Team Ministry

By Brad Cork

So you are in ministry! Congratulations... you might be full- time or part-time or trying to juggle this ministry with another full-time job. It really doesn’t matter. God didn’t ask everyone to go into “full time ministry”. The important part is that you are faithful to do what God has called you to do in whatever capacity that might be. So, if you don’t feel that God has called you to the ministry you are involved in, then get out! That’s right, leave. If you are not the person that God wants in that ministry role then you are preventing the person that God wants in the role from being there... or maybe God doesn’t want anyone in that role at the moment. I have seen too many churches try and “squeeze” people into ministry roles just because they need them filled. This usually is not effective and often leads to

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadOnTime BV
• Release date: Nov 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781921300806

Book preview

Team Ministry

Being effective for the kingdom!

Titlepage

Team Ministry ∼ Being effective for the kingdom!

Author: Brad Cork B.Sc, Dip. Min., MAICD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2008 Brad Cork

ISBN: 978-1-921300-80-6

Published by BookPal, Australia

www.bookpal.com.au

Table of contents

You Can Make A Difference

The Problem ... People!

You ... The Solution!

Why Care?

SMILE – Creating a Care Culture

Why be SAFE?

SAFE Relating Styles in Ministry

Supporting Your Team

COACH

Time isn’t the problem!

TIMEPlus: The Art of Investing Time

How do I get my team to work together?

TEAMS: Doing More With Less

How can I motivate my team?

DREAM Aligning people with their passion

Is Change Really the Only Constant?

GROWTH: Creating a Positive Change Culture

It Starts Today

Achieving Your Personal Best

Plans & Priorities: Putting it all together

Detailed Book Outline (Index)

1. You Can Make A Difference

Some of the challenges

You can make a difference

It is your choice

Motivating your people

The illusion of control

Freedom of choice

Self-Control .. or .. Self-Responsibility

The way we think

The robot syndrome

The power of trust

Communication is the key

2. The Problem ... People!

People... are they really the problem?

Is Generation Y really the challenge?

Managing attitude

Motivating people

Extrinsic or intrinsic motivation

When your staff say No

When staff have different values

I can always just quit!

Preventing fraud in autonomous teams

I shouldn’t have to follow them up

How do I get documentation completed?

Why won’t they follow the procedures?

Breaking a negative culture

The problem is the leader

3. You ... The Solution!

The buck stops with you

When you really can’t work with a team member

Staffing your weakness

There is gold in them there hills/people

The power of diversity

The magic of mistakes

Disagreement: The ingredient of innovation

Successful measurement ... successful teams

The manager doesn’t have all the answers

Leading by example

Empowering your people

Change ... you don’t have to go it alone

4. Why Care?

Care ... why bother

Internal customers

Care just takes too much time

Servicing the people’s people

S.E.R.V.I.C.E.

Reducing complaints

Building the care culture

5. SMILE – Creating a Care Culture

Successful care requires culture

6. Why be SAFE?

Keeping your team SAFE

Being SAFE with ourselves

The leader’s role in SAFE

The leader and the counsellor

Understanding SAFE

Recognising people with SAFE issues

When team members lose their cool

When the problem is another team in the organisation!

The unSAFE leader

Handling unSAFE people

SAFE is not an option

Motivating people to be SAFE

Implementing SAFE

7. SAFE Relating Styles in Ministry

Being separate

8. Supporting Your Team

Supporting your team as a leader

Be clear about what you really want

When the team just doesn’t get it

Information is power.. empower your people

Hiding information doesn’t prevent misuse

What if they don’t want support?

COACHing individuals individually

Are you rewarding bad behaviour?

Self-managed or unmanaged?

The art of delegation

Coaching ... you can

9. COACH

Understanding COACH

10. Time isn’t the problem!

You can’t manage time

Understanding your time mindset

Learning to invest time

Are you in the moment?

Prioritisation for efficiency

Learning to say No

Choosing to do what you have to do

Why? Why? Why?

