Thanks for joining the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Andy Hill, the Executive Pastor at Mobberly Baptist Church in Texas.

How do you keep your church’s staff aligned? The more your church grows, the more challenging it is to keep everyone connected and moving in the same direction. In this episode of the unSeminary Podcast, Andy delves into practical strategies for communication, unity and relationship-building on staff, and encouraging self-care.

Gather staff to stay aligned. // Mobberly Baptist Church, which is located in East Texas on an 140-acre campus, may seem big at first glance. However, the church strives to maintain a smaller, more personal feel, desiring for both attendees and staff to feel seen and connected. While leading a large staff team can be beneficial, there can be practical challenges as well. At Mobberly the staff can’t be housed in one office building and so are scattered throughout the campus. As a result, staff members have to be intentional about time together. Mobberly holds a Ministry Leadership Team meeting once a week where 20-25 leaders gather to discuss key issues, worship, pray and laugh together, and develop their leadership.
Connection and planning. // The weekly Ministry Leadership Team meeting is held on Tuesday mornings for about two hours. The first half is facilitated by the lead pastor and includes prayer, a devotional and other activities that foster personal connection. The second half of the meeting is the tactical part and led by Andy.
Send out an agenda ahead of time. // In addition to personal connection, communication plays a critical role in keeping staff aligned. Every Monday, Andy meets with the lead pastor to talk about what needs to be discussed in the Ministry Leadership Team meeting the next day. They then send out an agenda to the leaders so everyone knows what will be covered.
Have fun and get to know each other. // Andy believes a staff team shouldn’t just do ministry together but get to know each other and build friendships. You don’t always have to see eye to eye and get along, but you should know more about your team and care about them. One of the unique aspects of Mobberly’s Tuesday meeting is the “hot seat” segment, where a staff member is put in the spotlight to answer a series of fun and light-hearted questions. This practice is designed to build a sense of camaraderie among the team members. Questions can range from: “How did you get your first name?” to “What is your favorite movie?” or “What is a quirk you have?”
Communication is key. // You can communicate in a lot of different ways and preferences often vary across generations, with some staff preferring emails while others respond better to texts or phone calls. Be mindful in the way you communicate with your staff team, understanding and catering to the communication preferences of different team members.
Communicate value. // How and when we communicate, or our lack of communication, will then communicate value to someone. If we don’t relay information to our staff in the right order or right way, they can feel frustrated, disempowered, and conclude that they don’t matter in the ministry.
The foundation for effective ministry. // Self-care is critical for all church staff. A healthy relationship with God and personal well-being are foundational for effective ministry. Andy encourages staff to prioritize their spiritual growth by setting aside time for personal devotions and prayer, separate from their responsibilities to prepare for sermons or lead Bible studies. Without caring for the different aspects of their being, church leaders’ capacity for life and ministry will be diminished.

To learn more about Mobberly Baptist Church and connect with Andy Hill, visit mobberly.org.

NEXT STEPS // Looking for a way to keep your church leadership team aligned and effective?

Check out our free Weekly Leadership Team Meeting Template, inspired by insights from Andy Hill’s podcast episode. This template breaks down Andy’s approach to balancing personal growth with tactical planning in a two-hour weekly meeting. It’s packed with practical tips to help your team stay spiritually grounded while navigating the complexities of church leadership. Download it now and start implementing these strategies in your next team meeting!

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Episode Transcript

Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. Man, I am so glad that you have decided to tune in. ah You’ve got lots of things you can do, but the fact that you’re listening for this next half an hour, you’re going to be rewarded. Today’s conversation, I know is going to be the thing, one of those things that we all think about, kind of regardless of our church size, what’s going on, how do we, um it’s one of these problems that we often are all thinking about. And so excited to have Andy Hill with us. He is the executive director at a fantastic church, multi-site church in from Texas, Mobberly Baptist Church. It was founded in 1938. It’s one of the fastest growing churches in the country. And on on top of having, you know, the in-person services and online, they also serve ah the local Hispanic and Vietnamese population. This is a fantastic church. If you’re not tracking with them, you should. Andy, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.

