than a dream. Or we could just pilfer
staff from some other church and send
the message to our members that no
one here is good enough to fill these
roles.
At the time of this writing, we cut about
120 payroll checks per month, including
weekenders (those who only work on
the weekends). Of those, 113 were built
inside the house. Of the four people on
our lead team, three started as janitors—
and that includes me. As a result, the vast
majority of our staff has been thoroughly
cross-trained. One pastor served in
housekeeping, led worship, served
the youth, and worked as a personal
assistant before becoming a pastor.
Another worked as a janitor, served in
children’s ministry, youth ministry, and
outreach and evangelism before he
joined the staff as an administrator and
then as a pastor. And I could go on and
on.
In fact, we don’t hire for specific
professional roles, such as children’s
pastor or youth pastor. We build and hire
pastors and put them in various roles to
help further develop them in their calling.
Michael
Fletcher
Michael Fletcher led Manna Church
from 350 to over 8500 members by
focusing primarily on effective outreach
and leadership development. Under
his leadership, Manna Church has
planted, or partnered to plant, over 75
churches worldwide and is engaged
in a “multiply” strategy with a vision to
plant an expression of Manna Church
near every US military base in the
world. Michael and his wife Laura, love
endurance sports, both with over 25
marathon finishes. In addition, Michael
enjoys triathlon (3 Ironman finishes) and
Laura competes in ultra-marathons.
They have 8 children, 19 grandchildren,
and live in Fayetteville, NC.
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