Church staff teams ought to be learning teams. Actually, every team should be a learning team. When we learn (and apply) together we growth together. A learning team is more likely to trust, collaborate and vision.
This past year, the staff team at Cool Spring Baptist Church learned together about volunteerism. We developed a more comprehensive understanding and strategy for serving. One of the results was the identification of first serve (volunteer) opportunities. Our goal was to make it easier for people to serve at Cool Spring.
This upcoming year, our team is going to learn together about congregational change and self-care. We’ve experienced a lot of growth the past couple of years and a lot of change to go along with that growth. More change is on the way. This past year, several of our ministers and support staff transitioned to new areas of responsibility while existing positions were realigned. I’m proud of how our team transitioned. As we continue to grow and change, we need to learn together about leading change well. Our goal is to work as a team through Jim Herrington’s book, Leading Through Congregational Change. Our goal is to understand and practice effective change strategies.
Change and growth can create significant personal and organizational stress. Stress by itself isn’t necessarily bad. Stress becomes negative when it moves to distress (beyond our stress capacity). Our team is committed and passionate about what God is doing in our community. As team leader, I want to make sure that each team member personally lives well through the changes. That’s why we’re going to do some work on self-care strategies and practices as we read together Wayne Cordeiro’s book, Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion. We serve most effectively from a full tank – it’s our no burnout policy.
Whether you’re on a church team, office team, sports team or community team, remember teams that learn together grow together. There is no such thing as an effective team that’s not a learning. A learning team is a more effective team – trusting, collaborating and visioning.
How will your team learn?