Understanding the results

Delegation – partnering with other people

Handling difficult people

Time is not the problem

Using your time on purpose

11. TIMEPlus: The Art of Investing Time

Investing time: a mindset

12. How do I get my team to work together?

Teamwork

The values conflict

When your people argue

The decision making process

You measure what is important

Team dynamics

Team boundaries in self-managed teams

Guided decision making

When the team drowns in freedom

Loss of control – shattering an illusion

When things go wrong

13. TEAMS: Doing More With Less

Self-managed teams

14. How can I motivate my team?

Understanding motivation

Removing demotivation

Believe in your team

Setting the tone with a positive attitude

Lead by example

UNDREAM

Creating a DREAM culture

Keys to motivation

15. DREAM Aligning people with their passion

16. Is Change Really the Only Constant?

Change: is NOT the only constant

God: The unchanging foundation

Letting the team drive change

When you are not allowed to share information

Share information responsibly

Selling the change

Prioritising change

Idea management

Managing change - CHAMPS

Successful change

Creating a change culture

17. GROWTH: Creating a Positive Change Culture

18. It Starts Today

Starting today

Procrastination

Improved results needs improving people

Motivation – the key to leadership

Star whinger to star recruit

Managing stress

Handling change resistance

Start wisely, finish often

You can make the difference

19. Achieving Your Personal Best

From management to leadership

Engaging a coach or mentor

Coaching your team

20. Plans & Priorities: Putting it all together

Implementing key insights

Implementing teams – the strategy

Prioritise the plan

Important verse Urgent

Taking responsibility

SMILE – Care

TEAMS – Self-Managed Teams

DREAM – Aligning People with their Passion

SAFE Relating Styles

GROWTH – The Key to Innovation

TIME Plus – Investing Time

COACH – Realising Potential

The next step

1. You Can Make A Difference

So you are in ministry! Congratulations... you might be full- time or part-time or trying to juggle this ministry with another full-time job. It really doesn’t matter. God didn’t ask everyone to go into full time ministry. The important part is that you are faithful to do what God has called you to do in whatever capacity that might be. So, if you don’t feel that God has called you to the ministry you are involved in, then get out! That’s right, leave. If you are not the person that God wants in that ministry role then you are preventing the person that God wants in the role from being there... or maybe God doesn’t want anyone in that role at the moment. I have seen too many churches try and squeeze people into ministry roles just because they need them filled. This usually is not effective and often leads to burn out. Now don’t get me wrong... the ministry you are currently in may not be your lifelong ambition. That is OK! At various stages in our Christian walk God often has us do lots of different things. Just make sure this ministry is one of them... and if it isn’t, then get out.

Now that we have agreed that this ministry is for you (unless you just quit!) then let’s encourage you by looking at some of the problems you are likely to face.

Some of the challenges

Rest assured ... you don’t have to worry ... there is an answer and with Christ, you can do it!

Do you want to touch the world (or at least your bit of it) for Christ? Do you want to lead a successful ministry? Have you got too much work to do and not enough time to do it? Are the people causing you problems? Do you feel trapped in a never ending list of problems or impossible deadlines? Then this book is for you.

Are your people dissatisfied? Are you facing constant criticism? Do you have high turnover (or even very low turnover) of people? Do you have highly unreliable people? Are results consistently average or below average? Are things the same (or worse) than they were last year? Are your people lazy or are they the problem... the reason that you can’t produce the results that the Senior Pastor/board wants? Do they seem to just not get it? Are they hard to motivate? Do you wish you could replace them with a high performing team of people that would see things the way you do? Rest assured ... you don’t have to worry ... there is an answer and with Christ, you can do it ... it doesn’t take long to implement and it will increase success, reduce the number of people needed to do the work of the ministry, free you up to do what you have been called to do and allow you to make a difference for the kingdom!

Are you unsure what to do next? Do you wish you had more time? Do you wish you could reduce the number of hours it takes to keep the ministry going? The great news is you are not alone!

There are many people out there just like you. People who are striving to do their best and yet find they have too much work to do, not enough time and people problems as well! I know that I had people who should have been the star achievers of my team, but instead they were the star whingers! The great news is that I was able to turn my team around so that we did more work with less effort giving increased results. This gave me more time to do the things I was good at and with less people problems. You can do the same ... and yes my star whinger became one of my star performers!

You can make a difference

It is not all doom and gloom! You can do it. Let’s take some time to think about the things that you do well. If you are really struggling at the moment with your team you may feel like there is nothing that you do well. This is simply not true.

We all have at least one thing we can do that can make a difference ...

We are all born with the God-given potential to excel. We all have at least one thing that we can do (a gift) that can make a difference and you are no exception. So let’s start to think ... What is it that you do well? Go on ... grab a pen and paper and write it down. It is even OK to brag a little ... you deserve it ... and no-one else is going to read it anyway! Still having trouble thinking of things you do well ... then try this exercise. Grab a pen and paper and write down anything you have ever done in your life that you did well and that you really loved doing. Start from your early years at school and then think through all the different things you have done in your life and write down the ones you did well and that you really enjoyed.

