Pray, play, and plan, but do it together: three modes of an effective team
The most effective teams work well in three different modes: they pray, play, and plan. Pray. Spend time praying and worshipping together. Doing so puts relationships on a spiritual plane rather than a merely human one. Praying together builds closeness and helps...
Time to celebrate! Leave room for celebration in your team schedule
The most effective and productive teams take time to celebrate together. If you’re a visionary leader, it can be easy to see a victory then move on almost immediately to the next project or next challenge. Yet for your team, taking that tack can be both exhausting and...
Finding the balance: both relational and productive
Finding the balance isn’t always easy. Healthy teams know how to have fun together as well as getting the job done. They take time to pray together and play together, but also make sure the task gets done. Achieving that balance requires compatibility over the...
Teams that can handle ambiguity and change
When you’re developing new approaches to ministry, you can’t predict the way it’s going to go — you have to be prepared for some ambiguity and change along the way. You and your team need to be flexible and adaptable because the unexpected does happen. You can’t...
Sharing common values with your ministry team
Everyone knows that the core of a congregation must hold to common values to be successful in moving forward toward accomplishing their unique vision. But what about ministry teams? Certainly they should be on board with the general values of the church, but to work...
Why staff meetings are mostly a waste
Consider the average staff meeting: some catch up, coordinating of calendars, maybe a bit of support. Usually when you walk away, you haven’t accomplished much, and you’re generally you’re not in a place where the team had enough time for focused thinking about the...
Can’t we all just be friends?
Sometimes people have an expectation that when you work together as a team, everyone needs to be friends — buddies who go out and do things together outside of work time. Many teams do function like that, and that’s fine if it works. But not all teams have to function...