You can check out the Spring 2012 edition of the NACBA Ledger for an expanded version of this article:

Several months back, I had the regrettable task of terminating an employee. Always tough, but at least in this case I knew there was no other reasonable alternative. The fit had soured over the years and there was no indication that anything would change, even though I had tried many kinds of intervention. This particular case had the potential to be trouble, so I decided to consult an attorney before moving forward. I’m really glad I did. I learned some things that I want to pass along.

1. Make sure the employees personnel folder is current and has all the necessary elements.  That was the easy one. I knew that one. But knowing something and being sure it is done isn’t the same thing. I needed to be sure the file contained the resume, employment application, updated and signed job description and documentation to support the termination, i.e. performance appraisals, performance notes, meeting notes, etc.
2. Whatever you wanted to do but didnt have time to do, will either hurt you or embarrass you. I meant to document that last incident, but didn’t get around to it. I meant to remove from the file that harshly-worded note from a coworker about the employee in question. I meant to update that job description, but never got around to it. The point is, the file is evidence. Whatever is in there that shouldn’t be or whatever is missing that shouldn’t be, could become an issue if the termination goes to court.
3. Do not give a letter of dismissal. Letters become one more piece of evidence. They aren’t necessary. They often get wordy and we tend to use them to either justify our action or cushion the blow–either of which creates subjectivity. Just sit down with the employee and say it.
4. Use a Settlement Agreement. This was the first time I had used one and I will recommend in the future that one always be used. It links any severance benefits with an agreement to not bring suit. It’s legal, objective, precise, and it protects the employee and the employer.
5. Do not press for the Settlement Agreement to be signed. That would be the first impulse–get the agreement signed right now. But the better part of wisdom is to give them 30 days to sign the agreement. It allows them to process what is happening, consult with a lawyer if they like, and it makes the moment less pressurized–as if we are trying to pull a fast one.
6. Record on the Settlement Agreement the time of dismissal, i.e. “2:40 pm.” This creates a time stamp on the official action. Any subsequent negative action by the employee can be measured against the dismissal time.
7. Make the meeting short and direct. Be empathetic, but don’t retrace all the steps that got you here. If it could have been avoided, it wasn’t, so don’t prolong the agony. Get it over with–for your sake and the employee.
8. Have a witness present. Anything can happen. The employee can respond with anger, questions, accusations, threats, or just tears. Having a witness present protects you from any twisting of words that could be used again you later.
9. Minimize interaction with staff following the dismissal. Have boxes handy. Have another trusted employee accompany the individual as he/she cleans out their personal belongings and exits the building.
10. Examine your action from every angle: disparate treatment, unfairness issues, lack of proper feedback and opportunity for improvement. Is there ANYTHING you have done wrong that could make this termination ugly? If so, it’s not the right time. Fix it first and reevaluate later.
11. Be sure to strictly follow your Employee Handbook. If the Handbook is outdated, update it before you terminate. It will be the roadmap examined by the courts to see if you followed it in handling the termination.
12. Rethink Scriptural and flowery language in the Employee Handbook. Our handbook had lots of Bible words and ideas which make sense on hiring day, but which offer a goldmine of subjectivity for a lawyer representing a vengeful terminated employee.

This is the greatest wisdom—to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Thomas a Kempis

The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time – Tony Schwartz – Harvard Business Review.

Great article–check it out. Thanks, @spartacus3xxii

Adapted and expanded from: Robbins, Stephen P. (2007-09-20). Truth About Managing People, The (2nd Edition) (p. 76). Pearson Education (US).

I spent some time this past weekend meditating on this prayer by Sir Thomas More (c. 1534). More only lived to be 57 years old, dying at the hands of King Henry’s executioners.  More was found guilty of treason and was beheaded alongside Bishop Fisher on July 6, 1535. More’s final words on the scaffold were: “The King’s good servant, but God’s First.” I’m posting it hoping you find it as challenging as I do…

Give me Thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee; and not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths.
To be content to be solitary; not to long for worldly company; little and little utterly to cast off the world, and rid my mind of all the business thereof; not to long to hear of any worldly things, but that the hearing of worldly phantasies may be to me displeasant.
Gladly to be thinking of God; piteously to call for His help; to lean unto the comfort of God; busily to labour to love Him.
To know mine own vility and wretchedness; to humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God. To bewail my sins past; for the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity; gladly to bear my purgatory here; to be joyful of tribulations; to walk the narrow way that leadeth to life.
To bear the cross with Christ; to have the last things in remembrance; to have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand; to make death no stranger to me; to foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell; to pray for pardon before the Judge come.
To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me; for His benefits uncessantly to give Him thanks.
To buy the time again, that I before have lost; to abstain from vain confabulations; to eschew light, foolish mirth; and gladness; recreations not necessary to cut off; of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at right nought for the winning of Christ.
To think my most enemies my best friends; for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred.
These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasure of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all upon one heap.

