Issue Revisited...DNA #10

Again this is a follow up to a blog post, THE 13 NPC DNA COMMANDMENTS, I did on the DNA of NPC. I had someone ask about DNA #’s 9, “Thou shall endeavor for “Seeker Friendly Services”—Designing services that Celebrate Christ and Connect with the people. Planning services that reach those who are unconnected to the church (may not necessarily be what the churched people would want). In other words, identifying and connecting to the best of our ability the gospel message of Jesus Christ with the unconnected “Everyman” of the area we serve”. and 11, “Thou shall be Staff-led.”

I tackled # 9 in the previous post, now I will endeavor to explain #11 and what it means to be “staff-led”.

I have to admit that staff-led can be very mis-leading when you just read those words alone, but placed in the context of “leadership structure” it may become more clear as to its meaning.

First of all, it must be said that the church and its leadership must be Spirit-led in all aspects of the leading of the church…again this is an absolute must. Reliance on the Holy Spirit for wisdom, knowledge and discernment are critical in understanding and following the will of God for the direction of the church.

The other term that goes along side of “staff-led” is “elder-led”…again very misleading without context. Basically, when you look at these two terms in the context of church leadership it comes down to, who takes care of the day-to-day or the timely matters of the church. Another word might be, who takes care of the micro-management of the church.

Let me share with you our (NPC) philosophy of staff-led. Our leaders/elders of the church are the shepherds of the timeless principles of God that we see in scripture. They make sure that the church is in line with the Biblical based core values of Christ's church. They are also the ones who make sure that the church adheres to the core values (DNA) of the philosophy and vision of the church. Their position is oversight of the timeless core value principles of the church.

The staff then, carries these core value principles of the church out in a timely manner. The staff is given the freedom to move forward with these principles in a way that connects with the context of the current culture and society. They are trusted and given the freedom to make day-to-day decisions within the context of the core value principles (Biblical and visional).

Example…the decision to do backyard VBS (Blastzones) was a decision made by the staff and then ran by the leadership. The leadership said yes this is exactly what we need to be doing. From there the staff ran with the ideas and the structure and the advertisement and the volunteers and engaging with the small group leaders and make sure that all the day-to-day activities were meeting the needs the families within the church and local communities.

I hope this answers the question…and I also pray that we will be a church that is obedient to the call and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the life of the church.