Andy Hill — Thanks for having me, Rich. Excited to be with you this morning.

Rich Birch — Yeah, this is going to be great. Why don’t you tell us a bit more, kind of fill out the picture about the church. If people were to arrive this weekend, what would they experience? Kind of give us the flavor of the church, help us kind of place us there a little bit more.

Andy Hill — Yeah, so ah we sit nestled in the piney woods of East Texas.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Andy Hill — We’re kind of deep into East Texas and ah The church itself is a pretty large campus. We actually have a lot of ah property, a lot of facility. And so we have a lot of people who, when they first see it, they say, man, this is big. But they tell us all the time that once they kind of get in the doors and they step into a service or start interacting, engaging with people, ah that it doesn’t feel big. It feels still like a ah little smaller church.

Andy Hill — And we’re pretty intentional about that. We we definitely try to do things to ah continue to help people feel connected, engaged, seen, right? We want people to feel seen because a lot of people come to ah a larger church to try to disappear, right?

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — And we we want to help them ah grow in their relationship with Christ. And so and We believe that happens life on life. We believe that happens when when they’re seen, when they’re known, and when they know someone else. And so and when someone steps in the door, they’re going to be greeted by someone. There’s going to be multiple ministers and pastors standing there who are going to talk to them and ah try to connect them to one of our small groups, try to help their kids, if they have them, get connected to whether it’s youth or kids ministry or some of the different things we’ve got going on.

Andy Hill — So um we’re just very intentional about trying to keep a little bit of that ah smaller, more personal feel towards what happens here. And I think it’s making a difference. I think it’s having an impact.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool. I know in the coaching I do with churches, you know, a lot of churches that are, say, above 1000 trying to push 2000, you know, I’ll often say that are a real quote unquote competition, although we don’t have any competition, but our, you know, that when if people were to leave our church and go somewhere else, oftentimes, if you were to do exit interview type conversations, trying to learn from those experiences, they will typically leave, people will typically, you see a trend there, they’ll leave a large church and not go to the other large church. They typically go to a very small church. They’ll go to like, you know, there’s a church around the corner and it’s 72 people and I feel known there.

Rich Birch — And so I love that you identified right up front, hey, we’re trying to help people get connected. We want them to be known, to be seen.

Andy Hill — Yes.

Rich Birch — That’s that’s a huge deal. We got and we got to think about that strategically and we got to work on that, you know, in an intentional way. Well, I got to be honest. So I went on your website and we were, you know, learning a little bit about you. You’re one of the fastest growing churches in the country. And so we wanted to learn.

Rich Birch — And I went on your staff page and I had a bit of an experience. I was like, wow, there are a lot of people on the staff at, you know, Mobberly Baptist, one of these experiences of like…

Andy Hill — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …I think your staff size is the size of the average church in the country, that which there’s people that are listening in that are like, that’s amazing.

Andy Hill — Yeah.

Rich Birch — that’s Isn’t that all good news? It’s like that’s just it’s just you know sunshine and unicorns all day long, but there’s like real challenges with that.

Andy Hill — Yes.

Rich Birch — That’s that’s got some real kind of tension. And so we’d love to talk today about keeping your team aligned, you know. What does that look like? Maybe first for for people, who help us understand maybe some of the struggles with that, having a large staff team trying. You know what is why would we even say like, hey, there’s a problem here that we should be thinking about um when you know when we have so many teams. And again, maybe it’s purely theoretical because there’s never a problem with your team, obviously. Everything’s always amazing. But what what would be some of the challenges of of leading a large staff team?

Andy Hill — Yeah, it’s not theoretical. It is very real and practical. So there there really are, when you have such a large team, I mean, there’s both just some practical challenges that we face um ah practically, like just, we can’t have all of our staff housed in office in one single kind of location

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — Which practically if we could have them all kind of in the same building during the week, Monday through Sunday, um you know, it would be a whole lot easier to keep ourselves aligned. Well, we we can’t do that. I mean, we didn’t, we didn’t get to this size overnight.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — You know, the church has grown over a long period of time. So, you know, we, we kind of have people in offices scattered throughout our, our property. And our property, we have, uh, we actually have 140 acres right here.

