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Leading With a Team
If you want to see the potential of a church or ministry, don’t look at the charismatic leader up front. Look at the team the leader has assembled.
Most charismatic leaders can attract followers. It takes a humble leader to attract leaders.
Many pastors won’t build a team because of several reasons:
- Deep down they are insecure. These pastors are afraid someone else will get the spotlight. They will always be limited in their potential.
- They are full of pride. Some honestly believe that no one can do it as well as they can. Again, this leader has a ceiling that will limit him until he changes.
- They don’t see the value of a team. Because team ministry isn’t often practiced, too many pastors haven’t seen a good model.
This week we’ll talk about the values (and dangers) of leading with a team.
Have you been a part of an effective team?
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Craig, I have enjoyed your site very much and learned a lot. I do think you miss a reason that pastors don’t build teams, namely they don’t know how. I’d benefit if you put some thoughts toward that too. Thanks, Ben
I have been a part of many “Effective Teams” and my current team at the “n-dub” NW Oklahoma City Campus of LifeChurch.tv is off the charts effective.
Craig, as a LifeChurch.tv partner of 6 years and a woman with the gift of leadership, I can easily say the most effective teams I’ve been part of were not in my work in the corporate world but are my Life Groups and volunteer operations at LifeChurch.tv. It is true that leaders are drawn to teams where leaders are allowed to contribute fully.
Craig, you hit it right in the sweet spot! I’ve been on a team where the pride and insecurity were so huge that even when a crisis or a personal meltdown was present, the leader still would not change and pass the ball. His value came from his control and the perception that others had of him. Scary!
I have had the honor to be a part of an effective team, and it’s an awesome experience. I was “day dreaming” yesterday about the fun and how well I work with the current team I’m apart of with my Church. Craig don’t hold out on Mr. Ben Rainey’s request for more on the topic of assembling a team. I’m interested in reading your thoughts on this as well.
Ben, You are absolutely right. Thanks for the addition.
Dana, I caught your segment on the Internet Campus this weekend. You did awesome! Your family is a HUGE player on this Kingdom team!
I have been a part of an effective team and you can NOT stop a group of people who TRULY believe and have a combined God led purpose. There is fire,joy, and the laser focus of the end “prize”…Leaders have to give their team members ownership in the team purpose. If people own it…they live it! If they are not given ownership then they eventually lose interest and shift focus usually inward.
This is something I learned the hard way. I agree with the #1 reason - many times leaders enjoy the thought that they do it best, that no one can do it like them. They may be afraid that someone else will outshine them and they will lose their position. I’ve been there and I’ve observed it up close and first hand as well. When I first began to share worship leadership I was miserable and it was all a pride issue. Once I really gave it my full attention and support however developing other leaders to help me has been one of not only the most fulfilling things I’ve done but one of the healthiest things I’ve done. Not only for my church and my team but for myself.
I love working with a team. I love that we bring something vital to the table that makes the whole so much more vibrant and rich than I could have done alone. I love the community it builds as well, and how it models the Body at work.
I think many people underestimate the power of the relationship aspect of creating in community - it can build faithfulness and loyalty and a feeling of family that is hard to come by when you are simply following orders. Being invested together reaps huge results.
I love creating together.
In the last 18 months God has been building my team and some amazingly gifted leaders has come out of the wood work. I have been transitioning a traditional church into a life-giving culturally relevant church for the last 5 years. In the first 3 1/2 years there was very little buy in and lots of resistance, so I was left to lead alone or better said battle alone. In the last 1 1/2 we have seen real growth and as a result lots of buy in. Now the team is growing and momentum is building. We are starting to get “it” and that is exciting. I’m looking forward to this weeks posts.
I’ve honestly been feeling the insecurity and pride…but just one or two nights ago I realized what somehow I had been blinded to - It’s ALL about the Kingdom, NOT AT ALL about myself. I was trying to raise myself up and not do what was best for the Kingdom. I mean I’ve heard it millions of times that it’s not about me, but I was still trying to make it about me.
Praise God His Kingdom can be glorified more now! He has saved me!
And I definitely see the power of an effective team…but I don’t know how to make one. How do you form one if you don’t see the passion in others’ eyes that you see in yourself?
