For the past several weeks, Emily’s dad has been experiencing shortness of breath and fatigue. He initially thought it might be a recurrence of heart issues. After lots of testing, he shared this news with family and friends yesterday:

5:15 Thurs

Tues appmt was rushed up to 4pm this afternoon.

It is bad news from the bone marrow test yesterday.

I have acute leukemia.

Am being admitted into University Hosp leukemia section as soon as we can get there.

Am home right now briefing Mom(Priscilla) on important things she needs to be more aware of.

I will be in hospital care for a week to ten days, at least.

We do hope for quick remission, but Dr Behrens indicated in a kind way that this is about the worst kind, but he has high regard for the staff at OSU university hospital.

Please take the best of care for my Darling Priscilla.

Still in His Grip,

Mack H.

Over the last several months, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Senior Pastor Brad White and the rest of his team at LifePoint Church in Tampa, Florida. I really believe in them, and that’s why I’m so excited to share this news.

Our team at the Vanderbloemen Search Group has been retained to assist LifePoint identify their new Creative Arts Pastor.

LifePoint has a proven track record for reaching the unchurched. Since launching only 10 years ago, LifePoint has grown to an average weekend attendance of over 2,300 people. High growth is anticipated for the main campus over the next 10 years, as well as the birthing of multiple satellite sites.

The new Creative Arts Pastor will assist the Senior Pastor in overseeing, designing and executing highly creative weekend experiences that will connect people with God in an unforgettable and energizing manner.

Interested applicants can upload their resume to our secure site or email William Vanderbloemen directly. Don’t worry — all correspondence is held in strict confidence.

I partner with The Vanderbloemen Search Group, a retained executive search firm, to help churches find their key staff. I’m frequently helping large, fast-growing churches with a focus on reaching the unchurched. If your church needs assistance in this sort of search, feel free to contact me.

I get to spend a lot of time with churches either consulting related to staffing and structure or helping churches with searches for senior-level leaders. It’s been a long time since I shared some of the philosophies that shape how I coach leaders about church staffing, so I thought I’d give you a quick refresher. Here are…

10 Keys to a Smart Staffing Strategy

1. Think strategy before staffing structure. What’s your discipleship strategy? How do you help people who are new to your church become fully-devoted followers of Christ? How do you reach people outside the faith and outside the church? Build your staffing structure around that strategy.
2. Hire ministry leaders rather than ministry doers. In the church, you’ll never have enough money to hire the people you need to do ministry. The temptation is always to hire the person who is getting it done, but you really need to hire the people who can more capable of building the team.
3. Whenever possible, hire from within your church. They’re more likely to embrace the vision, values and strategy of your church. You’ll probably also have a better sense of how they’ll fit with your existing team.
4. But don’t assume the inside person is the best person. I’ve witnessed plenty of inside hires that didn’t work out. Outsiders may be helpful when you need a shift in philosophy or strategy. Outsiders may be helpful when you need experienced leadership. Outsiders may be helpful when you need a specialized skill. You have to weigh every situation and role individually to discern the right next hire.
5. Include multiple voices in the selection process. Include supervisors, peers and folks that will serve under the new person. If it’s a specialized skill, invite leaders from other churches to participate in the interviews. You might ultimately be the person who makes the hire, but it’s always better to have other people interact with the candidate to determine if there are any red flags.
6. Revisit your structure on a regular basis. This applies whether you are growing, declining or plateaued. In times of significant growth, you may need to do this every year or two.
7. You have to get the “right” people in the “right” roles. And this will change over time. God designed the body of Christ to embrace spiritual gifts to fulfill our mission. Any time we have people operating outside of their gift mix, we are minimizing the potential ministry impact.
8. Pay close attention to chemistry and connection with your vision and strategy. This is huge. It’s very unlikely that you’ll ever have to fire someone because they don’t have the capacity to get the job done. If you have to let someone go, it’s more likely to happen because they don’t fit with the rest of the team or they don’t embrace your vision and strategy.
9. Maintain a healthy staffing ratio. Try to target one full-time equivalent staff member for every 100 people who attend your church. That includes pastors, directors, housekeeping, administrative assistants and anyone else you pay. To calculate full-time equivalents, add up the total hours that your part-time staff works each week and divide by 40. Then add that number to the number of full-time staff. Trying to maintain this ratio will force you to think volunteers before staff.
10. Pray and listen. You’d think this one would be a given, but I’m amazed at how many times leaders downplay Holy Spirit promptings, gut feelings, that voice in your head or however you want to describe that sense that someone is or isn’t the right fit. Pay attention to those checks that cause you to second-guess. Again, this is why it’s so important to have others involved in the process to help discern the intangibles.

