How To Build A Championship Level Ministry Team

How To Build A Championship Level Ministry Team

Aaron Buer

Digital giving apps and tools

One of my greatest joys in ministry is being part of a team.

I am a firm believer that a healthy and high functioning team can accomplish exponentially more than even the most talented individuals.

I was reminded of this a couple of weekends ago when my student ministry team led a winter retreat for 1,000 students and volunteers.

It ran like clockwork.

The schedule, logistics, sessions, programming, worship, teaching, busing...I mean everything was solid and I had very little to do with it.

It was our team, a group of dedicated, diversely talented and hard-working people devoted to a singular task.

I love being part of a great team.

I’ve been leading this student ministry team for a few years now, and along the way, I’ve learned quite a bit about leading a great team.

Each of us is likely on some sort of team. In fact, many of us lead teams - staff teams, volunteer teams, student teams, you could even say that a family is a team.

Each team we are part of or lead is a HUGE opportunity for exponential impact, if you can get that team running in the same direction.

So, let’s talk about team.

In this post, I’m going to share my top seven values on team. These values drive who I bring on to the team, how I lead, and how we function as a team.

So, here we go...

1. Focus

Focus is knowing what you are about.

What is the goal of your team? What’s your purpose?

For us, it comes down to grounding students’ identity in Jesus.

At the end of the day, this is the win for us. If we are working toward this goal then we are running in the right direction.

So, what is it that God has called your team to do?

If your team only did one thing, what would that one thing be?

If you want a great team, it’s incredibly important that you are all focused on the same thing.

2. Trust

Here’s the deal: Teams are built on relationships.

Relationships are built on trust.

In my experience, there are two options when it comes to teams...

You can keep your team on a surface level and see normal results.

Or, you can build something special and unique - a championship level team.

I’m talking about the kind of team that produces truly remarkable work.

If you want that kind of team, you must build a high level of trust.

This all starts with focusing on actual relationships.

If you want to learn more about building trust on a team, I recommend this book:

3. Candor

A great team will constantly improve.

Constant improvement requires feedback loops.

In order to grow, we all need to understand where we need to improve.

This requires candor.

Candor is the willingness to speak the truth about what needs improvement, whether that is a process, a system or even an individual’s performance.

Now, this is where most teams fail to reach the next level. We don’t like conflict.

We are a church for crying out loud!

I get it.

However, here’s the challenge: If everyone is focused on the same goal, and if there is enough trust between individuals on the team, candor will not be a problem.

Why?

Because the honest feedback is not about the person, it’s about the mission. And if you know that I care about you and if you trust me, then we can talk about whatever needs to be talked about.

It takes hard work and a lot of time to get to the place where candor can be a value but it is so worth it!

4. Humility

There is something else that is required along with candor...humility.

Here’s the thing: If I deflect, redirect or ignore your feedback because of pride or arrogance, then the entire process breaks down.

In order for our teams to become championship level teams - the kind of teams that can accomplish greatness, every person on the team, from the leader down must be humble.

Every single one of us must be willing to hear feedback from any source and simply say,

“Thanks for sharing that. Tell me more.”

Because of this, when I am hiring new people for my team, lack of humility is a deal breaker.

In interviews, I always ask questions like:

  1. ● Tell me about a time you totally dropped the ball. What did you learn from it?

 

  1. ● Tell me about a time you received tough feedback in ministry. How did you respond?

 

    ● We all have weaknesses. What are some of yours?

If a person doesn’t have stories here or says what 90% of people in an interview say, “My weakness is that I work too hard.”

Then I’m out.

I’m looking for people who fully embrace the reality that they actually aren’t good at everything and are hungry to grow.

5. Collaboration

My fifth value when it comes to teams is collaboration.

I am a firm believer that what we can accomplish together will always beat what I can accomplish alone.

Now, here’s the thing: collaboration is a cool word and it sounds fun. It’s not.

Collaboration is critical to unlocking greatness in teams but collaboration slows down the process, requires conflict and debate and it requires that leaders invite less experienced and less skilled voices into the process.

The truth is that collaboration is hard but I’m telling you, if it is done right, it ALWAYS leads to a better outcome than solo work.

So, how do you actually collaborate?

First off, don’t even try it until you have spent some time focusing around a singular mission, building trust, candor and humility.

Collaboration requires a solid foundation or things can get sideways in a hurry.

Second, start small.

Invite more voices into specific projects or conversations.

Don’t try to implement total collaboration everywhere overnight. Instead, experiment on the fringes.

Build momentum around specific projects or individuals.

6. Empowerment

A team is made up of individuals.

Each individual contribution is critical to the success of the team.

