Several years ago I received an email from a woman who had undergone a very painful experience applying to work in a Christian organisation. The process was butchered from start to finish, and she was (understandably) a mess.
There was no doubt as to the hearts of the Christians she was dealing with in the organisation. They just had no idea how to hire new staff. They had the heart competency to do their job. They didn't have the skills competency.
If you're working in a church or Christian organisation, you need both. Under 'skills required' in a job description, I've never seen 'loves Jesus' as the solo requirement. So, while you need to be completely sold out to the gospel of Jesus Christ, you also need to be equipped with some practical skills to do your job to the best of your ability. Where these skills are lacking, even with a gospel-centered heart, people will get hurt and in various other ways, your work will suffer.
What skills might you need? Depending on your role, these skills might include:
- leadership (how to set the vision for an organisation)
- change management (how to help an organisation move through change)
- managing staff and volunteers
- delegation
- running a meeting
- hiring and firing
- the list goes on!
What skills do you need to get your job done?
You have a responsibility to keep learning, and your employer too has a responsibility to assist you to keep learning. Your learning is good for you, and good for everyone you interact with! Learning from your mistakes shouldn't be the only intentional learning that takes place on the job!
One resource I'd recommend is the blog 'What's Best Next', where Matt Perman shares insights on leadership and productivity, particularly as these apply to ministry. His daily posts are in the 'must read' folder of Google Reader!
Another resource I recommend is getAbstract. Most of us don't have the time or the money to read business books on the skill areas we need to grow in. Which is where 'the world's largest library of business book summaries' is so useful.
getAbstract is a collection of 5-page summaries on the best business books on a broad range of topics. Each summary will give you:
- takeaways (how to apply the principles of the book),
- an overall rating,
- what you will learn, and
- a condensed summary of the key insights of the book.
The summaries are well-written (and available as MP3 downloads too), and can introduce you to some very useful books - without the need to read them all through from start to finish. Where you find a book that's particularly helpful, you can then purchase the book.
For example, I recently read the summary for John Maxwell's 'Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently'. It contained some cracker insights for preaching, giving announcements in church, and for communication in general. I've just purchased it.
getAbstract is a subscription service and you can sign-up for 12 or 6 months, on a gold or silver subscription service, ranging from US$89 to $299 per year. Compared with the price of purchasing these books (and then finding the time to read them), it's a good deal.
You can learn more about getAbstract and sign-up here.
Disclosure: I have an affiliate relationship with getAbstract. This means that if you sign-up to the service, a proportion of the subscription fee will be returned to me, and will be used to support the work of Communicate Jesus. I only have affiliate relationships with products that I use and believe in and would thoroughly recommend. I also want to be upfront in letting you know where these relationships exist.
