Blog
Building Your Team
“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
What was Jesus doing when He said these infamous words? He was building His team. “I have chosen you. You have not chosen me.” This tells me that Jesus was selective about who was on His team.
What was Jesus looking for when He was building His team? He was looking for leaders. That’s why the disciples were fighting all the time. They all wanted to be the leader.
He could have said it like this, “Follow me and I will make you a leader.”
Always be on the outlook for new leaders
It’s one thing to lead followers and another thing to lead leaders.
Followers are people who want to follow. They don’t really want to make decisions. Leaders are people who want to lead.
These are people who think for themselves. They have opinions that are different than yours.
“If you are a leader and leaders work for you, they think they can do a better job than you. They just do. (Just like you do.) And that’s not wrong that’s just leadership.” – Andy Stanley
Here are five steps to building your leadership team.
- Staff to your weakness.
Look for people who are strong where you are weak. If you are not good with details, surround yourself with people that are good with details. If you are a woman, get some men on your team.
Sometimes people will say things like, “I’m not good at drama, so we don’t do drama skits.” If you are not good at something, it is an opportunity to add another leader. Write down a list of all your leadership positions. This is my list. It’s not a complete list but you get the idea. Your list is going to look different than mine.
- Nursery Director
- Pre-School Director
- Worship Leader
- Drama Director
- Small Group Director
- Volunteer Specialist
- Lead Teachers – 4
- Head Coaches – 3
- Small Group Leaders – 30
2. See yourself as a resource to your leaders.
I will never forget when I shared the idea with my pastor for creating the Super Church Curriculum. He looked at me and said, “One of my jobs as pastor is to be a resource to you, to help you fulfill your vision.”
I could not believe what I was hearing. I had never had a pastor talk like that to me before. “Didn’t he hire me to help him?” Yes, your leaders are there to help you, but you are also there to help them.
The more you help grow your leaders the more they will help you. You help yourself when you help others. It’s a spiritual law.
“Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”
Start a meeting on a regular basis with your leaders, at least once a month. I like meeting with all my leaders at a local Starbuck’s for a brain storming session. I listen to their ideas. When someone shares a good idea I put it into action. It is really motivating to a leader when you take one of their ideas and run with it.
This is my favorite part of the ministry. I love to dream and create and I draw energy from the team. God has big plans for your ministry. Don’t try to do it all by yourself.
The best way to grow your ministry is to add leaders to your team.
If Jesus needed to ask people to join His team you will too. There are leaders in your church who want to serve; they just need to be asked.
3. Invest into your leaders.
The more you invest into your leaders the more you will get out of them. One of the best ways to invest into your leaders is to take them to a conference. Many people do their training on line today, but you can’t get that group experience on line. What are you waiting for?
Start building your team today!
