Resources:

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

You can gauge a healthy culture by how it acts during crisis. — Mark Lee

As the church grows, even the senior pastor becomes more removed from the stories happening in the church. Their responsibility is to find those stories and communicate them wherever they can. — Mark Lee

As leaders, our goal isn’t to gain many followers. It’s not even to be surrounded by the best technicians. Our job is to empower leaders who will do kingdom work better than we ever could. — Mark Lee

We may teach hyperbolically, but when we actually engage with our people, it has to be filled with grace and servant leadership. — Mark Lee

People go into ministry because they want to make a difference and feel like they’re in the trenches with other people. So, it’s important for us to act less like an office and to more like a family. — Mark Lee

Don’t underestimate the importance of staff culture. Shaping a culture is an indispensable part of your leadership. As the head of staff, no one else can do that for you. — Ed Stetzer

Published on November 30, 2023

About the Podcast

New Churches Podcast

The New Churches podcast offers practical answers to your real ministry questions. We aren’t going to provide lofty pie-in-the-sky theories. Instead, we are going to help you in your real ministry context, with your real thoughts, questions, and issues.

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Meet the Authors

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.  He is the incoming Dean of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates; and he has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, is the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and regularly writes for news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates. He serves at his local church, Mariners Church, as a Scholar in Residence and Teaching Pastor.

More Resources from Ed

Mark Lee

Lead Team of Church Planters Send Network

Mark Lee planted VantagePoint Church in Eastvale, California in 2008. Since then, the church has helped plant 10 other churches around the country. Mark also serves on the Lead Team of Church Planters for Send Network.

More Resources from Mark