Teams that Last
By Josh Reich

Many ministry leaders know the heartache of losing a teammate—watching somebody that you enjoyed working with leave for another ministry, or step out of the game altogether. One of the toughest parts of ministry is building your dream team, but a possible bigger challenge is keeping them. In the corporate world, to keep people you offer them more money than your competition is offering. You give them better benefits, better retirement plans, maybe more stock options, extra vacation days.

Last year, I was asked to speak to a class of MBA students at Towson University about what for-profit companies could learn from non-profit companies. The main thing I talked about was this: how to keep your team.

Is there a foolproof plan to build a team that will stay intact for years, never having hurt feelings, and never losing a teammate? No, sorry. But there are things you can do as a leader to save yourself and those who work with you from the pain of losing a teammate.

Know Yourself
Many leaders don’t know what they are good at doing. If they do know what they are good at, they feel the pressure of other things in the ministry so they don’t work in their sweet spots. All the other things in the ministry have to get done, right? Yes, but not always by you.

Whenever I start at a new ministry or start a new team that I am leading, I always list all the things that need to be done in that ministry or team for it to be successful. I try to make the list as exhaustive as possible. I then go through and cross out the things that only I can do—the things in my sweet spot or things I can’t delegate as the leader. Then I start looking for people to fill the other roles. Face it, you aren’t gifted to do everything— and ironically, the things you hate to do are the things that other people love to do! Andy Stanley said, “A well-rounded leader is a leader who doesn’t know what he is good at.”

If you don’t know what you aren’t good at doing and what only you can do, how will you know who or what you’ll need? This leads to knowing the gifts of other people, as well as their personalities and passions. Here is an example: I am a “high D” personality, as well as a big picture thinker, and I love to teach. So I don’t need a whole lot of those same kind of people on my team. What I do need are detailed, relationally warm, compassionate people. Of course they need other skills, too, but you get the idea. If you don’t know what you are looking for, you will find it every time; you will also cause yourself and your team a lot of headaches and frustration down the road.

Choosing the Right People
Once you have made your list and you know what you are doing on the team, now you are ready to start looking for other people. How do you decide? Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, lays out his 3 C’s in his book, Courageous Leadership. They are character, competence, and chemistry—in that order.

In a church, character is the ball game. If someone does not have character, there isn’t much left. You have to be able to trust everybody on your team and know that they are above reproach—or above questions, which I think is a better way of thinking about it.

You also have to make sure they can do the job—that they are competent. So much pain happens in our church because we place people in the wrong place. Imagine having someone teach who doesn’t have the teaching gift. What if you had a quiet person as your main greeter? Not good. If you want to get rid of someone fast, put them in a place that is not their sweet spot.

Usually in our ministries we do a good job with the first two C’s, but we drop the ball with the last one: chemistry. Often, we are just looking for a warm body and it doesn’t matter who it is. When you meet a potential team member, if you don’t feel a connection right away, maybe now isn’t the time for them to join your team. You need to be excited about the people you are working with and you need to enjoy being around them.

Saying Thanks
If you want to keep people over the long haul you need to do a good job of saying thanks. People want to be appreciated, they want to know that they make a difference; they want to know that you would miss them if they weren’t there. We can’t give volunteers a raise, more days off, or a better package, but we can show them appreciation.

At all of our leaders meetings, we give out a leader of the month award. I have all my volunteers nominate whom they think it should be and why. The chosen person gets a certificate that is very official looking, with what the other person said about them, and Starbucks gift card.

Here a few more ideas: On Mother’s Day you could give all the women on your team flowers. On Father’s Day, get some ties at the Salvation Army and write what you appreciate about each guy on your team and give them each a tie. For more ideas check out Go Team! by Kurt Johnston. He is the Junior High Pastor at Saddleback Church, but the book is full of ideas to say thanks to your team.

Celebrating Milestones

Would you love to have people last a year on your team? What about five years? 10? What about 20? When I was in college, I interned at a church on the east coast. We celebrated the milestones of volunteers who served for a certain number of years. I remember the night we celebrated Charlie, who was a Junior High leader for 30 years. Imagine, he had gone on 30 retreats and missions trips. What made it so special was that I was one of the Junior High-ers he loved to the Lord! When people know that you notice their years of service, they are more likely to stick around.

Be Together
Since we talked about chemistry being important to forming a team, let the chemistry play out. Be together, do things together—fun things that are focused on your ministry and don’t turn into meetings.

After our worship gatherings on Sunday nights, we have a standing date with my team to come over for supper. Most of my team arrive at church at 3:00 in the afternoon and are going until almost 8:00, so they are hungry. This is an awesome time of being together.

It doesn’t have to be regular thing like this. When I was on staff at a church in Maryland, I had a guy on my team whose main role was to tell me when the team needed to do something fun together. Periodically, Dave would e-mail me and say, “It’s time to eat.” That was our code for us to plan a fun time together.

Go to a movie, go to fireworks, or the beach, an amusement park, have a cookout, go sledding, have a snowball fight, go to a museum. Throughout the year, plan fun things that help to form the community that will keep your team together for years. Make memories, make friends. That is what keeps teams together through good times and tough times.

Leaving Well
When someone leaves your team—and somebody inevitably will—celebrate their time and contribution to the team and ministry. When people see that you cherish those on your team, they will want to join your team. This also is a reminder to those on your team that you will not forget them.

In college, I interned at a church for three years. On my last day, nobody knew it was my last day. The pastor I interned under wasn’t even there. That is still a painful memory to close out what was otherwise a good experience. Because of that, I celebrate when someone leaves my team. It is painful to lose people—I have cried over the loss of teammates—but they deserve a party. A time for people to share experiences, what that person has done, to laugh and cry together. This is also another opportunity to be together as a team.

So, is there a full proof way to keep your team intact for years and years? No, there still isn’t a full proof plan. But hopefully, you have some ideas on how to build and keep a team together for a long time.

About the author: Josh is the next generation pastor at Spring Creek Church in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. He speaks around the country on the topics of worship, leadership and change. He is in love with his two girls (wife and daughter), a passionate Pittsburgh Steelers fan, addicted to 24, and trying to get better at blogging on emergingthoughtstoday.blogspot.com.