Pastoring God's People
For all those who have been commissioned to
pastoral roles of all kinds.
Pastors as team players
by Anne Stuckey
Wwhen search committees survey candidates for pastoral ministry, they tend to look for those who are warm and welcoming and skilled at meeting people. Search committees also want the candidate to have the right set of skills for the job.
This makes good sense. However, the right ministry skills and outgoing personalities do not necessarily guarantee the ability to work successfully on a team. Scripture contains many good illustrations of both successful and unsuccessful ministry teams. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam worked well together because they grew up together as brothers and sister and learned in a family setting to be a team (Exodus 2:7). On the other hand, when Paul’s associate, Barnabas, wanted to take John Mark with them to Syria and Cilicia, Paul was quick to disagree and go his own way (Acts 15:37-40).
Ministry skills and outgoing personalities do not guarantee successful teamwork
If people skills and ministry gifts are not enough, what does it take to work well on a pastoral leadership team? Here are my top five characteristics:
1. You respect the boundaries and styles of other members of the team. You do not assume that others function exactly as you do. This means that you need to get to know well the others on the team and ask lots of questions. Do they want to be called on their day off or not? Do they like to share responsibilities or carry them by themselves?
2. You are always aware that every action you take affects other team members. If one pastor breaks confidentiality, then the congregation may become suspicious of all the members of the pastoral team and their ability to keep information confidential. If one team member takes on outside responsibilities on denominational or conference/district committees, he or she must be aware that this traveling puts added load on the team members left at home.
3. You know that keeping your word has to be sacrosanct in order for the team to work. Team members have to be able to trust the other members on the team implicitly. When a team member says he or she will do something, the rest of the team has to be able to trust that it will happen without fail. No exceptions. As soon as distrust is introduced into team dynamics, the team becomes fragile and prone to splinter.
4. You do not need to receive all the glory yourself. If you feel that you have to be visible on the platform during services, then you are promoting yourself and not the team. And it will lead to jealousy, the Archenemy of teams. It is easy to become jealous of the team member who gets to preach, lead worship, and be visible more than you do. When one team member feels unappreciated, it is easy for him or her to become jealous of the member who receives affirmation from the congregation. That kind of jealousy leads to resentment and builds walls rather than bridges among team members. The antidote is to find ways to promote each other publicly and to share the glory.
5. Finally, good team players know how to admit when they are wrong. The odds are good that as pastors we will all be wrong at some point. If you tried a youth retreat against the better judgment and counsel of your team members and it flopped, then admit that your instinct was off. There is no disgrace in trying something. The disgrace is in belligerently insisting that your idea is going to work one of these years. Such behavior diminishes the value of the team whose counsel must be taken seriously even if you don’t like it.
People who are not team players are usually unaware that they are defaulting on this responsibility. You can point out times when they are acting alone without consideration for the team but it is almost impossible to change such ingrained character traits. Instead, work around this person and do not expect them to function as a team player. Do not exclude them from the team but also don’t rely on them to function as you wish they would.
Anne Stuckey is Associate Pastor at Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold, Ohio.