When Staff Leaves

If you’ve been around Palm Valley Church (or any growing church) you’ll notice that we often have additions to our pastoral staff, as well as times when staff leaves. Recently, with all of the excitement, anticipation, and stress of moving to the new building, we have gone through some more staff changes. Many times there are rumors, false quotes and gossip associated with a departure. With a church our size it just isn’t realistic, nor healthy, to mention/address each staff change, so we rarely do, only if it effects the entire church body.  Here are some thoughts I have written for the people of Palm Valley Church to understand and embrace changes that occur…

I understand it can be troubling, disconcerting, and many other things when we go through transitions. This is especially true when we see a Pastoral staff member resign/be relieved of his duties. Change is never easy, especially when it involved people who have been helpful to us in particular. The call of every one of our leaders is to be Pastors FIRST, caring for , feeding and shepherding the body of Christ through the ups and downs of life.

I’m saddened that departures often effected people in such a personal way. In a perfect world we would never have to experience this. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and as a church we experience changing of staff for many different reasons…

1) A new calling…many times we see staff members sense that God is calling them to a new season of ministry. I experienced this when I was a youth pastor. I loved the church I was at, loved the people, but sensed that Lori and I were being called to start Palm Valley Church. Many in the church struggled with this and looked for the “hidden reason”, which simply didn’t exist. It was simply God moving me to His perfect place for me. I tell our staff all the time, if God is moving you we want to be your biggest cheerleaders! I don’t want them to leave, but I trust God’s plan for them, and for PVC. We have experienced this a number of times at Palm Valley. We have had Pastors who felt called to start a church, so we brought them on stage, celebrated, asked people to go with him and sent him off. Another Pastor came to me with the sense that God was moving him, I gave him months to pray it through. Then when he felt it was time, we brought him on stage, talked openly together about it, prayed over him and released him to God’s will for his life. This has been the occasion with a few other staff members as well. I wish everyone felt, as Lori and I do, that they should commit the rest of their ministry life to Palm Valley, but the fact is that God often moves staff on to the next thing in their ministry.

2) Moral Failure — on a few occasions (thankfully not more) we have had a staff member fail to live up to the Biblical qualifications of a Pastor. This is extremely painful for everyone involved. In this case we remove the staff member privately, seek to help them find restoration and healing with the Lord (and spouse or others involved) and set out a long-term plan for care and restoration. We almost always offer the staff member the opportunity to resign, making it easier for us to provide help and a reference in the future. Unfortunately, we have seen these individuals choose to leave Palm Valley Church and go their own way. As a Pastor and friend, these are painful. These exits often leave a wake of hurt and disillusionment in the people who were involved under the leader’s ministry. Trust me, this is never fun for me to deal with, but we must hold our Pastors to a Biblical standard of living, or we forfeit God’s blessing on our body. These exits are dealt with immediately and privately. Due to labor laws, we cannot discuss the exit of a staff member publically w/o their permission (which is never granted), or we expose the church to a lawsuit. Many churches have made this mistake and suffered dearly.

3) Job Performance — Because we are stewards of the money the Lord has entrusted us with, we feel a strong sense of responsibility to ensure that a paid staff member is the best investment of our resources. We have high expectations for our staff, especially our pastors. This does begin and end with caring for our people. Our Pastors follow up with all prayer requests, perform Pastoral duties (hospital visits, weddings, funerals) and are always available to pray with people. We do twice yearly reviews with staff members based on their job description. Every staff member clearly knows the expectations laid out before them. There are times when we discover that a staff member is in a position where his giftedness/talents/abilities don’t match the expectations we have for them. In this case we always seek over a period of time to develop and encourage the staff member in this area. If that fails, we will seek to reassign to another position and see how they do. There are times however when a staff member simply doesn’t have the giftedness, or work ethic, or leaderships abilities required. In this case the honoring thing to do before the Lord is to ask for the resignation/release that staff member. We always do this privately, and provide financial help through the transition as well as seeking to help them find a ministry fit.

4) Burnout — this is very common amongst pastors. This is no easy gig Many pastors simply can’t handle the stress/hours/pressure of this position, and end up needing to step down. We seek to create a healthy environment and expectation level for our staff, because we want them to last the long haul. On occasion though, we have seen staff members who could not continue and were required to step down. We also handle this privately and provide assistance to the staff member.

Our desire to protect the staff members who step away, combined with current laws, leave us very restricted about addressing the exit of a staff member/Pastor. Regardless the reason, every change is healthy because it forces us to look to the Lord, trust Him for His provision, and pray and seek Him for wisdom moving forward. I understand that a particular staff member’s exit may hit home with you, and I hope you know that this matters to me. I love each of our staff (that’s one reason they’re on staff), and it’s always very painful personally to part ways with a friend/co-worker. The fact that we don’t bring it to the church doesn’t mean we don’t care, it’s simply the most tactful, honoring way to move forward even when we’re hurting. However, the best thing I can do for Palm Valley is to continue to lead the church forward. I assure you that there are many times I’m “playing hurt”; but the church still needs a leader.

