Team-Based Leadership

What is the secret to unleashing the full potential of the church? How do we call forth a congregation's full measure of creativity and love so we can fulfill the Great Commission in our communities? The answer begins with the leadership team. Today's most effective churches are those developing team-based leadership. Leadership is a function, not a position. That function is much larger than any single person.

Every growing community needs a powerful fellowship of leaders—a collaboration that mirrors the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and reflects how the rest of the Body of Christ should look.

Yes, the biblical case for team-based ministry is found primarily in our doctrine of the Trinity, the essence of Christian theology. Our models for structuring congregations should reflect the Trinity, and seek to imitate Christ. The starting point for creating these models is to intentionally structure our leadership teams to gain maximum strength through diversity. Although a church has only one pastoral office, staff and key lay leaders are extensions of that office. We can strengthen that pastoral office by using more variety in these significant areas: gender, race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, temperament, talent, and gifts.

Our leadership needs to reflect the full image of a God who is the Creator of diversity. I am in my seventh year of associate ministry at Hermitage Church of the Nazarene in the Nashville area—a congregation of about 700. It is my first assignment since being called into full-time vocational ministry.

I remember being overwhelmed my first few months on the job as many women came to me for counsel. They each expressed a similar sentiment: They were so happy to have a called, biblically and theologically trained leader who was a woman. They certainly appreciated their male pastors and had been spiritually fed by them. But they felt it was a special bonus to also have someone who truly understood the female subculture. I began to wonder if the church had unwittingly undeserved half of the constituents. We easily understand the value of a two-parent home in raising children, yet perhaps we cripple the church by not designing more gender-balanced leadership.

The exciting news is that the church is closing that gap. The number of female students preparing for ministry at Nazarene universities and seminaries has increased significantly in recent years. This represents a huge upsurge. We have the opportunity to place these trained women in strategic positions to strengthen the health of our congregations. Wouldn't it be phenomenal to have gender-balanced leadership teams in every local church? This is not just a goal for larger congregations with multiple staff members, but this concept can also be creatively applied to volunteer leadership teams at every level. If we believe in servant leadership, then our leadership team should reflect those we serve.

Let's compare the composition of our communities to that of our congregations and leadership teams. Does your congregation mirror your community? Does your leadership team mirror your congregation? What percentage is female? What ethnic groups are represented? What percentage is under the age of 40? Over 40? What is the socioeconomic mix? Dwight Gunter, senior pastor of Trevecca Community Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, has hired staff and built a congregation that mirrors the community's diversity. And that diversity is broad.

The church is wedged between a university campus and a retirement center, so it includes a wide span of ages. Nestled on the edge of the inner city, it also holds racial and socioeconomic diversity. "People derive value when they see someone on the leadership team like them," Gunter says. "They immediately feel a sense of belonging and connection." It is good pastoral theology.

In fact, we first see this practice in the miracle of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other languages as the Spirit enabled them, the crowd was amazed. '' 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? . . . we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!' Amazed and perplexed they asked one another, 'What does this mean?' '' (Acts 2:7-8, 11-12)

Then, as now, the story of Pentecost means that the gospel is for everyone. Great power exists when the wonders of God are declared in the languages of every subculture on the planet. If every congregation intentionally learned to relate to all the demographic groups in their communities, what might happen? The people around us could be so amazed that the church cares to speak to them in their own language that they might be drawn to know the God we serve. After all, 3,000 were added to the Church on the day of Pentecost! God is the designer of creativity.

I constantly see that as I coach people to find and use their strengths and gifts through a personality assessment and spiritual gifts inventory. The insights they discover are always transformational and energizing.

People are more motivated to live out their unique, God-ordained calling.

Watching this convinces me more than ever that the metaphor of the body, which Paul uses to describe the church, deserves more of our attention. The body of Christ is the ultimate example of team ministry—unity in diversity.

My senior pastor, Howard Plummer, is a strong advocate of team ministry, beginning with his staff. He is very intentional about building our roles and assignments based on our strengths. We are not afraid to reevaluate and reassign based on new information. Rather than being stilted by an organizational chart, we keep the lines adjustable based on the ever-emerging needs of the growing congregation and the leaders God continually raises from the church. In fact, all but two of our seven staff team members are home-grown. God has called men and women from our own congregation to minister within the priesthood of all believers.

I believe our church is a model of what can happen when leadership intentionally capitalizes on the diverse gifts of the congregation. The church's responsibility is to give everyone a place to serve and live out his or her call to minister. Through a strong environment of worship and discipleship, we seek to help every member grow to maturity and then release them for ministry.

Both pastors, Plummer and Gunter, expressed the same sentiment about their leadership style. Both had concluded that in their ministries they couldn't do everything and that the Kingdom was bigger than they were. They had to ask themselves, "Do I really want to surround myself with leaders? If so, I have to let them lead. My job is to empower, resource, train, defend, and set them up to succeed." Team-based ministry is the most effective model for leading and organizing Christian ministry. It is both theologically and culturally appropriate.

The people of the postmodern world desire models of leadership in which they can participate. Even the God of the universe leads through a Trinitarian team. Though shrouded in mystery, the clear example is there. Our challenge is to learn better ways to reflect that holy community of ministry. This style of ministry just might be the catalyst today's world needs for spiritual renewal.

Rondy Smith is community life pastor at Hermitage Church of the Nazarene. She is an organization development consultant with a specialty in team-based leadership.

Holiness Today, July/August 2008

Please note: This article was originally published in 2008. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.