Rich Birch — Wow. Wow.

Andy Hill — And so, uh, over the 40 that house our, the heart of our campus and facilities, um, you know, we’ve got about five different buildings and we’ve got staff in three of those.

Rich Birch — Oh, wow.

Andy Hill — Um, so, so we’re, we’re not together, uh, day to day as we just go throughout the week. And so um, that’s just a practical challenge.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Andy Hill — And practically to address that there’s things that we have to be intentional to do. So, um, one of the things that we do is we gather together the leaders of those ministries. We call it a ministry leadership team. Um, and we gather them together once a week.

Rich Birch — Okay.

Andy Hill — And there’s 20, 25 people that get in a room, um, and, uh, we we talk about some key things that are coming up.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — We worship together. We pray for each other. We read a book together. ah So we’re we’re going through a book just as a team. We talk about it. Someone in that team is going to lead a devotional that day. So everyone in the group is going to do that. We also do something we like to call it ah kind of, it’s ah the hot seat.

Rich Birch — Yep. Oh, that’s great.

Andy Hill — And we do hot seat questions, which is kind of a rapid fire thing. And so we’ll put a staff on the hot seat and we…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — …we ask them quick questions. First thing that comes to your mind, just so we can continue to get to know each other. Um, and, and then we get vulnerable with each other too. Um, and so we’ll share hurts, struggles, things that we’re facing in our life, uh, and pray for each other.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Andy Hill — So, um, So we, we intentionally pull that group together. Uh, that meeting is led by both our, our lead pastor, uh, and then, uh, me, we each have different pieces of the meeting…

Rich Birch — Okay. Yep.

Andy Hill —…that we lead after some of our other staff have, uh, had their roles.

Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, that’s good. Let’s, let’s…

Andy Hill — So we, we do that every week.

Rich Birch — Yeah, let’s dig into that. I’d love to hear about that.

Andy Hill — Yeah.

Rich Birch — That’s a, um, you know, what a fun kind of practical tactic to kind of talk through. So that was one of the questions I was going to ask is who leads this. So you co-lead it. Um, talk to me about like, when is it every week? You know, what, why do you have it at that particular time? You know, talk us through, you know, even just that practicality to start.

Andy Hill — Yeah. So we, uh, we meet on Tuesday mornings.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — So we don’t do Mondays, uh, you know, coming off Sundays…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — …we want to give everyone an opportunity to try to, uh, one kind of rest recoup a little bit…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — …but also they get a chance to kind of plan their week. They get a chance to, um, you know, get some things done…

Rich Birch — Tackle their stuff a little bit.

Andy Hill — …before we come together as a team.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.

Andy Hill — So we come together, uh, in the morning at 9:30. And then we will go, that meeting goes for about two hours.

Rich Birch — Okay. Wow.

Andy Hill — Yeah, so it’s it’s a longer meeting. um A lot of people you say, man, that’s a long meeting, you know. How do you do that? Well, the time goes really fast, I’ll be honest. And I don’t know that this is ideal for every church. I know it’s working for us, but ah you know the first half is where we do a lot of that personal stuff, ah where we worship, read the book, devotional, prayer, hot seat, all of that kind of stuff.

Andy Hill — The second half of the meeting is where we get a little more ah granular…

Rich Birch — Right, tactical.

Andy Hill — …and practical about ministry and all, yeah, the tactical stuff. So um…

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Andy Hill — So the second half of that meeting is that. So the pastor leads, the lead pastor leads the first part.

Rich Birch — Okay. Yep.