I would also point out that just because somebody is no longer a paid staff member doesn’t mean they can’t still lead at Palm Valley. I have expressed to every staff member that exits that I hope they would continue to participate at PVC as they seek where the Lord is leading them next.

All of our staff were first volunteers in our church who were developed in their pastoral skills, invited onto the staff, and equipped to lead. While any departure certainly leaves a hole, it is an opportunity for many others in our church to step up and do the same. I’m excited about the next wave of leaders being developed at PVC. There are men and women in our church who have incredible giftedness in shepherding the flock, and they’re being developed and challenged to be Pastors in our church. We are also equipping them and asking them to function at a Pastoral level.

When Lori and I started Palm Valley Church, the phrase that came to our heart is “where people matter”. This has always been our heart, and will always be. I see this in the current pastors, I see their involvement in the lives of people in our church. The heart and vision of Palm Valley were not birthed by any one staff member, nor has it changed with their leaving staff. We wish them the best, but we will continue to strive to provide the greatest of care for every person in our church. I have committed my life’s work to this, and feel confident in the Lord’s provision for all we will need as a church in the future.

Let’s Get It Started

We got it started this weekend at PVC! Check out the first song in our new building.

Ignorance is very sad…

Big Weekend at PVC

Dear Church Family,

Can you believe we’re only a few days away from the opening of our new building? I’m so excited to worship with you in our new home, and to celebrate this milestone weekend in the history of Palm Valley Church. To make the most of this weekend, I’m asking for your help in a few ways…

1) Invite, invite, invite. Jesus said “go out to the highways and urge everyone you find to come in, so that my house will be full”. Let’s fill his house this weekend to capacity. With these last few days who could you invite to come hear about how much Jesus loves them? Let’s fill the house this weekend for our 3 services: Saturday at 5:00 pm, Sunday at 9:00 and 11:00 am.

2) Arrive early. Please plan to arrive 30 minutes before service starts, so that you can park, find your way around the building, check in your children, and get to the worship center early. Trust me, you don’t want to miss the opening of the service, it’s going to be “off the hook”! I would encourage you, if you can, to attend Saturday night at 5:00 pm. This will be our first service ever in the building and a special way to kick it off.

3) Greet those around you. As always, we want every person who attends Palm Valley Church to feel warmly welcomed. Let’s all join together to welcome each other, and make new friends in the process.

4) If you have a middle school or high school student, this weekend’s going to be incredible for them. First, I’m excited to have every student in one of our main weekend services. I’m inviting every student to come down front and bring their energy to our worship. Then, every student needs to be at “The Spot”, our youth service on Sunday night at 5:30 pm. It’s going to be awesome!!

I encourage you to go to www.twitter.com and register, then you can follow me at twitter.com/gregrohlinger. This will help you stay up to date as I share personal thoughts, church info, and other helpful thoughts.

There’s so much happening at Palm Valley Church, and I believe God’s about to do even “Greater Things” than we’ve ever seen. I’ll see you this weekend!

Warmly,

Pastor Greg

Important Message for Palm Valley Church

Dear Church Family,

What an exciting time at Palm Valley Church; the building is just about finished, we’re getting ready to move, and we’ll have more room for more people to find the hope and love that are only found through Jesus! I’m excited about the coming days and I know you are too. I wanted to give you a quick update about this week at PVC and also ask for your help…

This weekend is an “open house” opportunity at Palm Valley. Sunday morning, May 30th the building will be open from 8:30 am – 1:00 pm. Please come, bring the family and tour the new building. You’ll get to show your kids their classes, see the new worship center and just have fun as we celebrate this incredible moment in our journey together!

However, we want you also to take some time and pray for the different areas of the building. Spend time as a family, or with your small group, and pray for the leadership of PVC, the volunteers, the people, and that the Lord will use this building to reach our community for Him. Bring your Bible and you will have the opportunity to read Scripture from the stage in any of the worship centers. This will be a chance for us to fill His house with His Word!

Lastly, I want to encourage you to come prepared to give financially. As we’ve talked about, we have used nearly all of our financial resources to complete this building. With the need to cancel services this weekend so we could move to the building, we also have the potential to lose a week’s offering. I’m asking every PVC’er to bring their offering to the open house this weekend so that we won’t skip a beat financially during this critical time.

