MIM Ezine, January 5, 2007

-- Purpose-Filled Ministry- "Team-Building Mistakes and What They Taught Me," by Teena M. Stewart.

-- Book Review: "Soul Cravings," by Erwin Raphael McManus, reviewed by Tom Hanover.

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Team Building Mistakes and What They Taught Me

Starting a new year makes me look back and evaluate how effective I've been in leadership. I've learned some interesting lessons especially when it comes to team building. When I came to my current church I saw a need for a ministry team to help equip people for ministry, and promote and facilitate ministry.

So I set out to build a team that would serve that purpose. Unfortunately, I was so new to team building and to the church, I made several mistakes. Here’s a look back at what I learned from this team building experience.

To build a team you rarely recruit people via published announcements; personal invitation works best. I put the word out to prospective members both through printed announcements and personal invitations, but several more people expressed interest as a result of my personal approach.

If you are new to a church, it will take some time before you know people well enough to know if they will be a good fit for your team. Devise some way of screening their gifts and passions before inviting them to join. Their gifts, skills, and interests should match your team needs.

The people I invited to join my team had a passion for ministry, but my mistake was not screening them to determine their gifts. I was just glad to have warm bodies. Though we did get the team up and running, in most cases it was not a good fit for what I eventually learned were their gifts. A benefit that resulted from them serving on the team, however, was that they learned what ministry opportunities were available to them, so several left the team to pursue other opportunities. Many of those who stayed were out of sync with the goals that were set for the team.

The result was like trying to work with a team of horses that wanted to pull in different directions. It was exhausting.

The other big mistake was not determining ahead of time what role each member of the team would serve, though I mapped out specific sub-team functions. These included promoting ministry, equipping for ministry, connecting people with ministry opportunities, and communicating ministry needs. I didn’t recruit the correct people to oversee these functions and I had difficulty explaining to recruited team members what their function was.

I could have saved a lot of headache for them and me if I had written job descriptions for the leader of each sub-team function. What gifts and skills would a leader need to have to make his or her sub-team more effective? Providing a detailed job description to a potential volunteer would certainly clear up a lot of confusion.

I’m a visionary and when I dream, I dream big. I often need other people to help me reign in the dream and make it manageable. I started out with a vision of a multi-functioning team. Each function was necessary, as I saw it, but because we were short on people to manage those functions it put a high demand on each team member.

I needed to focus on the most important functions that our team needed to perform so we could achieve success. And later I could add other tasks as we increased the size of the team with members that possessed needed skills.

As it was, the team was so diversified in what they were doing that we were trying to do it all, which eventually, was discouraging and exhausting.

A turning point for my team was when I recruited a leader who volunteered to help with an overall restructuring process. After revamping and creating a new flowchart, many members were eliminated whose skills just did not a fit, but we made sure to talk with them first, explaining the reason for the shift. Looking back now, I see it as a God thing.

Then the leader who helped restructure the team by cutting all team members but one, suddenly left because she felt called to work in another ministry area. Discouraged and tired, I decided to take a break and retire the “team.”

More than a year passed before I felt God telling me to try again. I spoke with my last remaining leader and he was willing to work with me on resurrecting the team because it became clear that it was badly needed. We held a special ministry-equipping event, which was very successful, and through that event we gained another administrative team member.

From there we met and looked at our team’s mission statement and flow charts that had previously been developed. We discussed what the team had done well and what could have been improved. We also talked about crucial ministry elements we felt we could not cut back in order for our team to be effective. From that discussion we developed a new plan for how our team would work.

Since then, our resurrected team has helped launch several ministries, and has helped equip and connect volunteers to ministry opportunities. Our primary new focus is on equipping the equippers. We have achieved most of this by providing workshops to help them understand their roles and their functions better.

Currently, we are working on writing job descriptions for each of our team functions. From there we will work with those leaders to recruit people who have skills in that function.