Andy Hill — He does those things and then he punts to me and I handle the second part as the executive pastor. So those are the kind of two, two components of that meeting. Um, and then oftentimes different groups will meet after that or go to lunch together, do different things.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — It just kind of creates opportunity for the team to be together, get together. But, um, so that’s kind of the, the breakdown and when we do it, how we structure it. Uh, and we do send out an agenda for that meeting. So every Monday…

Rich Birch — Okay. Right.

Andy Hill — …at the end of the day, uh, the lead pastor and I meet and we, uh, make sure we’ve got all of our things in a row and we will send out that agenda so everyone knows exactly what’s going to be covered that next day.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.

Andy Hill — So that’s kind of the, this the, the idea behind it.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Are there um the books that you guys have read? Are there a couple that jump to mind that were particularly helpful for you as you were, you know, leading your team, keeping them aligned as you think about? Because I think we’re always, ah you know, we’re always looking for that kind of thing. Hey, what what’s been a great resource on that front?

Andy Hill — Yeah. Um, man, the first one we went through and I’m trying to think it’s, uh, uh, it has the word “fools” in the title.

Rich Birch — Okay.

Andy Hill — Uh, it was a good one. Servants, uh, like servants and fools, man, it’s been, so that’s been two years ago.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — It was a good one. Ah Pete Scazzero…

Rich Birch — Yep, yep.

Andy Hill — …did one on healthy leadership. We went through that book. Those those were two really good books that we’ve gone through. We’re gonna do a…

Rich Birch — Was it so “Servants and Fools”, the the Eugene Peterson? Yeah, that book was the first one?

Andy Hill — Servants and fools. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah

Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Yep, that’s great. Perfect.

Andy Hill — So those those are two that really stand out that. We’re going through one right now that I can say, I think it’s good, but I’ll be honest, a lot of our staff don’t really like it. And it’s, uh, uh, kind of Things That Leaders Get Right. That’s, that’s kind of the gist of the title. We’re still in it. And, um, I think it’s 10 things that, uh, good leaders get right. Uh, I’m not getting that title exactly right, but…

Rich Birch — That’s OK. Yeah, that’s fine.

Andy Hill — Yeah, so, um, I, I’m that is just one piece that ah ah those first two in particular ah have were were good books. It challenged people’s thinking. And a lot, I will say one of the emphasis in those books that has really hit home with our staff um really is the idea for the individual to self care, soul care.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Andy Hill — Not, you know, we’re we’re not just human yeah human doings. We are human beings. Think about…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Andy Hill — …who you are; think about your own walk. And so, um, those are things out of those two books that have really resonated with the staff, continuing to turn them to…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.

Andy Hill — …to take care of themselves.

Rich Birch — Is that the the is it “5 Essential Things Every Leader Must Get Right” by Richard Osibanjo? Yeah, great. Perfect.

Andy Hill — You got it. Yep.

Rich Birch — Perfect.

Rich Birch — Yeah, but but yeah, all great books so just to give that to listeners if they’re looking that’s that’s great.

Andy Hill — Yep. Those are three, three good resources.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s perfect. Um, the hot seat questions, I’d love to hear a little bit more about that. That’s an interesting kind of unique thing. What would, what would you say? How do you frame that part of the discussion so that it’s helpful and you know, it it’s encouraging what what’s like after a good hot seat session, you’re like, Oh, that was good because, you know, this happened. What, what would be some, you know, example and to make that great?

Andy Hill — Yeah. So, um you know, that one really ah it’s intended to help us just get to know someone, not at ah a ministry level, but at a personal level.

Rich Birch — Okay, okay, that’s good.

Andy Hill — Um, and so, um, you know, we, because we can do ministry together, but we ought to not just, uh, work together. We ought to do life together. We ought to be friends. We ought to enjoy the people that we work with, right? We ought to have great relationships and friendships. So, um, you know, we don’t always have to see eye to eye. We don’t always have to get along with, but, uh, we need to know something more about these people because we need to care about them. Uh, they need to matter. They need to be seen, you know, just, just like we do.