Since today, March 17, 2012, is my 31st spiritual birthday, I thought I would publish my testimony online for all to see, as a way of saying “thank you” to Jesus for saving my soul and giving me not only the promise of eternal life, but a pretty amazing life right here.

My Youth

I grew up in a good moral home, but not a home of saving faith.  I attended a small Baptist church as a child, where I learned the basic stories and broad concepts of the Christian faith.  My faith was one of acknowledgement, not devotion.  I followed the passions of the world just like all my friends.  In fact, maybe more.  I met my wife, Kay, in high school, and we were married several years after graduation.  I attended the University of Cincinnati for several semesters, but dropped out to begin working at General Electric as a draftsman.  I look back on those years before Christ and can see how God used different events and people to plant seeds of faith in my heart that would later come to fruition.  That Baptist church, a godly friend in high school, several adults who witnessed to me, were all links in a chain of bringing me to faith.

Meeting Christ

While working at General Electric, I had the opportunity to observe several men who knew Christ, and could observe the quality of their character and the stability of their lives.  These men helped draw me toward a crisis of belief, where I began to question life’s meaning and purpose, and where God fit into my life.  I had a good salary, a wonderful new wife, nice things, yet the emptiness in my heart was desperate, and the more I searched for the truth, the stronger became the grip of sin on my life.  No matter how hard I tried to be a better person, old friends and old habits dominated me.

One evening at G.E., a young man who himself had received Christ only a few weeks prior, asked me if I was “born again.”  Somehow I instinctively knew this is what I wanted.  I answered him, “No, but I am trying.”  He shared with me how I could know my sins were forgiven, showed me verses of Scripture about salvation, and invited me to turn my life over to Christ.  I did just that with great emotion and enthusiasm as I left the building that night, and all the way home.  I knew that this is what I wanted more than anything in life.  On March 17, 1981, I became a new creation in Christ.

Transformation

The changes in my heart were immediate and dramatic.  It was as if God had come into my heart with a scrub brush and cleaned me from the inside out.  I had an insatiable desire to read the Bible, something I had tried to do before, but with great frustration.  I prayed, I fellowshipped with the believers at G.E., started attending a Clovernook Christian Church down the street and grew in my faith.  Kay thought I had joined a cult. She questioned how this would all turn out.  We both started in church together and after several months, she too trusted Christ alone for her salvation.

Spiritual Preparation

As I grew in faith and understanding of the Christian life, I started helping teach Sunday School at Hamilton Christian Center in Hamilton, Ohio.  First teaching elementary age children, then high schoolers, and finally, an adult singles class.  The ministry of teaching allowed me to grow consistently as I prepared to teach others

In 1982, my wife and I attended a Keith Green memorial concert, where the ministry of YWAM was presented and the challenge of world evangelization was presented.  Kay and I prayed a prayer of surrender and opened our hearts to the possibility of being directly involved in world missions.  After two children–Ryan and Jeff–and much exploring, we finally moved to Chicago in 1985 to begin study at Moody Bible Institute in preparation for the mission field.

After four years of preparation, we had no clear leading of a mission agency, a people-group, or a geographic location to pursue as a missionary.  It was not for lack of trying.  We spent six weeks in  Brazil, and went through application procedures for both S.A.M. and Bible Christian Union.  Yet neither of our hearts sensed these were God’s will for us.  In 1989, upon graduation from MBI, we moved back to Cincinnati, and I resumed my position at G.E.  While waiting on the Lord and seeking to bear fruit where we were, I began a course of study at Xavier University in Cincinnati toward an M.B.A.  I soon found that I loved the detail and the organization inherent in administrative studies.  I flourished in that program—and best of all, G.E. was paying for everything! At the same time, my third son, Kevin was born.

Fulfillment

With only a couple of courses left, and with G.E. downsizing, Patterson Park Church, an independent Bible church in Dayton called me, and asked me to consider coming as a Pastor of Administration.  I had a connection with the senior pastor through an MBI acquaintance.  In July of 1994, after much prayer and counsel, I accepted the call to full-time pastoral ministry and moved my wife and three sons to Dayton.  For me, this blending of pastoral ministry and administrative function was a marriage made in heaven.  It was a position I did not even know existed, yet one I believe God was preparing me for long before I knew it.

