Welcome to the first “Consultant’s Corner” column. The goal of this column is to provide help for local church pastors and staff, and I need your help. Feel free to add your input in response to the question posted. After one week of responses, I’ll add my thoughts as a church consultant. Thanks for your thoughts!
Okay, so I’m the new pastor of our church. I’ve been here for three months, and I inherited a staff of three: minister of worship, minister of students, and minister of education. I’m also the youngest of the staff. It’s important to me to build a sense of teamwork among our staff. What are some ways to do that? I’m looking for some practical, inexpensive ideas.
Find a simple way to wash their feet - in a simple, symbolic way that you can demonstrate your servant’s heart to them. Borrow their car and return it washed, waxed and gas tank filled; give them a gift card to take their wife to a nice dinner; arrange a babysitter for their children etc.
Praise them honestly before the congregation, frequently and fervently.
Assure them that they cannot be your master but you will surely be their servant
Organize a killer trust fall activity; you know, where you fall into each other’s arms and all.
Just kidding.
From my brief time on a church staff, and now from my experience as a teammate for an international missions team, one thing in particular comes to mind: Spending quality time together.
Don’t let the weekly staff meeting or Bible study be the only time you see each other apart from regular church/team activities. It’s very difficult to become close with others in an environment that is always structured. Sharing real life together builds trust and friendship quickly and effectively. This can come in the form of a BBQ and board games at your house, or a weekend camping trip (not to mention these activities are minimal in cost). Sharing life together outside of the work environment is essential. With this approach you quickly find that these people are not only your colleagues, but your best friends. When that happens teamwork becomes a natural byproduct, not something that has to be worked on.
This does, however, require effort and intentionality. Once a month, in my opinion, is not enough to build the kind of bond that is required to weather any storm you may face as a staff.
Keep the “hang out time” as personable as possible; by that I mean keep it small. The less the better. Generally close bonds don’t form in groups of ten. You and your staff of three is perfect. Keep it that way if you can.
I’m with Reid on this. I think the weekend camping trip would be perfect, but I would recommend cabins and beds over tents and sleeping bags. There are ministry retreat centers all across the country. Doug Devore runs the Baptist Children’s Home in Carmi, IL that has a retreat center with a ropes course that is designed for group team building. In this setting, people’s defenses usually drop and you get to hear the heart of the people you are ministering with. There’s no need to hide your intentions. Let them know it is a team building and ministry planning trip.
Once you have done a bigger weekend like this, lunches or staff meetings should flow a little easier. Unless larger issues are revealed during the weekend, I don’t think events like this would be necessary more than once or twice a year.
The first two comments were spot on. Let me add a smaller idea that has borne fruit in my ministry.
Treat your fellow pastors as PASTORS. Being a Baptist, I believe there are two offices in the church: pastors and deacons. The men on staff at my church prior to my arrival as senior pastor were called to be associate pastors. Soon after my arrival, I explained to them that I viewed them as my pastors, that I respected their spiritual authority in my life, that I expected them to hold me accountable for personal holiness and biblical faithfulness as a leader, and that I needed them to help shepherd the flock.
I believe my approach was well received and helped to foster an envoronment in which team work could take place. It was important to me that my fellow pastors also know that I did not view them as junior staff members. To that end, I have endeavored to introduce myself as “one of the pastors” at Parkway Baptist Church, especially when in their company. I even introduce them as my co-pastors when opportunities present themselves. They have noticed my approach. As I valued their ministries, they in turn began to value mine and we became a team.
I agree with all that has been said above. Building relationships that are peer-releationships are essential. I will only add one more idea: read and study together. Our staff and our elders read books and study the Scriptures together with an eye toward direct application to our ministry setting. Lots of lively conversation, some joking, some thoughtful conversations arise from these scheduled times. Eventually, fellowship deepens, honesty, access and transparency become more comfortable. From these kinds of relationships, ministry grows.
I really like Josh Flowers idea about the camping trip; after such a camping trip lunches and staff meetings will be easier. However, as time goes on and schedules get busy and it is good to have a plan to continue what you have started.
I suggest having a set staff lunch day for all of the pastors. This meeting is not designed to talk about church stuff, just to build relationships and continue to cultivate unity. As a youth pastor my senior pastor always had a set day (once a week) that he would block out to eat lunch with us. It was always a great time of catching up, sharing our lives, and being together. It was during this time that we grew as friends and as a team.
All of these ideas are helpful ones. Here are some other strategies that I’ve seen to be effective. First, pray with each staff member–no agenda other than to find out how he is doing, and then pray. Second, serve the staff members even as you lead them. Protect their days off as much as possible. Budget funds for them to take their spouses out once a quarter. Schedule an annual staff retreat in a place that is also relaxing and fun. Third, review job descriptions annually. Realizing that you can’t always change the job, there might be elements of the job that can be improved. A staff member who gets to do what he most loves to do will be a happier staff member. Fourth, make it possible to give each staff member a maximum of four (perhaps more?) additional days off each year, at your discretion. Surprise staff members when they do a good job by giving them a day to relax. Bottom line: be a brother in Christ first, and then be a boss.
Great point Reid (and the rest of you who had similar thoughts). If you want to build a team, you have to learn each other. And the only way to do that is to spend time together. Simple stuff is right on. Dinners, game nights with your families, etc. As the pastor, you have to take the initiative to see these things through. And the result will be that you will definitely get to know one another– for better or worse!
I have to agree with Chris that my pastor’s attitude of treating us as fellow pastors has been a great method of building staff unity.
Also, I don’t think the simple and honest idea of having a staff retreat planned each year for the direct purpose of building staff unity can be emphasized enough. I still remember my first staff retreat where our pastor lead/taught us through the “Five Disfunctions of a Team.” This set the precedent for these past years. Also….WE HAD FUN! The staff retreat was hard work AND relaxing. We discussed and evaluated each pastor’s plan for their specific ministries, but we also played board games, had no cell phone service (this is key!), and had a hot tub!