Job Description

As seen in the HEARTbeat and Village Voice

“Job Description”

Remember when you reported to your first job? Confusing? Chaotic? Did your

supervisor greet you, handle introductions, and take time to discuss expectations with

you? Perhaps your supervisor was experienced and knew how to affect an easy

transition. Or, you may have had an overwhelmed, inexperienced supervisor who

focused on daily operations instead of making certain you were well received. Worse

yet, perhaps you had a supervisor who just really didn’t care. Whatever your experience,

a thorough understanding of the “5 R’s” would have made that first experience much

easier.

The 5 R’s are a roadmap to success in the workplace. They are, in order, rules,

roles, relationships, responsibility, and results. The first thing we were probably handed

on day one of our new job was the Policy manual. If the supervisor was a good one, they

would have sent you to read through it. But more times than not, we were asked to sign a

piece of paper saying we had read and understood it, to be told we could read it later!!

Next is the role you play in the office, which should be defined and accepted. What

follows would be your relationships with others in the office, which should be based on

trust and respect. Fourth are your responsibilities. What are the metrics and expectations

by which the job performance would be measured? And finally, are the results, which are

evaluated by quality and quantity against the previous “R,” responsibility. When the 5

R’s are followed in this order, offices and organizations will run smoothly and

effectively. Sadly, the 5 R’s are a rarity instead the norm.

Do churches fall into the same trap? They most certainly do. We carry our “job

description” around, but rarely open it. We know the relationships, but they sometimes

develop into closed groups. We have a “supervisor” who stands in front of our group

every Sunday. We listen to the job description criteria as he or she speaks, but we seldom

open our own “manual” to see if the morning’s talk is in agreement with the written

words in our manuals!

Preachers are great orators. Many have decades of experience. But like you and

me, they are fallible. While they are highly educated, they can inadvertently sometimes

weave opinion and conjecture into messages, which is misleading. How can we know

what is right and true?

Read your manual! The Holy Spirit speaks to all of us, including (tongue in

cheek) to most pastors!! Don’t take the words spoken from the pulpit as gospel. Most

pastors desire a congregation who is connected to each other and connected to God

through the Holy Spirit. To stay connected we must test the words of man ourselves

against what God says on the subject.

God speaks to pastors through the Holy Spirit; listen to them. But then dig into

God’s word to see what the Holy Spirit has for you. We have a job description. It is

spelled out in His Holy Word. If you don’t know what it is, then spend some quiet time

with the Master and author of the “Manual”!