Reimagining ministry teams?

Teams matter.  We are made for community, even those of us who are introverts need others.  This is even more true in ministry and yet I often hear that ministry is lonely.  We need others around us to encourage us, stop us becoming prideful, help us see our weaknesses, and remind us of our strengths.  A team helps us balance our pessimism and optimism, our tendency towards either 'can do' positivity or 'can't do' negativity.  Bible Study, prayer, singing, weeping, grieving, rejoicing are all improved when shared with others.

If you are in a ministry team thank God for his goodness to you.  Yes, it brings its challenges but those challenges are preferable to the isolation of the lone pastor.  In the UK the average size of a church is small, which means most can only afford 1 full time member of staff.  In an ideal world elders would function as a team, and I'm grateful that in many cases I have seen they do.  However, often elders meetings are infrequent, monthly or less, because lay elders are busy at work and at home as well as leading in church.  Being a pastor can be a lonely place to be.

It is a privilege, absolutely.  To be set aside and paid to study the word of God and pray is an amazing privilege that I am immensely grateful for.  Yet I wonder if being a lone pastor creates a number of problems in ministry.  I wonder if the loneliness of the position magnifies inherent dangers in ministry; pride or lack of confidence, laziness or work-aholism, isolationism or exhibitionism.  I wonder if it leads us to pull up the draw bridge and not live a life that is open to or examined by anyone else.  I wonder if it reinforces a tendency to be oversensitive to criticism, overly introspective or develop a Messiah complex.

Not everyone is in a position to be able to have a staff team at Church.  God willing at Grace we are looking to build one as we look for 3 ministry trainees who will have a chance to be heavily involved in the life of the church with everything from admin to preaching, from teaching toddlers to pastoral care.  We're also looking for a part time outreach and communities worker.  Why?  Because we have way more opportunities for the gospel than we can effectively make use of at the moment.  Also because we see the need to train people up especially to work in non-student, non-city contexts.  But also because I recognise the need for a team to leaven out my weaknesses and lead in ways I cannot and because it will do me good.

But not everyone is in that position - let me say it is not because we are well off but because of the sacrificial financial commitment of a few individuals who see a need and want to invest in the kingdom.  But regardless of whether we are in a team or not we need to build connections and begin to think about teams and networks of ministers especially for those who minister alone in their churches.  I've been to a few monthly fraternal meetings and they were great as far as they go.  But I wonder if we ought to be pushing ourselves to go deeper.  Why not have a small group of pastors who meet weekly or fortnightly?  Why not mix up what you do depending on need?  Maybe you want to submit 2 or 3 pastoral or church polity questions before you gather to chat through and seek each others wisdom on - not to be controversial but so that you are thinking through issues before they come up in your setting?  Or maybe you want to help one another preach better and so you'll bring an outline for a few weeks time and work on it together?  Perhaps you'll just come and share where you feel burdened or are rejoicing in ministry at the moment?  Always we want to pray together.

Yes I know the problem is always the diary.  We are busy, busy, busy.  I get it, I really do.  But what if committing to this made everything else easier and less burdensome?  And for those of us in teams, what about inviting someone who isn't in that privileged position to come and share ours?  Not just to sit in and observe but to reshape it so they are fully included and benefit?

The cork in the bottle

Paid workers are valuable for churches but they also pose a potential danger, in that they can become the cork in the bottle that stops growth from happening. For example if a church is about 80 members one church worker has only limited time and is probably at the threshold of his ability to care for the churches members. And actually is probably spending the vast majority of his time maintaining ministries and caring for the people he has been given. There will be little time to stand back evaluate, pray and plan.

So what is the answer to that problem? Is it to take on an extra member of staff. Well it may be, except that having more staff increases peoples expectations, it may lead people to expect twice as many visits, rather than freeing up time to plan and pray strategically. It may create expectations of multiplied ministries rather than more focused ones.

I wonder if the answer isn't seen in Paul's model of ministry. He always has a young apprentice with him who he is training up to eventually send elsewhere but alongside that he looks for leaders from among the churches. So he tells Titus to appoint men from the church as elders, it is the same model he and Barnabas used when returning after their first missionary journey.

The answer to the problems growth brings may not be more paid staff, it may be more teams working within a congregation. Maybe a pastoral visitation team, or a youth team, or whatever else. These are then overseen by the elders. It also has the added benefit of drawing peopel in from the fringe to be part of these teams.

It has the great benefit that it is growing leaders from within the church and growing disciples as it works.