Repost form Swerve
Team Dynamics
In the early stages of ministry, I suggest you never make anyone a permanent member of a leadership team. Things change too quickly. Determine limited time periods for a leader to serve. You can always ask her to rejoin easier than you can ask her to leave.
When you’re building a team, you have to remember a team takes time to build. (When you determine you have a “wrong” player on the team, you must remove him sooner rather than later.)
You must be willing:
- To fight together. A team that can’t work through conflict will never be a team.
- To be loyal to the death. Even though you can fight behind closed doors, you ALWAYS stand together publicly. Disloyalty is never tolerated.
- To be transparent. If you can’t be brutally honest about everything, you don’t have a team.
- To care for each other. A team that is “all business” will eventually deteriorate. A ministry team must become a family.
- To have fun together. I always know a team is not healthy when I don’t hear them laughing often.
Thoughts?
naomi Says: November 6th, 2008 at 3:37 AM
This is so true. It is always easier to ask someone to rejoin than it is to ask someone to step down. Back in the day when I hired and fired people it was so easy to hire someone in crisis mode because we needed a body to fill a spot, but you eventually figure out that this person is not the right fit. It is very hard to “fire” someone because your personalities don’t mesh well. For me I was lucky we had a 90 day probationary period where no questions asked if it wasn’t working you could leave or I could ask you to do so.
Too often we are afraid to step on peoples toes or afraid of hurting someones feelings so we don’t say anything about the way they are affecting the dynamics of the team. But we are hurting the team or the family more by keeping quiet. It is better to put it all out there and air the grievance than to just let everything deteriorate over time, involving people that aren’t part of the problem or the solution.
These dynamics aren’t just for team building in a church, but they are the foundations of relationship building in any relationship.
Red Says: November 7th, 2008 at 6:49 AM
The presidential election got me thinking….. We have to replace our president every four to eight years. We assign a maximum term. Otherwise people get burned out or we get stuck in the same broken routine. By replacing people every so often we give everyone the opportunity to contribute. We get a fresh set of eyes to see how things are going. We get new ideas to how we could do things different. Just because someone is replaced doesnt mean they cant still be a very important and valuable active member of the TEAM. Could actually be what the team needs to be stronger. If we keep the same people doing the same jobs, we are apt to continue getting the same results.
Edzo Says: November 8th, 2008 at 11:26 PM
I think a good example of this at our church is the structure of the worship team. There are three independent leaders, each responsible for the order of things for the weekend service they are leading. Each has a unique style with unique skills that brings some neat differences to the weekend table.
New blood is never a bad thing and sometimes we do get stuck in a routine. Still, I believe that when people are in the right role and doing the right thing, balancing the old with the new and allowing for the creativity of others, it becomes a stabilizing force which has to be there. Ultimately I think it depends on what God is calling each of us to do at a particular place in our journey with Him and making sure we are listening to His voice. I need to be willing to move when He tells me to move.