While HLA serves all businesses and markets, we are most privileged to support the faith and non-profit sector – maximizing church health and developing talent at the pastoral and staff level. Our approach and product offerings to churches are similar to our services for corporate clients, but we recognize the unique nature of the church world and temper our “strictly business” approach. In actuality, we add to our methodology: in addition to using Science and Art to serve people, we add faith to the equation.
Overlap in Services and Products
Contemporary churches are often faced with the same need for Human Resources and Organizational Development services as any other enterprise. The requirement for reliable and valid approaches to hiring staff and determining the appropriate blend between technical abilities and cultural fit is just as necessary in the church world as the secular world. But it is different because there is a calling involved. HLA is uniquely equipped to offer recruitment, assessment, and selection assistance to our faith-based clients. Core HR services in benefit planning, compensation management, and compliance are necessary for growing churches. Our understanding of how churches function from the inside out helps us manage these “necessary but not ministry” back office functions.
These overlapping services are described more fully on the Corporate Consulting page. But we’ve found that regardless if corporation or church, the key to our success is first to listen to the needs of the client, develop baseline measures and metrics through assessments, and then chart a course for improvement which reflects the objectives and culture of the client.
Unique Product and Services
However, faith-based enterprises also have their own distinct challenges and needs. Help with strategic planning, board development, governance issues, finance and fundraising are among the most common requests we hear from pastors and staff. We can help with that, but our consulting typically begins with organization assessment. We oftent administer the Natural Church Development (NCD) survey given its long history of success in helping churches become healthy, which is then linked to church growth.
Coaching for pastors and staff is a significant strength for HLA because we recognize the demands and challenges of working in 24/7 ministry; we also recognize how to weave in the spiritual component and prayer needs of these individuals. Coaching is often tied to our work with assessment or selection as part of an onboarding plan for new leaders; sometimes it’s tied to the overall assessment of the church. We can help with that!
At HLA, we are not experts in all of the special areas of the business of the Church, but we are widely connected and often know the people who are. We are called to work as a steward and fiduciary for the Church; we want your church to flourish and are pleased to make recommendations to other resources in our network if your needs are outside our sphere of expertise.
Uniquely Qualified
As a governing elder of Crosspoint Church in St. Louis, MO, Shawn has considerable experience in church administration, governance, and leadership. This church involvement is more than academic – Shawn is very much a hands-on leader who has managed capital campaigns, senior pastor transitions, children’s ministry, financial committees, satellite campus start-ups, and countless leadership training sessions and retreats. Shawn is also part of the C3 Ministry Institute faculty, which is affiliated with Oral Roberts University, and teaches classes in Ministry Preparation and Leadership along with classes on Family and Marriage.
Outside of the local church, Shawn has worked extensively in the Bible Translation arena, partnering with the major international providers of this movement. This work takes the form of his corporate practice: organization design and alignment, strategic planning, and executive coaching.
Recognizing the need to constantly improve in order to serve others better, Shawn is currently pursuing a MATS at Covenant Seminary.