As a leader, one of the best strategies to pursue is empowering your team members.

Why?

Because a team member that believes you are for them and investing in them will often produce far beyond a team member who does not.

How do you grow in this area?

It starts with understanding the people under your care.

What are their needs? What are their aspirations?

A great starting place is this question:

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

And then follow up with this:

How can I help you get there?

I’m telling you, if a team member believes that you are working to help them achieve their aspirations, they’ll do just about anything for you and the team.

If you want to see your team achieve greatness, empower each individual team member by helping them move toward their goals.

If you’re interested in learning more about this concept, read Multipliers by Liz Wiseman

7. Excellence

Alright, my last team value is excellence.

Here’s another way to say this:

“I bet we can do better.”

The winter retreat I mentioned earlier...my team crushed this event. I’m telling you it was great.

But what’s more important to me is that it was a little bit better than last year’s winter retreat.

And, that year was a little bit better than the year before.

You see, great teams care about excellence. It’s never quite good enough and it can always be a bit better.

This value keeps us from getting comfortable and keeps pushing us forward.

If you’re interested in pursuing this value, there is one practice that I recommend.

Evaluate everything you do shortly after you do it.

We run every event through a feedback tool that we call 4 Helpful Lists.

It’s pretty simple:

  1. 1. What was right?

 

  1. 2. What was wrong?

 

  1. 3. What was confusing?

 

    4. What was missing?

If you spend 30 minutes to an hour with your team answering these questions, it’s pretty easy to create an action list for improvement.

And, if you do this after every significant event or program, it’s not terribly difficult to improve.

The value of excellence drives this process and great teams are always intent on excellence.

Wrap Up

Well, it’s probably obvious that I’m a huge believer in teams.

Part of this is just how I’m wired but another part of it is that I’ve experienced the magic of being part of a great team.

I firmly believe that if our church staffs functioned better as teams, we could accomplish so much more than we are.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this and also your ideas for leading great teams. Leave us a comment below.

Discover how our Groups tool can help you organize and manage one-on-one meetings effectively.

Explore Groups Tool

Looking for an easy-to-use software to help manage your church?

We'd love to show you what we built!

Join 10,000+ happy churches using Breeze ChMS™.

Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
David P.
loves Breeze
St. Pauls United Methodist Church

Breeze has been incredible. Their customer service, commitment to innovation, and their product are top-notch. I love the features, the ease of use and the mobile applications.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Karen M.
loves Breeze
Hillcrest Church

All of our database needs have been more than met, it's easier to use than the last database we had, and the price is amazing - what a value this has been to our church! All of our staff can use this software and they do regularly. We use it to track…literally anything a church could possibly need to track regarding it's attenders.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Chris K.
loves Breeze
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Breeze has been a great asset to our church and congregation. Especially from an administrative standpoint, it has been the most adaptable and easiest church database I have ever used. The features from blast emails to giving on-line, and texting have been one of our greatest assets. Thank you!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ed R.
loves Breeze
Church Admin

We switched from a major, web-based ChMS to Breeze and our decision is confirmed every day. We are a medium size church and we use Breeze for contributions, member management, event checkin and a few other applications custom to our church. I had trouble getting any staff to use our previous ChMS but almost all staff are using Breeze. The product is very well designed, extremely easy to learn and use and customer service is incredible.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ellen G.
loves Breeze
Grace Church

Breeze has opened the communication highway for our congregation and staff, with very little training. Because members can update their own records and search easily for other members - and map their locations, send emails and text right from Breeze, they love it and our data is more real-time accurate. Our ministries are stronger, because they can trust the data in Breeze, which is easily accessed anywhere, anytime.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Steve H.
loves Breeze
First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey

Breeze is the first ChMS my volunteers have actually embraced. That's because it's so easy to use. The software is very flexible and gives us the opportunity to make decisions based on actual data we've collected and not just hunches or stories we believe to be true.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Allicia B.
loves Breeze
Ellel Ministries Canada

I cannot say enough about Breeze. Their customer service is so friendly, you feel like you have friends and family helping you get started, they're prompt to reply and will do whatever they can to help you get things sorted out. It's been so easy to learn, our staff is loving it and best of all even our staff who are not computer savvy find it a breeze (pun intended). We are just thrilled by our choice.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Kevin D.
loves Breeze
Central Baptist Church

From the start of our process looking for an online solution, Breeze has exceeded all our expectations. Fast data import, fast and friendly customer support, and we can’t say enough about how much we like the program itself. Very well designed and user friendly. On a scale of 1-10, Breeze gets a 15 from us!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!

Rated 4.9 stars – 700+ reviews