15 Habits of Church Staff Who Get Fired

Recently, I was speaking with a church staff member who was lamenting mistakes he had made as leader. These mistakes caused him to lose tremendous amounts of influence with the pastor, fellow staff and key volunteer leaders within the church. Ultimately, he lost his job. There was no moral failure. No financial impropriety. Just plain poor leadership. His story was a heartbreaking because it could have all been avoided. There were numerous warning signs. Constant coaching was delivered. He just simply kept running through Stop signs. His story provides a series of guard rails for all church staff members to learn from. While this is not an exhaustive list, the following are 15 Habits of Church Staff Who Get Fired. What is interesting is none of the items listed had anything to do with the performance of his department.

1. Disloyalty – You are not loyal to the senior pastor. Loyalty does not make you a leader. But disloyalty disqualifies you as a leader. Nothing will get you fired faster.
2. Pushiness – You invite yourself into conversations with your superiors or other departments. Wait to be invited in by others before speaking your mind.
3. Disrespect – When dealing with other leaders always show them and their families the respect they deserve.
4. Bad Theology – You hijack passages of Scripture and misrepresent them for your personal gain.
5. Greed – You want portions of other departments’ budget for your ministry.
6. Glory – Visibility is what you crave. You want increased platform time and website real estate at the expense of others.
7. Selfishness – You want other ministries to promote your ministry offering them nothing in return.
8. Lack Of Integrity – You lie and misrepresent the truth.
9. You Skip the Process to Avoid Hard Work – You constantly want special offerings for your area of ministry.
10. Demanding – You want messaging series built around your area of ministry at the expense of other ministries.
11. No Self-Awareness – You think your ministry is more important than anyone else’s.
12. Pride – You are not humble. You think you are always right and everyone else’s approach to ministry is wrong.
13. Cruel Behavior – You have unjustly fired qualified personnel, hurting them and their families.
14. God Complex – Jesus loves the staff and leadership and you have a wonderful plan for their life.
15. Just in Case You Missed It—Disloyalty – Let me repeat this one because it deserves a second mention. You are not loyal to the senior pastor. You talk about him to others. Nothing will get you fired faster.

Wise leaders learn from the mistakes of others. Please learn from this list. The lessons learned may allow you to keep your job and preserve your ministry. This article originally appeared here.