Team Ministries.

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Team Ministries.

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 5, 2003 ⋅ Post a comment

Here’s another common component of dynamic churches: they add full- or half-time ‘ministers’ to their leadership team, usually before they can ‘afford’ to, thus building momentum into growth of the church’s ministries. Note that we put ‘ministers’ in quotation marks: all Christians are ministers, but some are set apart from their secular callings to do special tasks among God’s people. They are usually persons who are ‘reproducers’, who can disciple others in the faith and multiply the number of growing Christians in the church. Such leaders use their special gifts to train, equip others for ministry (Ephesians 4:12).

There is now quite a large amount of experience about how team ministries function. Here’s a summary of this accumulated wisdom:

* Every team needs a captain. Team-leaders empower the other team members to actualize their potential in ministry. Their role is not to delegate uncongenial jobs, or monopolize ministry-tasks simply because they are the team-leader: that’s sometimes a sign of insecurity. For example, if a senior pastor thinks that because he/she is senior pastor they should be the only preacher or perform all baptisms that’s a pretty shaky proposition: Jesus and Paul delegated ministry-tasks to others. A small piece of research I did in one Australian denomination found that when a two-member pastoral team experienced tension, this was often caused by the senior pastor being jealous of the kudos directed towards the associate. The senior pastor was there first, had a sense of ‘ownership’ in the church, and found it difficult to ‘share the glory’ with a (gifted) other.

* Members of pastoral teams should meet regularly for fellowship, discussion of major matters relating to the church, and prayer – say, two hours once a week. Only matters relevant to the whole team ought to be discussed here: items affecting a minority of the group should be dealt with at other times. Perhaps once a month invite a guest to give some theological or practical input to the group. Why not invite spouses to those meetings, and have a meal together? And then go on a retreat for one or two days, once or twice a year.

When team members function harmoniously they energize one another. There is richness in their diversity, and the whole group has an impact on the church fellowship much greater than the sum of its parts. Other pairs of eyes are watching for landmines one person alone may step on. Other pairs of ears are listening for feedback that may not come to a solo pastor.

* Harmony in a leadership team is only maintained if none of them cares too much who gets the glory for a job well done. However, encourage one another, and gently suggest improvements if something can be done better. Usually team members will be functioning within the areas of their own giftedness anyway, so they will receive regular ‘strokes’ from the congregation for their performance.

* Team members ought to be involved in the selection process for additions to the team. When they are thrown together by another body, we usually have a recipe for disaster. If a team is very large (say more than ten persons), the senior members of the staff can work with, say, a group of elders to form a call committee. The Americans sometimes regard the senior pastor as ‘executive director’ of the church who hires and fires his own staff. Most Western churches have a more ‘collegial’ arrangement, except in some Pentecostal groups where the senior pastor is viewed as a sort of ‘patriarch’.

Should the associates resign when the senior pastor does? Not necessarily, in my view (but read Schaller’s book for another opinion on this vexed question) – provided those remaining have a strong input in the selection of new senior pastor. Conversely, should the new appointee insist on the resignations of he existing team? Again, in my view, only in rare circumstances.

* New team-members ought to be invited to write their own ‘ministry description’ within the broad guidelines of their invited calling. This (one-page) document would then be submitted to the call committee, and to the church for their approval. Don’t be too legalistic: hopefully pastors grow in their experience and may be redirected to a new field of ministry after a time. Such ministry descriptions ought to include a statement about ministry at home (my own view is that no pastor needs to be out of his or her home more than 3-4 evenings per week); and also time for study and preparation, as well as, say, two-weeks’ study leave each year.

* Probably all the ministry team ought to have regular visibility in the church’s worship services, ministering according to their gifts. As hinted above, that means team-members preach according to their giftedness. Preaching is a highly prized area of ministry: it’s always near the top of most pastors’ favoured occupations. When I entered the Baptist ministry a godly old evangelist said: ‘Preachers are peacocks – watch it!’ Unfortunately he was mostly right. Who determines who preaches how often, and when? My suggestion is that the preachers ought to trust their fellow-elders and team-members as a larger group. For example, on your church leaders’ retreats, draw up a grid of the services, a hypothetical 10 Sundays, ask each person to nominate who should preach when (including non-team church members and visiting preachers), and design a roster from the averages. This allows preachers to be subject to the leadership of the church: I like that. After all, our leaders have to suffer our pulpit performances, and they may have a more objective assessment of our value as preachers or teachers. They also receive more objective feedback from rank-and-file church members. Woe to the preacher who believes too readily the kind comments from his favourite old ladies!

