[Initiative] Leadership Team

Initiative

In Faith Stepping Out In Vision

Letter #1 Leadership Team

As a part of the work of the Vital Churches Institute in support of the Acts 16:5 Initiative to you and the congregation you serve, I will be sending you an “Initiative” letter periodically. These letters are designed both to bring further depth to the material offered in the Acts 16:5 Seminars and to offer additional insights and resources.

One of the questions I hear about a congregation’s adventure with the Acts 16:5 Initiative has to do with the nature of the congregation’s Acts 16:5 Leadership Team – what are its primary functions, who should be on the team and what size it should be.

Leadership Team Functions

As a practicing pastor, I know there are a number of issues that may neutralize the size of my dreams and what I can actually accomplish.

The urgency of present demand. For example, in the last week, I dealt with a “walk in” couple in marital crisis, a lady who is upset with the flowers planted around the church, a special team that is reviewing the flow of our 11:00 service, and so on. I could come in every day and with no plan in mind, stay busy just reacting to what comes at me. This is typical for pastors, indeed typical for most people in our culture.
The anxiety that new vision may produce.
Fatigue. If you are exhausted, it is a challenge to think about new transformational ministry.
The need for imaginative ideas that will create new interest and excitement while affirming current ministries and members.

I have learned that it really helps me to be supported and stimulated by a few others who are people of imagination, initiative, and loyalty (to me and to the Session/congregation). Their primary role is to function as a kind of backboard with whom I can bounce ideas and chew over problems and as a team to join me in actual leadership. Their essential role is to ask questions such as “why not” and “what if” and to both encourage me and work with me in moving vision into reality.

Ministry is ten percent technical (what to do: vision) and ninety percent tactical (how do we do it in order to keep people with us – whatever “it” is). The Acts 16:5 Leadership Team spends a lot of time chewing over the tactical issues so that we (pastor, Session, others) lead winsomely and effectively.

Team Member Qualities

· Seek people for the team who have a heart for our Lord, who will genuinely pray that God’s vision for the congregation will unfold and for the discipleship and well being of those on the team and in the congregation and community.

· Seek people of optimistic spirit whose counsel and judgment you respect, whom you trust, who are committed to you, personally, and who are respected in the life of the congregation.

· Seek people with a passion for the transformational future church and the missional impact of the church to the community, who are imaginative, high initiative people and are team players.

Consider three sources of team members:

1. Elders with an excellent relationship with the pastor and the Session.

2. Staff members. If the staff is small, all staff members may be a part of the team. If the staff is large, the pastor may pursue a variety options. The staff itself can be the Acts 16:5 Leadership Team. A few key congregational leaders may be added to the mix. The team may be comprised of the pastor, a couple of staff members, and the rest from the Session and congregation. The key is a mix of up to six to eight people who have true imagination and initiative.

3. At-large members of the congregation who support the pastor and Session and who will bring enthusiasm, imagination, and good will.

Size of the Team

The team’s role is to wrestle with vision, problems, challenges, and leadership issues with the pastor. For the level of interaction, confidentiality, mutual support, and follow through needed, the team needs to be smaller rather than larger. Eight members would be a normal maximum – and it would be much better to have a team of four who share passion, imagination, and goodwill than to have eight just to “fill slots.”

There will be times in your planning and reflection that the Acts 16:5 Leadership Team will work with many people and groups to lead them in planning and reflection. Whether such groups are the Session, Deacons, existing committees and teams or other groups of people, the 16:5 Team will always seek to show honor to present and past ministries while new vision, ideas, challenges, and possibilities are explored and enacted.

With joy – Stan

I have just read Paul D. Borden’s Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim Congregations at the Mission Field. It is an outstanding discussion of transformation for the judicatory and the congregation.