“It takes a whole team to leverage a situation”
I work with teams at all levels in charitable and church life identifying organisational and institutional barriers to the development of a team based collaborative approach. Quite honestly some of these teams are already performing effectively, but recognise that they have to raise their level still further. Some have just been formed and need to come together, others are in difficulty and need to urgently address their issues and get back on track.
Over many years I have developed theoretical and organisational experience by successfully delivering organisation transition in a variety of charitable circumstances. The components of my rigorous programme are individual recruitment and assessment, situational and organisational analysis, team profiling, team facilitation and coaching.
If the challenge is to equip and engage every effort of each team member of the organisation, the question is “how?”
A leader’s resource is not only found in buildings or tithes and offerings. Indisputably a leader’s primary resource is human. Indeed 99% of what God wants to bring in and through a leaders life and ministry is going to be delivered by people. Having the ability to connect and build with others in what is essentially a volunteer organisation is therefore essential to individual and church success.
Increasingly church leaders understand that the development of an “Awesome Sunday” or “Community engagement” requires an expediential change in the recruitment and management of volunteers into a team based culture to enable long-term sustainability and effectiveness.
The bible clearly speaks in terms of “Team Church” – 1 Cor. 12:12 (NKJV) “ For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.”
The first thing Jesus did upon launching His ministry was to establish a team.
Team work is simply a shift from “me” to “we”. It understands the power of partnership and carries the tacit knowledge that you cannot fulfil your dream alone. In the book of Genesis we read “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” The word “Let” here means, “allow”, or to “release from restraint.” Simply put there can be no “let” without the “us”. When you come into partnership with others, your strength becomes available to them and their strength becomes available to you. In this alliance, your weaknesses are minimised and your strengths are multiplied.
“Teamwork makes the dream work.”
John Maxwell
I suspect every leader reading this article will support the concept of team and partnership. However, it’s in the application not the knowledge of these principles that we so often fail. Team church is more than one small central salaried or volunteer team that controls the life and function of the church. Team church is about developing a culture of volunteer engagement that exists in an environment of high challenge and high support. It is a shift away from ever increasing numbers of salaried staff or the retention of a small band of highly exhausted and disillusioned volunteers. It is a cultural shift towards harnessing the collaborative strength of volunteers that potentially can produce exponential growth end energy. It is a move away from hierarchical structures to empowering matrix structures.