* A ministry-support team, including secretaries and administrators, ought to be put in place early. In most churches there’s a large pool of unused talent waiting to be employed which, financially, would cost the church little or nothing: early retirees, the unemployed, some on invalid pensions, spouses of the well-employed who do not need to work at a salaried job. What should they do in the church? The short answer: whatever they’re gifted to do! But never – I repeat, never – call for volunteers for key jobs, partic- ularly those that call for a high degree of confidentiality.

* What positions should be filled first? That depends on four factors: the culture in which the church exists, the ministry needs within the fellowship, the opportunities in the church’s mission-area, and the spiritual gifts of those available (mostly within the church-body) for ministry. In western middle-class churches, I would suggest, as a rough guide, the following: senior pastor, part-time secretary (voluntary in a very small church, but paid as early as possible), then youth pastor or small group facilitator, then make the secretary full-time, then evangelist, children’s worker, community ministries pastor or music director. The first three pastoral positions are filled by ‘reproducers’ – persons who train others for ministry; that’s most important. If your church has a large body of older people who expect regular pastoral visitation by an ‘ordained’ minister, perhaps appoint a semi-retired pastor for this task. Another good idea: look for a trained counselor, who may operate on a pay-as-you-can fee basis. (Senior pastors who spend a lot of time in continuous pastoral counseling rarely lead growing churches). Add youth-leaders as full- or part-time staff workers, perhaps on a team-support basis. There are literally hundreds of young people waiting for a challenge like this: ask organizations like Youth With a Mission or Young Life which have trained thousands of them partly because local churches were slow to realize their potential.

* If Barnabas added Saul to his pastoral team so early, how did they afford it financially? Saul was a tent-maker, and we know he used that occupation to support himself. That could be part of the answer: a pastor or youth-leader working part-time, and being supported as well by the church.

But there are other ways. Here are two experiences from my own pastoral history. At Narwee Baptist Church in Sydney, Australia, during the late 1960s, I was their part-time student pastor. Many young people became Christians, so my wife Jan and I prayed about adding a youth pastor to our church’s staff. The church had taken a leap of faith to call us: they had single student pastors before, and had to increase their pastoral stipend and find a house for us. So adding more staff was probably not on their agenda. Jan and I decided to double our tithe, then started contacting people who might join us: first, parents with both teenagers and a good income, then other teenagers’ parents, then people without kids but with good jobs, then the young people themselves. Our question: will you join us in pledging extra finance for just one year – believing that the person invited will disciple other young people, who’ll bring their money with them, and after one year be virtually self-supporting?! One year’s stipend plus house plus car was pledged in 24 hours. Dave Kendall, an American, who is now the Bible Society’s youth specialist in New South Wales joined our church, and the momentum began: this church now has four full-time pastors, plus office staff.

At Blackburn Baptist Church in Victoria we did a similar thing when actor/singer Robert Colman was added to our church staff to engage in a ministry of evangelism and music.

* Some notes on male/female teams: women and men provide complementary ministries if they are to work well together. Perhaps every church needs a mother-figure. Men will have to learn to allow women to be both feminine and achieving. Women will permit men to be risk-takers. However, men often define themselves in terms of their work-accomplishments: so loss of job equals loss of identity. They may be tempted to see their primary role as a professional person. Women on the other hand tend to add any new role to existing ones. They also become workaholics for another reason: to prove their worth in the first modern generation to allow them to be leaders.

So expect to add to your pastoral staff. You must sow seeds to get a harvest. A population explosion will only happen if you multiply the reproducers!

Finally, note this important observation: ‘Your team, empowered and directed by God in Christ, becomes a model in the parish for harmonious relationships and effective ministry, working together, supporting each other, urgently sharing the gospel, caring for others, admitting mistakes and confessing sins, forgiving and giving. Your team’s example catches on contagiously and infectiously. God grips the parish through you so that the Word comes alive in ministry. The whole parish operates as his team for the community and for the world.’ (15)

Further Reading: Lyle Schaller, The Multiple Staff and the Larger Church, Nashville: Abingdon, 1980; Ervin Henkelmann and Stephen Carter, How to Develop a Team Ministry and Make it Work, Concordia, 1985. Norman Wegmeyer, Strengthening the Multiple Staff, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1982. Harold Westing, Multiple Church Staff Handbook, Grand Rapids Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1985.