See you can do something well. You can lead your team well also ... you may just need to build some skills or solve some inefficiencies in your team. You can do it and this book will show you the principles you can use to make this a reality for your team.

So, how did you get the role you are currently working in? Maybe you are wondering that at the moment also? Now assuming that you didn’t sleep with the boss ... ooh what an awful thought (and fortunately unlikely in a ministry situation) ... there is a reason that you got the job ... there was recognition of what you have achieved in your life so far. You were able to demonstrate that you had the skills that would make you great for this role. You were able to persuade your pastor or board that you were the RIGHT person out of all the people that they could have found. Not only have you been able to demonstrate skills and dedication, you are also likely to have been recognised for what you have been able to achieve over an extended period of time. Your attitude and ability to work your way through challenges has convinced your Pastor or board that you are the right person to lead the ministry team. With this book to help you, you will have the key principles to be able to take your team to the next level and to make a real difference for the kingdom... Get ready for your next step.

It is your choice

So will you make it? The million dollar question ... can you turn things around? A more important question is do you think that you can make it? Do you believe in God’s ability to use you and believe that you can achieve the results God is after. If not, then let’s recap... You said that you wanted to improve results. This means that you recognise there is a problem (even if you don’t know what it is) and that you see the need for change. You acknowledged that you feel a bit helpless in the situation. Acknowledging the problem is a vital first step to changing the problem into results. Acknowledging that you are helpless is exactly what God needs. When you realise you can’t do it, then it gives him the opportunity to step in. You are doing something about it... you are reading this book. You have demonstrated that you have the skills and attitude to be able to take the team to the next level (or you wouldn’t have been given the job) and someone believed in you (the person(s) who hired you). Now it is time for you to believe in you! I believe in you because I know that you were created to do the good works God has planned for you. So let me help you as we work through this book together to take your team to the next level and if you have any questions at all then please contact me to discuss how I can further help you.

Motivating your people

We’ve seen that you want to improve. That you have the skills and attitude and that you can do it... there seems to be just one major obstacle in the way ... your people. So the answer is just to make them do it right? ... to control their environment and make them become high achievers.

If you want them to perform you need to understand how to motivate them

As you may have already discovered, this approach just does not work. If you want the best out of your computer you need to understand how it works (at least at an operational level). If you want your car to perform you need to know how to drive it and you need to know how it works (or if you don’t know you get someone who does – a mechanic – to help you). People are no different. If you want them to perform you need to understand how to motivate them and you need to understand how they work (or bring in a consultant who does). This book will give you a start on some of the key principles to help create an environment that will help people motivate themselves.

The illusion of control

Control is an illusion. Are your people non-compliant, resentful or angry? Then they are probably feeling controlled. Note that I didn’t say that you are controlling them.., but that they are feeling controlled. This produces frustration, anger and resentment. So if controlling (telling them what to do) doesn’t work and just makes our team more stubborn, resentful, frustrated or angry, then why do we keep doing it? Sometimes we just don’t know any better. Sometimes we don’t realise we are controlling them. Maybe we just think that is the best way ... although I hope by now you are starting to realise that it just doesn’t work. We may control others because we think it is the quickest and easiest way to resolve a problem. Maybe we think we know better than our team or we might even think it is our job. The bottom line is it doesn’t work ... if we are to have a high performing team we just have to find another way.

Freedom of choice

Freedom of choice is what makes all the difference to our people. Do they feel like they have a choice or do they feel like they are being railroaded into having to do things your way, or maybe the Senior Pastor’s way. But that’s my job, you say. As the leader you feel that it is your role to tell people what to do and how to do it. It is then the role of the people to do what you tell them to do and do it with a good attitude. If that is the way you want to manage your people then that is fine. Like most things in life you have a choice. Just remember that EVERY choice you make has consequences. These consequences may produce positive results or negative results. In the case of the tell them management style the likely consequences are low engagement, disgruntled people, poor results and volunteers leaving the ministry. Remember to, that we are instructed not to lord it over our people. Biblical leadership is about servanthood. By giving people a choice you give them a sense of power, influence and value that will inspire them to produce better results, increased cooperation and increased results. The choice is yours... I know which set of consequences I would rather have!

Self-Control .. or .. Self-Responsibility

Self-control is something we often hear talked about and is just as often misunderstood. Before we can even begin to talk about self-control we have to understand the concept of self. Self means that you are not part of everyone else and no-one can control you unless you let them. No-one can make you feel anything nor make you do anything. People can’t make you angry or make you upset. Only you can do that