God is a God of second chances. God certainly proved that with my ministry leadership. Often, from the ashes of our errors and trials, God raises up a new creation that is better and more effective than the original. Be willing to learn from your mistakes. Take time to reflect on what is working and what is not. If you feel God leading you to make another try, give it your best shot. Allow God to work with you to make it into the ministry God wants it to be; not what you envisioned.

Teena Stewart is a published writer, a ministry consultant and coach, and a product developer for Ministry in Motion. To learn more about Teena, her writing, coaching and consulting services, click here. Email Teena at smartwords@sbcglobal.net

In these confusing days of changing mores and shifting values, I thought it might be valuable for my male readers if I took a moment to review the four basic rules for manly men. (Women are also invited to listen in.)

Rule No. 1: A man must never talk about, mention or otherwise refer to the subject of pants to another man. It’s okay for women to talk about clothes — anybody’s clothes, in any context whatsoever. But for a man to mention the subject of pants to another man, well, it just makes everybody feel awkward and uncomfortable.

And there is no situation in which this rule may be broken. Not even, “Um, buddy? Your pants just caught fire,” is acceptable. Trust me, a man would much rather find out his pants are on fire by himself rather than hearing it from another guy.

Rule No. 2: Never talk to other men in the public restroom. The standard is that a man is allowed only one verbal exchange at the sink, and only at the sink, and that can only be about sports or the sermon (if at church).

“Yeah, how ‘bout them Packers?” is more than adequate men’s room conversation.

Rule No. 3: Never verbally share your feelings with another man. This is not to say you can’t share your feelings for him — just not verbally. He will most appreciate it if you do one of the following:

Rule No. 4: Never share your feelings about another man’s pants in the men’s restroom. Going into a men’s room and saying something like, “Dude, let me tell you how I feel about your pants!” might just cause both parties irreparable damage in the community of manly men.

I should also point out that real men (and real women too for that matter) seek the Lord and trust in Him. In the Bible, John 6:29 records Jesus being asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” There it is. No complicated rules. No stipulations. No confusion. The foundation and beginning of any meaningful relationship is trust. I believe God passionately desires to communicate that he can be trusted — with our families, our finances and even our souls.

It isn’t easy figuring out all the rules of this world, but don’t you just love the idea of a God who is more concerned about relationships than rules?

© 2006 Charles Marshall. Charles Marshall is a nationally known Christian comedian and author. Visit his Web site at www.charlesmarshallcomedy.com or contact him via e-mail at charles@charlesmarshallcomedy.com.

DreamBuilders Ministry in Motion offers Christian leadership, ministry, and life coaching/consulting. We can help you focus and become more productive and fulfilled. Schedule a free 30 minute phone consultation with no obligation. Click here for more info.

Erwin McManus serves as lead pastor and cultural architect of Mosaic in Los Angeles, a diverse community of followers of Jesus (www.mosaic.org). He is the founder of Awaken, a personal and organizational creativity development group. He partners with Bethel Theological Seminary as distinguished professor and futurist and he is a contributing editor for Leadership. McManus has authored several popular books including An Unstoppable Force, Chasing Daylight, Uprising, and The Barbarian Way.

This is not the sort of book one reads from beginning to end, like a cheap dime store novel. It is a collection of questions and ponderings one needs to taste and savor. The chapters are short, often 2-3 pages with images and stories from McManus’ experience that provoke deeper ponderings and reflections. Many of the chapters build on previous images and stories, but they do not need to be back to back.

McManus sorts his ruminations into three themes: Search for Intimacy, Search for Destiny, and Search for Meaning. He offers roughly 20 or more notes in each theme. While it has the appearance of a daily devotional, it is not created with a traditional scripture and prayer.

The book is written for anyone who is an honest seeker for God. McManus is an artist using fresh images and parables to help the reader listen to one’s own soul. Ministry leaders who seek to listen to their own cravings as well as the depth of soul in others will find the journey of this book enriching.

McManus suggests he is not trying to offer empirical evidence for God. It is more of an invitation to a journey of self-discovery. It is a book about coming to know one’s self, one’s deepest longings.

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MIM Ezine - January 5, 2007

Team Building Mistakes and What They Taught Me