Andy Hill — So, um, so really the way we frame that is we call them up. We literally put them on a ah stool. We set them up on a seat in the middle of kind of the room. And, and we just tell them, I’ve got a list of about 150 questions. I’m always gathering more. Uh, there are quick questions, you know, um, Things like, uh, you know, how did you get your first name? What’s something that, uh, people don’t know about you? Um, you know, what is, uh, you know, a quirk that you have? What is favorite movie, favorite food? Do you, uh, you know, do you tie your untie your shoes when you take them off, when you walk in the door, right? They could be real low level and they could be, some of them are, are a little, uh, more serious at times. Could be favorite superhero, type of movie, movie, you know, uh…

Rich Birch — Oh, that’s cool. I like that.

Andy Hill — …it’s just all different kinds of simple questions, quick questions. Um, and I will say, you know, we, we’ve had some that have been really good. Uh, we’ve had one with one of our staff. He came from, uh, we didn’t know this, but he had just come from like a really stressful meeting and his, mind was really tapped out. And we put him on the hot seat. And, uh, the next time he came back, he was like, man, I feel like I was a dud on the hot seat. I need to do it again, but you know, my mind was drained.

Rich Birch — Give me another run at it.

Andy Hill — And so he said, give me another chance.

Rich Birch — Oh, that’s cool.

Andy Hill — So it’s kind of become, become a fun thing.

Rich Birch — Yeah, totally.

Andy Hill — And so we, we, we try to make it, um, not just all lighthearted, but it’s a lot of lighthearted. It’s a lot of just to try to have fun with each other. And the idea is really get to know them.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. I love that.

Andy Hill — So, yep.

Rich Birch — When I love the intentionality of like, Hey, we’re, we’re going to try to, you know, we’re trying to expose, you didn’t say it this way, but what got me thinking of when you’re thinking of those questions, it’s like, I want to try to open up new information about this person that we might not know. Right? That it’s like, this is This person is more than just the kids ministry director or more than just whatever their role is.

Andy Hill — Yes.

Rich Birch — How do we see them as a human? That’s I love that that. What a real practical, this kind of Tuesday morning, couple hour meeting, you know keeps things rolling. That’s fantastic.

Rich Birch — Are there other things that you feel like you have been really helpful to keep your team aligned, keep kind of people you know focused in in this in the same direction ah as a church, as you’re growing, reaching people, trying to make an impact in your community?

Andy Hill — Um, yeah, there certainly have been. I will say that, um, you know, the last thing I’d want anyone to think is like, we have this down pat and we’re just…

Rich Birch — Sure, sure.

Andy Hill — …always crushing it at this. Right?

Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah.

Andy Hill — Because there are times when we’re better at it, you know, this is an ebb and a flow.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — There are times when we can sense that, man, we’ve started to drift a little, right. Um, and, and so we we can see that. I would say that um and you know this gets said a lot. And I know some people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it just is true. Communication is key.

Rich Birch — Good.

Andy Hill — You have to communicate. And you can communicate in a lot of different ways. Now, I’m having to learn, right, that um some of the I have to try to find out the ways that our staff communicate. Right.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Andy Hill — Um, it’s not the way that maybe I best communicate. It’s the way, you know, how do they communicate? So I’ve we’ve got staff here. I mean, we’re across all generations. You know, we’ve got staff that are young. Um, and then we go all the way up to, you know, uh, senior adults. Um, I mean, we’ve got Gen Z’s, we’ve got Millennials, we’ve got Gen X’s, we’ve got Boomers, you know, we just have, a wide variety of of the generations.

Andy Hill — Well, some of them like email. Man, email is what they do.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — They’re not a phone person. They don’t use mobile devices. Uh, they’re not on social media. They’re not texting, you know, that’s not their thing, but then other staff, man, texting is it.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Andy Hill — You know, you want, you want to get a response, give them a text. Now, if you shoot them an email, uh, they’re probably not going to read it all and, uh, and they may not see it for 24 hours or 48 hours.

Rich Birch — Yes, yes.

