This video made me laugh. Good stuff from the North Point team at this year’s Drive Conference.

In my consulting role with churches, one of the most common requests I receive is to help assess church staffing and structure. Ironically, I had four of these inquiries from various churches across the country just in the last couple of weeks. Though I serve churches in a number of ministry strategy areas, this is my favorite. I love helping a church position their staff team to best fit both the ministry and the individuals involved.

I could be wrong, but I think many churches are at a place now where giving has plateaued or declined, yet their ministry impact still continues to grow. Because we’re in a new economy in what appears to be a slow recovery, churches are recognizing that waiting for giving to increase to address staffing needs isn’t going to work. Churches are restructuring and repositioning staff to free up resources to fill needed ministry roles.

When I engage with a church to review their staffing strategy, I typically do the following:

• Have the ministries complete an initial online survey to get an overview of the current health of the church
• Learn about the church’s vision and discipleship strategy to form the foundation for the revised staffing structure
• Have the key staff leaders complete an online profile to learn about their unique gifts, personalities and passions
• Facilitate group conversations with the staff leaders to talk through what’s working and what needs to be tweaked to fulfill the church’s vision
• Meet one-on-one with the senior pastor, executive pastor and all the key staff leaders
• Provide an executive summary outlining a recommended structure, realignment of current staff and identifying gaps for future hiring

Honestly, it ends up being a pretty fun process for both the staff teams and me. I love hearing the stories of how God is working in different ministry settings using uniquely gifted people to reach very different communities and cultures. And, I love watching people light up when they recognize God has gifted them differently from their peers. There’s nothing like watching the body of Christ coming together as God intended it.

If you’re curious to learn more about how I’m serving churches with their staffing and structure needs, feel free to contact me. I’d love to talk through potential next steps.

Got a note yesterday from the Catalyst peeps about the 2010 conference. They just launched the new website, so you can make plans now to attend the Catalyst Conference this fall in Atlanta. They’re also offering an opportunity to register to win a free iPad. Winners will be chosen weekly up until the first week of October.

The conference is on October 6-8 in Atlanta at Gwinnett Arena. This year’s speakers include:

• Andy Stanley
• Seth Godin
• Beth Moore
• Bishop T.D. Jakes
• Daniel Pink
• Francis Chan
• Perry Noble
• Craig Groeschel

You can sign up online today at catalystconference.com or call 888-334-6569 to register your group with a Catalyst Concierge. Hope to see you in October in Atlanta.

If you’ve been keeping up with the news from Tennessee, my friend Pete Wilson is in the middle of a new “Plan B” following the flooding that has occurred in recent days. Pretty ironic given the topic of his first book, Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up the Way You Thought He Would?, that released today. Here’s my recent interview with Pete about the new book:

Are you intrigued? Then follow my Amazon link and order a copy so you can grapple with the “Plan B’s” in your life.