By Steve R. Brown
CHURCH IN THE ROUND – Seven Keys
I want to describe the characteristics of the developing postmodern culture to form a context for team-based ministry and how that culture can actually contribute to a church’s making important changes. I want begin by looking at seven attributes of the “fellowship of God” that characterize a strong leadership team. This includes:
- Partnership
- Vision
- Collaboration
- Culture creation
- Trust
- Empowerment and
- Learning
- Partnership
It is impossible to have partnership outside of Community. Community is at the very heart of the nature of God. Could that be why Matthew wrote, “Where two or three of you are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (18:20 my emphasis). Partnership could be defined as “A close working relationship between individuals and or organizations, who agree to work together for a specific purpose because they can achieve more together than by themselves.”
The members of the Trinity represent a unique partnership. They are not entirely separate entities, as in the case of human beings, they are intimately related. They require no contracts to define obligations. For instance, competition would be an alien concept within the Trinity. The Scripture leaves no sense that the Son is resentful of the Spirit’s ministry or that the Father interferes with the redemptive work of the Son. Jesus said, “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:25). The quintessence of what we would hope for with a ministry team [love, peace, unity, and congruity] is modeled for us in the Trinity. The same unique intimacy God experiences in His trinity He wants His people to experience.
God reveals His desire to expand this unique fellowship within the Trinity by establishing covenants with us. Jeremiah, the prophet, puts it like this:
The LORD said: The time will surely come when I will make a new [covenant] with the people of Israel and Judah. It will be different from the agreement I made with their ancestors when I led them out of Egypt. Although I was their God, they broke that agreement. Here is the new agreement that I, the LORD, will make with the people of Israel: I will write my laws on their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people (Jeremiah 31:31-33 CEV my emphasis).
In the same way as God partners with us, we should seek to partner with one another as the basis for a healthy community. The basis for how the people of God serve together in the Body of Christ should be that of covenantal love. One of the major functions of the Holy Spirit is to bind God’s people together in community.
Although partnerships do not guarantee peace (they are effective only if people are committed), they can go a long way toward reducing relational problems among sincere leaders who are determined to live by them.
Here are some practical ways ministry teams can develop a partnership:
§ The team leader must initiate creating the team partnership definition and goals.
§ Allow sufficient time to develop a team partnership that truly reflects the hearts and minds of the particular ministry team.
§ Offer honesty and self-disclosure. This is forged through honest conversation about what works and what does not work within human relationships.
§ Acknowledge Sin. It is important to acknowledge our sinfulness when establishing any team partnerships. By being able to freely acknowledge our universal need for grace and the fact that we occasionally act out of pride, excessive ego, and selfishness, we can overcome fear and anxiety with trust.
§ Be specific. Partnerships should avoid minutia. Be specific about behavior that defines good working relationships. State them positively, as things to do rather than things to avoid. Write them down and give them to each team member.
§ Review Often. Partnership definition and goals should not be put on the shelf somewhere to be pulled out only when there is a problem. They should be reviewed often; revised and rewritten as needed; and team member’s behavior that matches them should be rewarded.
- Vision
James Kouzes and Barry Posner make a strong case for the importance of vision casting in their book, The Leadership Challenge (1995). Based on significant research into the lives of successful leaders and the organizations they serve, Kouzes and Posner conclude:
The overwhelming consensus was that, without vision, little could happen. All enterprises or projects, big or small, begin in the mind’s eye; they begin with imagination and with the belief that what’s merely an image can one day become real” (p. 93).
Some of those interviewed may have uses different terms, i.e., purpose, mission, legacy, dream, goal, calling, or personal agenda. But no matter what the term, leaders wanted to “do something significant, to accomplish something that no one else has yet achieved” (p. 94).
George Barna has been writing about the importance of vision casting for church leaders. He reports (Barna, 1992) that in evaluating churches that are growing and healthy and those that are stagnant or in decline, on of the key distinctions that emerges is the existence of a true vision for ministry:
In every one of the growing, healthy churches I have studied, there is a discernible link between the spiritual and numerical growth of those congregations and the existence, articulation, and widespread ownership of God’s vision for ministry by the leaders and participants of the church. Conversely, there is invariable a clear absence of vision in those congregations in which there is neither spiritual nor numerical growth taking place. Rarely in my research do I find such overt, black-and-white relationships (p. 12).
Effective ministry teams are those that cast a vision that unites people around a God-given cause. Core ministry teams:
· Are motivated by a strong sense of mission and purpose.
· Know where they are going and work to align their energy and effort toward fulfilling their divinely inspired purpose.
· Create a mission that is contagious.
· Attracts those who can see that their mission is not humanly devised but is a vision from God for meaningful service.
· Have a specific sense of mission that is unique to their own purposes and yet fits within and supports the larger vision for the whole district.
Effective vision statements need to be specific. A general vision statement is not enough. Individual congregations must articulate clearly what it is God has uniquely called them to be and do.
The energy, spiritual gifts, resources, and organizational structure of each church should be aligned with their unique vision. Ministry leaders within a given congregation no longer fight for their own particular areas of service but rather ask how their ministry area is working to fulfill the larger vision of the church.
Denny Bellesi, pastor of Coast Hills Community church in Aliso Viejo, California, said:
[Our] infrastructure began with a uniting vision. The vision becomes the starting point. You first have to know where you are going. It is absolutely essential. After determining your mission, your vision for ministry, then you begin to rally the people and resources to fulfill that mission.
The team-based church/District is a vision-driven church/District that is pulled together by a strong focused purpose. Ministry with vision, purpose, love, and passion imitates God’s creative and redemptive activity. Creation, for example, was not random, but the acting out of the love of God in purposeful, visionary way.
Visionary teams act with passion and purpose. They wish their own fellowship to be extended and broadened to include others. They act out of grace and pour out grace because God has been gracious to them. They seek to live the redemption that has been won for them on the cross. These teams are intentional and filled with God-inspired purpose that ignites them to pursue a cause (p.54, Cladis).
Once the vision is discerned and articulated, plaster it everywhere! That vision must become the ordering principle of the church and it is the responsibility of the core leadership team to keep the vision before the congregation. Just as the core leadership team models partnership in their relationships, they must also model purposeful activity on the basis of the church’s vision.
Remember, vision is not enough. The leadership team that partners together and works to articulate a common vision is in a wonderful beginning place. But the team has to follow through. Denny Bellesi observed, “You create a vision then create the systems to fulfill it.” But he also warned, “For a while, everyone was writing a vision statement, which is fine, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough simply to have a vision; you have to do something about it. Then you have to do the hard work of developing your strategic plan off the vision. But the vision is essential to the process.”