by Phil McCallum

Team building will never happen until a leader has a conversion from “me” to “we” in his or her thinking.

That conversion happens when a leader catches God’s vision to use the whole church to reveal Jesus to the world. The Lord will be seen not through one man up front doing it all, but through every member using gifts God has given.

Team building is a leader’s call is to step back, let others step forward, then to stand behind those who serve. A leader must blend his gifts to release the potential of everyone.

A team needs a purpose to follow that is bigger than any one personality in the group. That purpose must be so big that it takes everyone to accomplish it, a purpose big enough to get lost in for life!

Christ’s call to make disciples of all nations just that kind of purpose!  When God’s people get a sense of Jesus’ call they will make unbelievable personal sacrifices for eternal things.

That sacrifice is not about the leader; it’s about Christ. But it takes a good leader to call busy people to be busy with what’s worth being busy about!

Imagine your team to like a big apple pie. The pie is too big to eat all at once, so it is cut into slices.

In the same way, after a team leader establishes the purpose of his team, he or she breaks it up into at least four main slices of responsibility. Then in each of those responsibilities a leader considers what kind of people are needed to help.

With those needs in mind the leader goes out to recruit people with potential. The leader must “do the ask”, remembering that he’s not asking for himself. He’s recruiting for Jesus.

Teams flourish when leaders believe in the potential of people before they can see that potential in themselves. Effective leaders pray for eyes to see other leaders in the crowd.

The potential of those people is released by including and involving them in ministry.

A leader needs to develop an inviting and recruiting spirit. The invitation is not to help a leader. That is too small. The call is the honor of being including in the very big purpose Christ has given us all. The leader invites others to “jump in”.

Volunteers will follow what a leader does more than what he says.

The leader is the metronome of the team. He sets the pace.

Whatever the qualities the leader wants in the team he must have in himself. If he wants commitment, he must be committed. If he wants courtesy, he must be courteous.

The leader must be the most committed member of the team and lead by example.

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To have an effective team a leader must learn how to get out of the way to enable the potential of others to be released.

The leader must learn to lead by walking backwards. This means that initially he will be at the hub and forefront of all activity. But as the team matures he begins to walk backward, releasing more responsibility to others.

The leader must never abandon the team.  He must always be involved. Sometimes that personal participation will increase, and other times it will decrease. The leader must always have some “skin on the ball” to be part of the game.

Traditionally in church life volunteers must endure at least an hour of training (sometimes weeks) before being allowed to serve.

But Jesus did not work that way. He first allowed the disciples to serve and then he trained them.

As much as possible, team members need to be able to jump in to serve. Their first experience needs to be positive as well as thought provoking. Teaching should happen on the job and as follow up.

One of the most effective ways for this to happen is for the team once a week to do devotions together. Each member writes out a reflection on scripture and then reads it aloud to the rest of the group. Then the leader can use this to help train the team in better ways to serve.

What matters most is not what a team accomplishes but what the members of the team become in the process of serving. 

People matter most, even more than the eternal tasks they are accomplishing.

Team leaders should have as a prayer, the hope that members will become better and different people as a result of serving beside them.

Every opportunity for a team to serve is also another discipleship moment. Effective leaders teach how to apply Bible truth on the go of ministry, just like Jesus did.

Stewards are called to improve the return on the Lord’s investment in them. This is the call of excellence.

Improvement comes when teams regularly debrief. In a circle, without condemnation, and with plenty of encouragement they ask, “How can we do it better next time?”

Debriefing must be preceded with measurable goals that the leader and the group work out beforehand. What leaders measure is what the team will achieve.

Debriefing needs to include lots of celebration and encouragement. If correction happens it must be always wrapped with graciousness.

New challenges improve teams, so leaders are always looking for the next hill to climb. The reward of faithfulness is more responsibility. Remember how the Lord gave each faithful steward twice the responsibility after their review.

Leaders need to prayerfully consider how to keep raising the bar of expectation.

New recruits should be given small responsibilities. When there is faithfulness shown then the reward is increased responsibility.

Remember, this is not about serving a human leader, but about participating in the call of Christ which is bigger than any of us!

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