So many of you already utilize “on-line giving”, and I want to thank you. By ensuring your consistent giving it helps us as a church to plan for regular (and unexpected) expenses of operating as a church. If you don’t currently utilize on-line giving, I encourage you to log on to www.palmvalley.org and set-up your planned giving. Lori and I do this and love that we never worry about forgetting our checkbook, being away for a weekend, or whatever; our giving is always on time.

Thanks again for taking this journey with us, God is truly about to do “Greater Things” through His Church. Remember, let’s not go to church, but be the Church!

I can’t wait to celebrate our first services with you in the new building next weekend. Our NEW service times are Saturday, June 5th @ 5:00 pm, and Sunday, June 6th @ 9:00 and 11:00 am. See you at Palm Valley Church!

Warmly,

Pastor Greg

Staff Change

This week our Worship Pastor, Derrick Logan, informed our team that he had accepted a similar position at CCV in north Phoenix. Derrick has been on our team for the past 3 1/2 years, and has been a great leader in our church as well as friend to many of us. This will be Derrick’s last weekend leading worship at Palm Valley, feel free to thank he and Kim for their ministry here.

It is always tough when God moves a leader away from our church, but we celebrate with Derrick. As he goes we bless him and the opportunity he has. We wish he and Kim the best. We also trust that God will provide for Palm Valley Church during this time. I’m thankful for the incredible team of musicians and singers that lead our worship each week, and we will be leaning on them a little harder through this transition.

We’re Almost Done

The building is moving along quickly.  Check out the Greater Things Blog to see some new pictures.

Next week the Audio / Video / Lighting team will be running cable and installing equipment. They could use help from any volunteers who are willing to put in some work. If you can serve next week please email Sean Smith our Creative Arts Pastor and he will get you set up.

Amazing Story – Celebrating 1 year

Last year an incredible gal in our church, Chrissy Calderwood, found out she had a brain tumor right behind her eyeball and needed immediate surgery to remove it.  As we prayed together at the hospital with her husband Rex and the rest of the family, I was amazed at Chrissy’s faith in the face of some distressing news.  Yesterday she celebrated her 1 year anniversary of the surgery, and posted some thoughts on her facebook page.  With her permission, here is her post…

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” Phil 4:4-7

This is the passage I clung to in the early months of 2009 as I was ill, and its the passage that brought me great comfort one year ago today as I went in for neurosurgery. I had been diagnosed two days earlier with a large brain mass (racquetball size) behind my right eye. The first hospital I was sent to diagnosed it as a glioblastoma (100% terminal). Due to a neurosurgical conference on the east coast, there were no surgeons available and they transported me to the Barrows where they had a few neurosurgeons that stayed behind from the conference. They began immediate testing. By 4 am the following morning, there was Hope. They wouldn’t know for sure until the biopsy was done, but their preliminary diagnosis was a meningioma tumor (non-benign). Real HOPE.

The following day was surgery. All went well and the mass was benign. What a blessing! Today, May 7, I am a year out and I have my health. The Lord has been good to me.

My friends, I faced death and the Lord delivered me. His perfect plan allowed me health and a renewed reliance on Him.

In my moment of terror (the phone call from my neurologist), the Lord brought so much good- my amazing family flew in from CA within a few hours and our amazing church family, Palm Valley (palmvalley.org) was by our side- immediately. The peace of God was all around us. I am so very grateful for my experience. To be chosen by God to walk the plank and gain perspective I wouldn’t have had otherwise. You know, aside from my kids’ salvation, nothing really mattered the night I was told I was going to die.

As Rex and I sat completely silent in the first ER room, I vividly remember the few words spoken over the hours of silence. “Promise me you’ll raise our kids in church,” I said. “I will,” he replied. “That’s all that matters, I can live with the thought of you raising them without me on earth, but I cannot live with the thought of not spending eternity with them” I responded. He said, “I will raise them in church, knowing the Lord, I promise.” And that was it. That’s all that mattered.

And in those moments of painful silence the Lord brought great comfort to us through our family, our church family and our friends. I’ve learned that you can trust God right now to supply all your needs for today. And if your needs are more for tomorrow, His supply will be greater also. The Lord gave me what I needed every second of every day from illness to diagnosis to surgery and now recovery.

“No eye has seen nor ear has heard and no mind has imagined what God prepared for those who love Him” I Cor 2:9

So that’s my story. The Lord has blessed me, Greatly, & today is my 1 year anniversary from my surgery blessing.

PS- I have attached pics from post-surgery. A few weeks ago, our Pastor said in service that everyone loves scars. He knows what he’s talking about. I love my scar and the story that goes with it!

What makes a Mother’s Day?

Moms, I need your help. Lori and I are teaching together this weekend on “What Makes A Mother’s Day”?

So, give me your input and tell me what makes your day? Email answers to pastorgreg@palmvalley.org and let me know.

Thanks!

This Weekend At Palm Valley