Caring for the health of those who serve alongside us in ministry is one of the most important responsibilities a pastor has. In today’s episode John interviews Pastor Chris Brooks, lead pastor of Woodside Bible Church, about the staff care effort at Woodside, and how churches of any size can get started with this initiative.

You can listen to the audio version here. You can watch the video version here.

Show notes are below:

1. What led you to begin the staff care effort at Woodside?
   1. A desire to create a sense of spiritual family among our staff and church.
   2. We wanted to understand where we cared well for our staff and where there were gaps. We knew it wasn’t comprehensive.
   3. We did well with crises management. We struggled with long-term care. We didn’t do preventive care very well either. We wanted a plan in place for all three – Crisis care, preventive care, and long-term care.
   4. Two things happen when a leader is unhealthy – a moral breakdown or a physical breakdown.
2. What parts of the effort seem to be working?
   1. Having some place for our staff to go other than HR to go to with issues.
   2. A growing awareness that we are a 3-part being. We’ve even set goals around being healthy personally and professionally.
   3. Our prevention component is doing well.
   4. We’ve been able to appreciate groups, teams, and people that are often overlooked.
   5. We are starting to think about not only the staff members, and their marriages. We are starting to think about their kids as well.
3. How can churches get started with a similar effort to care for their leaders, regardless of the church size?
   1. Start the effort early.
   2. Just start talking about the health of your people as a value.
   3. Set some simple goals:
      1. Sabbath rhythms
      2. Try to model health as much as you can—and then talk to your team about it.
      3. Reach out for advice and help from qualified outside resources.