I love sports-the competition, the rivalries, the life lessons, and the strategies. Lately, professional sports are shifting how championship teams are built. The old strategy? Create a team of superstar veterans. The Yankees would buy the best players from their competition, NBA teams wanted to have three all-stars on the court at the same time, and the Patriots of old would resurrect players' careers that other teams thought were not able to be the face of their franchise anymore.
The new, emerging model is different, and it’s working. The new model is to draft young players and commit to their long-term development. They're building chemistry over time and investing in potential. The results may take longer, but they tend to last longer, too.
What if the same is true within our churches? What if long-term results were better gained from developing the team we have, as opposed to chasing after the team we don’t have? Would our energy as leaders be better spent by developing our people, the people God has already brought us?
3 ways to develop the team we have:
1. Cast a Team-First Vision
No matter what type or size of team we are leading, one of our biggest roles in our position of leadership is casting vision for a healthy, unified team. When every piece of the body is working together, we get to where we want to go quicker and have more fun along the way.
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When I played high school basketball, my coach taught me to pass the ball to where my teammate needed to be going, not to where they currently were. I believe the same is true in ministry. We serve best when we help teammates grow into their future potential—not just react to their current capacity. We need to be looking for ways to give our teammates an assist as opposed to always being the one to score. A big part of this is by casting a vision for where someone could be tomorrow, not just where they are today, and giving them opportunities to get there.
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Celebrate team wins in a way that builds alignment. Encourage your staff or volunteers to highlight each other’s victories. When a Kids Pastor affirms a win from the Student Pastor, or a Worship Leader celebrates a Small Groups story, you’re cultivating cross-team synergy. This kind of culture, once modeled by the leader, becomes contagious.
2. Find Safe Opportunities to Fail Early
One of the most common leadership missteps is either releasing someone into leadership too soon, or holding them back far too long. The people on our teams are going to fail, and that’s ok, that's how we learn. As a leader, we need to make sure we are setting people up for success by giving them opportunities to fail early and in a safe setting. Here are some ways to do this:
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My favorite way is through the 5 steps of leadership created by Dave and Jon Ferguson in their book, Exponential.
- I do. You watch. We talk.
- I do. You help. We talk.
- You do. I help. We talk.
- You do. I watch. We talk.
- You do. Someone else watches.
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Another way is to include others in your leadership routines and activities. You can become a safety net for teachable failure. Constantly ask yourself the question, “What are some ways I can include others on my team into what I am doing today?”
3. Create Team Building Experiences on Purpose
At Rooted Network, we coach that “experiences create positive moments that are memorable and meaningful.” These experiences are the key to unlocking a healthy team chemistry. A few easy ways to do this include:
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Create fun traditions. Eat out as a team when it’s someone’s birthday. Have a yearly BBQ with yard games. Have friendly wagers around sporting or cultural events where the loser provides donuts at your next team meeting.
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Serve together as a team. Look for ways to serve out in the community as a team. This isn’t about serving within our church or creating service opportunities for our people, this is about us serving others in the community together. When we serve alongside each other with a shared purpose, we naturally grow in connection and trust.
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Document your time together as a team with pictures. These can be taken at a yearly Christmas celebration, the start of the fall ministry season, or while serving together. These images help tell your team’s story.
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Make sure some projects and events are all-play, no matter the department. We want team wins, not just department wins within our church. Each team has different skills and giftedness that need to be shared with the church body as a whole. When your worship team supports a missions event, or your groups team jumps in on VBS, it promotes unity and shared purpose.
One Final Thought:
Stop waiting for the “dream team” to walk through your doors. Instead, faithfully develop the team you already have. Coach them, encourage them, and grow them. And trust that as you invest in people, God will do more through your team than you could ever do with just the “right” players. Yes, it takes more time, but the results are worth the investment.
Because in ministry, just like in sports, long-term wins come from development, not shortcuts.
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By Chad Cronin, Rooted Network Regional Coach