Andy Hill — So, um, I have to learn and be specific with the different staff. How do they communicate? What’s the way that…

Rich Birch — Right, that’s good.

Andy Hill — …so certain staff, I’m going to shoot a text to. Certain staff, I’m going to send an email to. Certain staff… Uh, you know, now I’m an executive pastor, so, you know, I gotta be care… I can get real frustrated with some of our staff pretty quick at times. You know, I can pick up a phone and try to, call some of our staff and ah they’re never at their desk.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — I always have to remember though, you know, ministry doesn’t always happen at their desk.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — But, um, but you know, uh, some of our staff, it’s better to call. Um, cause there are certain things that, uh, you don’t hear tone in the text.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — You don’t get things can easily be misread. So, um, you have, you know, you have to be intentional. You have to be mindful. You have to be thoughtful with your staff when it comes to all those kinds of things.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Andy Hill — And then you communicate. And so, um you know, we do some all staff kind of communications, but we try to do some intentional communications with different groups, different people and communicate in a way that works for them.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. If you were if you were going to communicate something, maybe like a major initiative, or like there’s like an important change coming um…

Andy Hill — Sure. Yeah.

Rich Birch — What does that look like for you? How does that how does that, Hey, we we got to make sure everybody hears about this. What would have been some things you’ve learned? because because I do think that is a key thing you’ve hit on that you know there there’s the whole the problem of like, man, staff, the first time they heard about it or the team first time they heard about it was somebody got up on a Sunday and talked about it in an announcement…

Andy Hill — Yeah. Yeah.

Rich Birch — …which man, that’s very disempowering.

Andy Hill — Yes.

Rich Birch — You feel, people feel very isolated. So how do we avoid that? How do you avoid that?

Andy Hill — Right. um and That is a great question and a great point because um we do ah often, we don’t realize that how we communicate and when we communicate, or our lack of communication, it communicates value to somebody.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Andy Hill — Now we don’t see it. We’re just trying at times to inseminate information. But, um, if, if we don’t share it with our different staff in the right order, in the right way, some of them will say, well, I guess I don’t matter. I guess, right.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Andy Hill — Now we’re not trying to say that.

Rich Birch — No.

Andy Hill — They do matter.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — But they don’t feel like that.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Andy Hill — So, um, whether it’s our administrative assistants, which, uh, and the frustration that they have, right? So if you have a, uh, a support team, that is ah broad or big or small. Um, you know, if, if they don’t hear something, oftentimes they’re the front line.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — They’re the ones who’s going to get that first phone call. And when someone says, Hey, what’s the deal with this thing? Right?

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — And they say, I don’t know what you’re talking about, right?

Rich Birch — Not no idea. Yeah, exactly.

Andy Hill — Man, you talk about that’s very, exactly what you said. It does not empower them. In fact, it deflates.

Rich Birch — Right. Right.

Andy Hill — They feel like they, they’re not a part of a team. They feel like they’re just someone out there grunt, doing some work. That’s the last thing here in ministry we want anyone to feel.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Andy Hill — So we are very intentional to say, okay, who are the groups? So whether it’s lay people, whether it’s our pastoral team, our ministerial team, our support staff, uh, our maintenance staff, those who do all of our setups and tear downs, you know, we, we do it in different ways. We, we will shoot little quick videos. Man, uh, with, with phones today, the pastor just pulling out his phone and shooting a quick video.

Rich Birch — Huge deal.

Andy Hill — Hey, I want to share a quick update, important update when they hear it from him and it’s sent to them. Now they know they feel empowered. It’s like, okay. Just information there is just so important to them. Um, so we do it that way. We do it through, um, emails. We do it on Sunday mornings. We make announcements. And a lot of times we do all of the above.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — And we do, we sit down and we plan that out. We schedule that out.

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — And we say on Monday, we’re doing this on Tuesday, we’re doing this on Wednesday, we’re doing this.

Rich Birch — That’s good. That’s good.

Andy Hill — And it could be Tuesday morning, Tuesday afternoon. Our communications department is involved in that process. Our pastors get involved in that process. ‘Cause we also, whoever leads a team, right?

