TEAM Ministry

I am currently reading Craig Groeschel's book entitled "It". If you are a ministry leader you need to read this book. It's funny, challenging and extremely clear. I just read Craig's chapter on "Unmistakable Camaraderie:You Enjoy "It" with Others" and it quickly got me reflecting on our TEAM here at Summit. I have had the privilege at working at some other great churches, but the one thing that separates Summit from my other experiences is the deep friendships that I share with the people I work with. As stressful and demanding as my role can become at times, I truly love my job. Not only because it is a God given privilege to do what I do, but because I also thoroughly enjoy the people I serve alongside and share life with. This Team is diverse group, but there is such a synergy and camaraderie that I would not trade.

I love the way Craig puts it: "The team with "it" loves each other. Not only do they minister together, they do life together. What they have is more than friendship. It's something that God gives-more of a partnership of people with deep love committed to a single mission. You're more than friends. You're a TEAM!"

In this chapter Craig outlines five common elements that contribute to "it" on the team:

#1. Understanding the Big Picture-
What this means is basically everyone understands the mission and the vision of the organization. What this does, is it helps every member see how their role is vital to the overall success. No one is just doing a job, but rather everyone is fulfilling a necessary role in the fruition of the vision. What I love about our team is that they understand the BIG picture so well that each of them are willing to make personal sacrifices to make it happen. There is a great attitude on our team that truly reflects "it's not about me."

#2. Having Fun together-
No explanation needed here. I can tell you that our staff meetings, our day to day operations and just about everything else we do we try to maintain an atmosphere of fun. I love that throughout the day I just hear spontaneous laughter coming from the copy room or the break room or out of someone's office. Tension is already high in ministry so having an atmosphere that is fun helps in dealing with the stress. Not don't get me wrong there is work being done, between the pranks, imitations of our worship associate, Jared's, many indiocincracies...etc., I assure work is getting done...I promise.

#3. Getting Naked-
Now stop right there, don't let your mind get away from you here. What this is referring to is relational nakedness or true authentic community. I have always thought that we had a transparent and real team well this week as a result of what we are having to walk through as a Team I think we all have had a wake up call to how important it is to fight for this.

#4. Celebrating the Wins-
Every week in our staff meeting we start with God stories. This time is just centered on bragging on God and celebrating the wonderful things HE is doing in our ministry and in and through the lives of our people. Celebrating wins is huge, because it is a great way to bring everyone back to the point of why we do what we do. Celebrating wins gives fuel to our Team and weight to our mission. As we celebrated wins we also encourage each other. Just a couple of weeks ago our "young guns" pulled off a huge event for us called "Project Backpack." They worked their tails off and it was a big win for us in the community. The next day in our staff meeting we applauded their efforts and rewarded them with a night out to the movies. I have served in other places where the only thing that was celebrated was the pastor's sermon. It always felt like I was sitting in who had the biggest and longest brown nose competition and I remember always thinking are you serious...

#5. Fighting Hard Behind Closed Doors-
"Part of having "it" is knowing that as a group we can have it out and still be friends."
This is something we have learned to do well. Since Summit started almost 5 years ago we have had to learn how to fight well. We were embarking on a model that we had not seen at the time. We do not have a senior pastor or lead pastor. We function as a Leadership Team, Jesus is the Senior Leader and His mission leads the church. But we found out quickly that if this is going to work than we had to fight for it and even fight each other. That means we had to be committed to resolving conflict and airing out our frustrations as well as our fears and complaints all the while knowing that when we left the table we left as friends and as one. It has been hard but all that fighting has made us a great Team and we still fight hard because we know we have to. Without honesty and a willingness to confront difficult topics and issues our team and our staff will eventually weaken and crumble. Our motto is invite the fight and we do and we do it because we know it is essential to the health and longevity of our Team.

I love our Team and I thank God for each of the members and I thank God that I get to be a small part of what God is doing at Summit. I would not want to do ministry any other way. The truth is you don't have to be in ministry to value team. These qualities should be found in our families as well as in our friendships. So take these five elements and evaluate your ministry team, your family unit and your friendships, what areas do you think need some attention? Just some random thoughts. God Bless!

p.s. If you want to check out a quick video on Craig talking about "It" click on the link http://floatingaxhead.com/2008/08/11/the-power-of-it/. Thanks Jon Peterson for the tip on the link!