You already know who it is.
A name showed up before you finished that sentence. Someone on your staff who is not carrying what the role requires. Maybe they carried it once and the church outgrew the job description while the person stayed the same size. Maybe they got comfortable, or distracted, or quietly checked out about eighteen months ago and nobody said it out loud.
You noticed. Your team noticed first, which is its own kind of information.
And you have had the conversation. Sort of. You mentioned wanting to see more ownership. You asked how they were doing and hoped the question would do some of the work, and you dropped a comment in a one-on-one while watching their face to see if it landed.
Nothing changed.
So here you are again, carrying a decision you have not made and calling it patience.
Patience Has a Plan Attached To It
What you are carrying right now has hope attached to it instead.
Hope is not a management tool.
Consider what your staff member has actually experienced over the past year. A few uncomfortable moments. Some vague concern in a hallway. No consequence of any kind. From where they sit, that adds up to “he seems a little frustrated with me lately, but I’m fine.“
They are confused because you have been both kind and unclear. Those two things feel perfectly compatible in the moment, and together they are the exact combination that eventually costs somebody their job with no warning.
Unclear expectations produce unfair endings.
The Gap Is Real, and Nobody Wrote It Down
Everything you know about this person’s performance lives in your head and in hallway conversations with your executive team. None of it lives in a document they have read, discussed, and signed. You are sitting on a year of evidence and zero record.
That distinction matters more than it seems, because two futures are already in motion.
In the first, they improve for a season, and you never find out whether it holds, because you never defined what improvement meant. In the second, you eventually let them go, and they walk out genuinely blindsided. Then they tell their version of the story to everyone in your church who will listen.
The hard part is that their version will be honest. Nobody ever actually told them.
What a Performance Plan Actually Does
Most pastors hear “performance plan” and hear “the paperwork you do before you fire someone.” That is what a bad one is for. A good one does three things, and only one of them involves an exit.
1. It formalizes the gap
The distance between what the role requires and what the person is delivering gets written in plain language. One page. No euphemisms. They read the same words you have been carrying around in your head for a year.
2. It makes the outcome unmistakable
A date. A standard. A stated consequence. They know what has to be true and by when, and they know exactly what happens if it is not. No guessing on their end and no moving target on yours.
3. It removes the shock
If this ends in a transition, it ends as the last step of a process they participated in. They saw it coming because you showed it to them. That is the most respectful version of a hard outcome available to you.
Write the plan the role demands. Your first goal is a restored staff member doing the work the mission actually requires. The second outcome exists because the first one sometimes does not happen.
Write It Before Your Next One-on-One
- Name the gap in one sentence. If you cannot get it to one sentence, you do not understand the problem well enough to solve it yet. Sit with it until the sentence exists.
- Define success in observable terms. Numbers, deadlines, behaviors a third party could verify. “More ownership” is not a standard. “Volunteer team staffed at 40 by March 1, schedule published two weeks out, every week” is a standard.
- Set the date and state the consequence in writing. Sixty days, or ninety if the role is complex or seasonal. Then use the actual words on the page: “If these expectations are not met by March 12, your employment here will end.” Say it out loud in the room, too. Do not let that sentence live only on paper.
- Deliver it in person and meet every two weeks until the date. Bring your executive pastor or HR lead. Reference the document by name in every one of those meetings, including the ones that go well.
Then hold the date.
That last one is where most pastors quit. The plan gets written, the check-ins get warm, progress gets partial, and the date quietly slides into next quarter. A date that slides teaches your whole staff what your standards are actually worth.
And I should add that just because they “pass” the plan doesn’t mean they get to keep their job. This is part of your assessment, and how they handle the plan matters as much as whether they meet its minimum standards.
I Know This is Hard… But Your Mission Deserves It
When you decided to work in ministry, you never thought firing people would be part of the job. You love people! I do too.
But as a church leader, you must love your mission more. Your mission is the most important mission in your city. If a person on your team is hampering the mission, you owe it to the church and to that person to help them get back on track or find a place where they can succeed.
If leadership were easy, everybody would do it. God has placed you in this space for this season for a reason, so lead as if that’s true.
Quotes to Share
- “Unclear expectations produce unfair endings.”
- “A plan built to be failed is a paper trail with a nicer name.”
- “A date that slides teaches your whole staff what your standards are actually worth.”
Helping You Add More Intention To Your Mission,
Dr. Gavin Adams