Rich Birch — Yep.

Andy Hill — Well, they should hear it before their team does.

Rich Birch — Right. Yes

Andy Hill — So, you know?

Rich Birch — Yeah, for sure.

Andy Hill — So we just, there just really needs to be an intentionality to make sure the people… And it’s, it’s probably a little different for every church. Who are the people that need to hear it in what order…

Rich Birch — Yep. Yeah, that’s good.

Andy Hill — …so that everyone hears it before it just goes out to everybody.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. That’s so good. You had mentioned there um kind of while we were getting into that, something caught my eye where you said like, yeah, there’s times where we feel like we might drift a little bit.

Andy Hill — Yeah.

Rich Birch — Like, hey, there’s a bit of drifting away from the the mission from what God’s called us to do. Can you give me an example of um you know, how you notice that, what was it that’s like, Oh, here’s, here’s an, you know, you know, we don’t always, you don’t need to out somebody on the podcast, but like an example of the kind of thing, the category of thing would say like, Oh, this is maybe a little bit off. Cause we know it’s not the person or it’s not the department that’s 90 degrees against them the mission. Like that’s obvious. Like we see those things.

Andy Hill — Right.

Rich Birch — It’s typically the like people that are five degrees off, you know, man, that’s, those are the hard ones because over time, man, that just ends up being this huge gap between us and them or them and the the mission

Rich Birch — So how do you, how are you identifying that? What are some things you’ve done as an XP to, uh, to address that, to pull, you know, pull people back in line, get get people back, you know, rowing in the same direction.

Andy Hill — Yeah. So, um you know, as an XP, I kind of have some ah processes that I regularly work through. So I regularly, ah I collect data. I just go out and I am regularly looking at our website, talking with our different ministries about whether it’s an event, whether it’s Sunday morning, whether it’s something that happens through the week, just give me data, give me information.

Rich Birch — Right, what’s actually happening? Yep.

Andy Hill — And, and I track those things, right? I, I love Excel. I’m a, I’m an Excel junkie.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Andy Hill — And so I put everything in worksheets and workbooks. And, you know, um, I’ve, I over the years have built out, built out what my kind of workbooks and structures look like and the things that I are important for me.

Andy Hill — But I also, uh, data is just one piece. There’s just information too. So I, I talk to people and i I will gather that information. You know, Hey, tell me, what was your intent with this? What was the purpose behind it? Um, what were you guys trying to accomplish? Do you feel like you accomplished it? Right.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Andy Hill — Just challenge them to evaluate things, but share that with me. Um, and then finally make some assessments, right?

Rich Birch — Right, that’s good.

Andy Hill — Just to sit down and say, okay, based on the data, based on the information, um, here’s kind of some thoughts. Here’s some assessments. And, you know, part of the challenge with staff and being the executive pastor at times is oftentimes if they get a call from me or if they’re called to my office, right? It’s like, Hey, am I getting called…

Rich Birch — The principle called.

Andy Hill — …to the principal’s office?

Rich Birch — 100%, 100%.

Andy Hill — Yeah, exactly.

Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah.

Andy Hill — So, you know, it’s like, Hey, no. You know, they need to know that, um, I’m here not to just be over them. That’s not it. I’m here to support them.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Andy Hill — I’m here to help steer. I’m, I’m here to shepherd. I’m here to, uh, you know, so at times they do need kind of the, the staff needs to give them just a gentle nudge, not because they’re doing anything horribly wrong, but just because, Hey, we’ve just noticed, you know, um, some of these things you’re doing doesn’t really align with kind of where we’re going.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Andy Hill — Sometimes that’s practical too around budgets, right?

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Andy Hill — You know, any, anytime you’re in the budgeting process and you tell people, Hey, we have a new vision emphasis coming in the next year. And so we’re going to shift some budget dollars. Well, if an area’s budget is cut, they’re like, man, why am I getting punished?

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Andy Hill — Well, no, we’re not punishing you, right?