That’s my list. Based on your experience, what would you add or subtract from this list?

By the way, I’d love to serve you and your church if you need help revisiting your staffing strategy. Let me know if you’d like to talk.

• I’m heading to San Diego this morning for the National Outreach Convention. I’ll be teaching, interviewing and meeting with friends. Hope to see you there.
• As an ex-political junkie, Election Day is about as fun as it gets. If my eyes look bloodshot today, it was because I was up too late last night watching the election results come in.
• When my kids are gone and it’s just Emily and me, I may run for office. Georgia elected a peanut farmer. Maybe they’ll elect a blogger too.
• I think you might enjoy the new digital magazine from Integrity Music. Fun stuff from one of my favorite site sponsors.
• Next week, Emily and I are flying to London. Among other things, I’ll be engaging a one-day conversation with church leaders. It’s not too late to register for the event.
• Here are 10 characteristics of great project managers from the folks at Behance.
• Read this in my daily time in the Bible this week: “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43). When I was in local government, that was one of the quotes that hung above my desk in City Hall.
• Check out this life-change story from Rob at West Ridge.
• I’ve already started getting a number of inquiries about upcoming leadership coaching networks. Here are the details if you’re interested in learning more.
• Thirty-five years ago my family moved from Kent, Ohio. This past weekend, I drove past our old house, where I went to school and where my dad used to work. It’s amazing how much I remembered as kindergartener, which makes me wonder how much my youngest daughter is taking in.

Looks like Catalyst wins in October. Lots of folks were interested in what the main speakers had to share at last month’s conference in Atlanta. Here are the top ten posts that generated the most traffic in order of popularity:

1. Catalyst 2010: Andy Stanley
2. 8 Reasons Why I’m a Fan of Halloween
3. Catalyst 2010: Perry Noble
4. Catalyst 2010: Seth Godin
5. Catalyst 2010: Craig Groeschel
6. I hate Facebook.
7. Catalyst 2010: T.D. Jakes
8. New Lead Pastor Opening
9. Bowlin’ (featuring Chris Tomlin)
10. Cool People Use Producteev for Task Management

By the way, the most popular post from one year ago was 4 Financial Mistakes that Churches Make. Check it out, and then find out what Casey’s up to these days.

Yesterday, Brian continued a series at West Ridge walking through the core values of our ministry together. This installment was on having a Kingdom-mindset. Here are some highlights from Brian’s message:

• “The problem with many people today is that they get focused on the wrong kingdom.”
• “People are losing faith today because they’re realizing God isn’t their Sugar Daddy.”
• “We’re not about building our kingdom. We’re about building God’s kingdom.”
• “It’s not about us.”
• “Can you honestly say that God’s desires are being carried out in every area of your life today?”
• “Building God’s kingdom should rule everything we do and every decision we make
• Brian shared a sidenote from a recent survey: 23 percent of people who attend West Ridge Church have come within the past year.
• “Outside of God’s kingdom, nothing is truly going to satisfy your life.”
• “God’s not a genie in a bottle.”
• “One of the biggest mistakes we make as parents is that we don’t let our kids fail.”
• “Suffering is part of the journey of the Christian life.”
• “God is not surprised by anything that’s going on in our country right now.”
• “It’s time for every one of us for God to rule and reign over every area of our life.”
• “You’ve got more Bible knowledge than you know what to do with, but you are still not dangerous.”
• “It time for us to get out of ourselves… You are trapped trying to build your own kingdom.”
• “It is time for this church to get on mission.”

You can check out the rest of the messages in this series at WestRidge.com.