In the summer of 2001, I was approached by Jeff Sloan and Pete Schwalm to consider coming to Fairhaven Church as an Executive Pastor of Operations.   Jeff was leaving for the mission agency, Frontiers, and the church would be filling and expanding his role under a restructuring of the staff.  Having been around Jeff and Fairhaven Church for eight years, I had developed a great respect for their church and the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  After meeting extensively with Pete and David Smith, and praying with my wife and family for God’s leading, I accepted the call and began work at Fairhaven Church on June 15, 2002.

Over the past five or so years, I have felt the urging of God to expand my ministry through teaching.  After being approached by Alliance Theological Seminary in Dayton in 2006 to develop a course on Church Administration, I taught a nine week graduate course and enjoyed it immensely.  I repeated the course in 2007.  Subsequently, I developed this curriculum into seminars that I taught at Moody Bible Institute’s Pastor’s Conference in 2007 and 2008. I also presented three seminars in Dallas for Church Executive magazine in 2008.  I also have been able to work as a primary professor for Nyack College and Mount Vernon Nazarene University.  All of these opportunities have confirmed my passion for the classroom and the fulfillment I experience in helping others learn and grow.

I have grown in my walk with Christ over the past several of years, although I have learned that sometimes it’s three steps forward and two steps back.  I have been greatly influenced by the writings of Dallas Willard and Gary Thomas, which focus on the virtues of Christ, ancient Christian writings, and very practical application of Truth.  I read Scripture not so much for knowledge’ sake anymore, but for the spirit of it—how I can apply it, what it means to my circumstances, how it can become real to me and how it can lead me closer to Jesus.  I often pray as I read, and my devotions are more often a time of worship, where I come away spiritually warmed and encouraged in my walk.  God has been so very good to me, a sinner.  My goal 31 years later is to seek his heart, to please him with my life, and to be a part of his perpetual revolution on earth.

I’m a firm believer in measurable outcomes. The New Testament is full statistics. Just this morning I was reading in Mark 8 where Jesus reminded the disciples that he had fed 5,000 people on one occasion and another 4,000 people on a second occasion. He knew exactly how many baskets of bread were leftover each time. He kept track, right?

I like to see data to know whether we are accomplishing the things we say are important to us. Since our adoption of 13 Measures of a Healthy Church several years ago, below are some of the vital statistics we report on each month. The data below is through November 30, 2011. It’s been an amazing year in so many ways.

Salvations: preaching the Gospel results in people receiving salvation through Jesus Christ.
Over 315 people have made decisions to become Christ-followers through our ministries.

Baptisms: a measure of transformation is a believer’s desire to publicly testify to their faith.
We’ve baptized 134 people who have testified publicly to their faith in Jesus.

Attendance: growing attendance reflects our biblical desire to influence the world for Christ.
Our attendance has grown by 15-20% since January.

Guests: as we reach out to our community we should see guests visiting our services.
We’ve welcomed 430 first-time guests to Fairhaven Church so far in 2011.

Connecting: we are working to connect new people to our ministries.
We hosted 471 people at bi-monthly events to help them connect to Fairhaven.

New Members: a healthy church will attract people willing to become covenant members.
Over 80 people have made covenant commitments as new members of Fairhaven.

New Givers: one reflection of a person’s commitment to a new church is their decision to give.
Over 400 new individuals and/or families have begun giving tithes and offerings this year.

Generosity: as God blesses us, we will share that generosity with people and organizations.
We sent over $166,000 to the China ministry of Luke and Amy Wong.
We added $20,000 to our giving to the Alliance Great Commission Fund.
We supported nine different local organizations with special gifts totaling almost $8,000.
We just donated over 1,100 bins filled with household good to help the homeless in Dayton.

Benevolence: a defining quality of Fairhaven is caring for the needs of our church family.
Almost 200 individuals and families were helped through gifts totaling $50,000.

Debt Reduction: as God provides through His people, we are reducing our mortgage debt.
We’ve paid almost $700,000 in extra principal payments to reduce our mortgage.

It’s been a great year at Fairhaven Church. God’s blessing has been almost immeasurable, and it’s my prayer that beyond the things which we can count, many, many hearts and lives have been transformed beyond what can be seen. God be praised!

Wishing you a blessed New Year!

This past Sunday we held our only annual congregational meeting for the purpose of electing new officers to our Boards and for conveying to the congregation our approved 2012 budget. I think our presentation was excellent and so with that in mind, I thought I’d share the handout with you. It led with vision and inspiration, which is critical, and conveyed the figures with a sense of “let’s join God in what he is doing at Fairhaven Church.” The meeting was positive and forward-looking. We are blessed.

2012BudgetBooklet