Rich Birch — Right.

Andy Hill — This isn’t punishment. This is all of us trying to steer in the same direction, row the boat and go so that, so that we’re headed towards the same goal, the same vision, the same mission.

Andy Hill — And so we just have to really. spend a lot of time communicating those things. If you don’t ever tell them, Hey, the vision is going to change or shift or, uh, we’re refocusing a little bit or, Hey, we finished this aspect of it. And so now we’re into phase two of something. So if we’re not communicating those things far, far ahead of time, uh, you know, I think a big mistake a lot of churches make is they don’t communicate early enough, far enough ahead of time, they try to communicate short, quick things.

Andy Hill — Well, you got to start internally a whole lot earlier and communicate, communicate, communicate before you start rolling things out. If you really do want them to stay rowing in the same direction.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. So, so good. That’s this has been great, great conversation, for sure. Just as we’re kind of coming to to to the end. Anything else you’d like to share? Just as you’re thinking, hey, this is something that God’s using these days in our church to help us stay focused and aligned.

Andy Hill — Yeah. Uh, actually, uh, so I’ll kind of go back to one of the things I mentioned and, um, it’s not, it is directly related, but it doesn’t necessarily sound directly related. And that is, truly, uh, challenge your staff and your staff need to, they need to take care of themselves. They need to be, staff need to have a daily quiet time, right? Daily time in the Word, daily time in prayer, and not not time where they’re studying for or preparing for a Bible study to teach something, to lead something, just time where they are ah taking time for themselves, for their own growth, for their own development. ah You know, I heard it said just this last week on Tuesday, we had a guest speaker who came just to talk to our staff.

Andy Hill — just for this very purpose, self-care.

Rich Birch — That’s good. That’s good.

Andy Hill — And not just our ministerial staff, our whole staff. 65 people ah in the room, just on the church side. We had all these people in a room. And he said, you one of the things he learned as he goes and travels and speaks to pastors, one of the first things pastors stopped doing when they got called to a church was having their quiet time. He would ask them…

Rich Birch — That’s heartbreaking.

Andy Hill — …You know, do you do you have a time, do you have a quiet time? And and many of them would say, well, you know, I’m always in the word studying for a next sermon series or this or that.

Andy Hill — He’s like, no, I’m not talking about that. Just personal time in the word. And so I would, I would just say that one thing: people’s capacity to engage in life is directly related to some of these self-care type things. Your emotional quotient, your intellectual quotient, your physical quotient, and ah a relational quotient, a spiritual quotient, all these things make up who someone is. And if they’re not spending time caring for those different pieces on a regular basis, they lose…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Andy Hill — …their capacity is diminished for life and for ministry.

Rich Birch — Dude, that’s so good. What a great way to to focus us at the end. I you know I think our heart, I love that you you ended there. But our heart and our ability to keep our teams, their relationship with Jesus fresh and their who they are as an individual and growing and developing, that is directly tied to what God wants to do in our church for sure. You know, we can’t, if we just, if we’re just producing all kinds of great stuff and other people and it’s not impacting the folks that we’re leading with, man, that’s I think where we get into a dangerous zone.

Rich Birch — So and Andy, this has been so good. I really appreciate your time today, taking time out of a busy schedule to be with us. I really appreciate that. If people want to track with you or with the church, where do we want to send them online?

Andy Hill — Uh, if you go to mobberly.org, M O B B E R L Y dot org. And, uh, that’s our website. If you do slash follow, it goes to our social media. Um, and so whether it’s YouTube, whether it’s podcasts, whether it’s different things that we do, uh, you can go there, connect with us, connect with me. And…

Rich Birch — That’s great.

Andy Hill — And I thank you for having me. Man, I’ve enjoyed the conversation. And ah It’s just great to know that there’s a lot of XPs and ministers and people out there who want to continue to grow and develop.

Rich Birch — That’s great. Thanks so much, Andy. Appreciate you being here today.

Andy Hill — Thank you very much.

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