Churchteams

I remember hearing in seminary that you could tell by the copyright dates on the shelves of your library when you quit learning. I don’t know whether that’s completely accurate, but I do know this…once you quit learning, you might as well throw in the towel.

Google, the multinational corporation specializing in information worth billions of dollars, understands something every church should understand:  circles.  Google’s social media arm called Google+ has a unique approach to social networking allowing users to group all of their contacts in “circles”.  With Google+ you can organize your relationships by creating any kind of “circle” you want: immediate family, cousins, work friends, co-workers, sci-fi lovers, BBQ fanatics, football junkies, New Mexicans, college friends, neighbors, fishing buddies, etc.  The list is as limitless as your imagination. What does this have to do with church?  It’s all about how we think about organizing people.

I read a great article today by Nancy Ortberg about how to avoid the 5 most common dysfunctions of a ministry team. She takes the principles from Patrick Lencioni‘s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and applies them to ministry work. It’s a great, practical read for church leaders.

None of my regular weekly activities as a pastor are what make me most useful for Christ and His church. There are actually THREE things that are more important than anything else in my ministry…

Good leadership is hard.  So many days I get it wrong more than I get it right.  Lately I have been wrestling with my ability to empower others and help them grow in their leadership.  Because I am still a young leader, sometimes I hoard the leadership responsibilities for a variety of reasons rather than building into and encouraging others.  Here is one of my journal ramblings on the subject...