Any advice? I’ll definitely be praying that God gives/raises up people to be on team with me. I want the Kingdom to be as glorified as possible - and to be more effective I see a team is definitely needed.
Awesome! Not only does this apply to ministry, where I am so thankful that I see it modeled and working, but this applies in family and business where we often see it fail. Leads me to think of servant leadership and riding ourselves of insecurity, pride, and placing great value in others. When I think of building a team; I must daily die to self, and be more like Jesus as I love and serve.
Well, I’ve never had to build my own team, but my guess is that the hardest part is being willing to bring in people who have the same strengths as you do when you’re stretched too thin.
What I mean is this. If you know what you’re not good at, it can be easy to identify the first people you should add to your team. For example, I’m disorganized. On any team I led, the first person I would bring on would be someone who is organized to keep me on track, handle logistics, etc. Of course, if we’re talking about a church context, my first person would have to be a worship leader (perhaps the only thing I’m worse at than organization is music).
I think it becomes more difficult when you have to bring on someone else (or multiple someones) to do the same thing you do. You may teach well, but there comes a point when you can’t handle all of the teaching. You may be excellent at pastoral care, but when you’ve got a church of 2000, you can’t do all of the pastoral care. This is when it’s really hard to let go, when you have to delegate even the things that you do well because the scope of the work is larger than what you can take on yourself.
We are a team here and it has been a pleasure. Good teams make ministry more of a true pleasure. I have served in a church were the senior Pastor would have nothing to do with me and it was tense to say the least, but here we get along, share ideas, and enjoy serving and doing life together.
Jared, Hopefully some of the discussion this week will address your question.
Will, You raised some good points. Inviting others to do what you can’t do is usually easier than inviting others to do what you do. When one overcomes the obvious hurdles, the results of a strong and unified team are tremendous.
Craig, a few months ago I had the privilege of being part of a Multi-site group that meet at LifeChurch.tv. Aside from all the great ministry conversations that I experienced, I took away with me what a great team of Leaders you have assembled to lead LifeChurch.tv. I can see the trust and release you have placed in them and can tell that has greatly contributed to some amazing things God is doing there. Thanks for modeling the way by “Leading with a Team”.
I was one of the leaders who thought I could do ministry alone. That led to burnout and i didn’t enjoy ministry anymore.
Since I started building a team I can’t describe the amazing change I have seen in my personal as well as ministry life!
I think it is crucial for teams to do life together and have fun together! Craig thanx for your wisdom!
Awesome, thanks Craig!
(by the way: GREAT job Sunday…God’s gonna give you so many crowns for your heart and everything you are doing!)
This is SOOO true! “It takes a humble leader to attract other leaders” I see this everyday where I work. My leader is a humble leader and he’s attracted leaders. Now, we try to do the same within our ministry areas… good stuff… good stuff!!
I have a team that is working together for a common purpose…to reach this part of the world for Christ, one person at a time. The problem I am running into now is, we seem so dry and lifeless. How do I breathe life and passion into my team, without coming across mad or too intense? There is so much more Christ has called us to than our lives with a little Jesus mixed in. I just can’t seem to communicate that to the team. Any ideas?!
Thank you Craig for getting back to this topic. Sorry that I am a bit late in jumping in on it.
Some key ingredients I see to successful and effective teams are:
1) Total Trust and grace to fail - both upstream and downstream. We need to let the people we work with do what they are most capable of doing, even when it is not the way we would do it. The DNA has te be imparted and ingrained, but true leaders will not remain in environments where they are not trusted and given appropriate freedom both to succeed and fail.
2) Intentional empowerment - equipping and mentoring our team members to grow and prosper in ministry should be our key focus as a team leader. We also need ot constantly communicate their value to our team and our ministry, both privately and publicly. People need to know that they have been empowered by the leader.
3) Courageous comraderie - like two soldiers in a foxhole, incredible bonds and strong morale come from spending time in the trenches together. Great teams also need to have fun together, share life with each other and not always be about the tasks. The relationships should take precedent over the projects, for it is in the motivation to be iwth each other and serve each other that teams create the greatest synergy and produce the most fruitful minsitry.
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