How to Build a Healthy Parish Leadership Team 

What’s a leadership team, and why do you need one?

When I started coaching in parishes seven years ago, I decided I wouldn't coach anyone unless they were willing to work out of a team.

Why?

I don't have enough confidence in any one person other than Jesus himself. And even He, I would argue, had Peter, James and John, who he invested in disproportionately.

Jesus also said, “when I send the Holy Spirit, you'll be able to do even greater things than I did.” I truly believe a team plays an instrumental part in that.

Our discernment is more robust when we share the weight of leadership with people aligned on vision and willing to have the conversations necessary to lead effectively!

And the reality is, your most competent people are the least likely to seek you out! They know how busy you are, and they take that into account, and they don't want to bother you.

When this happens, it often results in leaders spending the least amount of their time with the people who could have the biggest impact. And who do they spend the most time with? The least competent people (who also tend to complain the most).

That's a terrible strategy for Parish renewal.

If we spend all that time trying to live up to everybody else's expectations of us, we'll likely have very little time for the important things and people. We need to prioritize and understand who God has placed around us and then disproportionately invest in those who can have the most significant impact!

I genuinely believe that you, as the pastor, need a team around you that brings out the best in you. These are the people that will help carry the weight and responsibility of the work and remind you of the greater mission on the days when you forget.

At its core, I believe an effective leadership team acts as a decision-making machine. As a group united in your vision of success, you can have difficult conversations with one another; you can be vulnerable and own the areas you’re responsible for.

Where you are now and where you're going to be in five years directly relates to the quality of the decisions you make between now and then. The better your decisions are, the more likely you are to accomplish a vision that will inspire and make a difference.

When you bring high-capacity people around you who align in their heart and vision to transform the church, you begin making better decisions and seeing more significant results and impact!

“If you want to go fast, go by yourself; if you want to go far, go as a team.”

When we lead out of a team, rather than doing everything on our own, we tend to be much more successful in the long run!

If you're leading from only your own perspective, there are often gaps that you don’t realize. No matter how much education you have or how wise you think you are, collective wisdom will trump individual pursuit every time.

If you want to be successful, you need people around you who are better than you. And by better than you, I mean they have different strengths than you do! They'll bring out different things in you and help you expand your perspective.

How do you identify the right people for your team?

So you’ve realized the importance of having a leadership team. Awesome! But what does it look like to start that process?

How do you identify and build that team and ensure that it's effective?

Building a parish leadership team can be daunting for many pastors. There are many reasons this is the case, a big one being: It can be hard to ask!

You think, “I don't want to ask these people – they're busy; they have families; they have other jobs.”

In reality, your people likely love you as their pastor, respect your priesthood, and love God and the church! They would lay their life down to serve with you and help impact the mission if given a chance.

I often recommend leaders complete APEST and Strength Finders to understand who they are as a leader and the people they might need around them. You can even get the people you're inviting on your team to go through these, which may help you further discern who would most complement your own strengths!

Identify the people who will bring out the best in you based on your strengths.

As you continue asking, “what else do we need?” you begin to put the pieces into place as you identify highly competent leaders.

When considering who to bring on the team, a great reference is “F.A.C.T.”

• Are they faithful?
  
  
• Are they available?
  
  
• Are they contagious?
  
  
• Are they teachable?

1. Are they faithful?

Are they passionate about Jesus and faithful to the teachings of the church? Are they aligned on vision and feel called to build the mission in a leadership capacity?

2. Are they available?

You can't lead at a high-capacity level with people that you can't count on. Do they do what they say they're going to do? That's incredibly important.

3. Are they contagious?

You might know the smartest, most committed church member and feel they’d have so much to offer. While this may be true, there must also be a relational capacity with others. If they can’t connect with other people, they don't respect you, then you're not going to have the level of influence that is required to lead at that.

4. Are they teachable?

Teachability is mutual respect. You may disagree and debate from time to time, but at the end of the day, if their idea isn’t the winner, do they have the humility to embrace that? It takes a level of humility and a willingness to work together.

If you’re just starting down this road of building your parish’s team, this is a great tool to help you identify the people whose strengths are complementary to yours.

But beyond that, you’re able to identify people you genuinely enjoy spending time with and have chemistry with. This frees you up to spend more time on mission rather than managing relationships starting from a place of brokenness or lack of united vision!

How do you know your leadership team isn’t working?

Leadership often starts with a sense of opportunity, possibility, and hope. But if you lead for any length of time, you’ll realize that sometimes you run into periods where you get stuck.

This is perfectly normal and does not inherently mean that you have the wrong people around you. You may just need to adjust your approach or call your core team back to the greater mission!

But maybe you find your team is repeatedly getting stuck. People are shutting down and not fully showing up the way they once did. Perhaps you’ve seen a shift in their body language or noticed their output and excitement declining.

One of the most prominent signs is that you can't have honest conversations anymore, or maybe outside meetings have started happening separately from the team meetings because the level of honesty and rigor has gone down.

That's how you know it's not working. And you need to deal with those problems sooner rather than later.

This isn’t something that will happen overnight.

When you have the wrong person, you don’t typically just wake up one morning and go, “oh, that's the wrong person!” You see signs of it over time. And you have an opportunity to check in with them.

It might be something as simple as, “Hey, I notice in meetings that you're a little edgier than you normally would be. Are you okay?”

Ask the question. Don't let it sit for three months and then ask the question because sometimes the damage is already done. So notice those things quickly! Having this conversation helps you get a better perspective of where they’re coming from and to learn how you may be able to support them better!

You may find a solution immediately and be better for it. But you also may realize through these honest conversations that a change is needed.

If your goal is impact, competency and fruitfulness, the reality is there will be times when people tap out in terms of their ability in certain areas.

This is both normal and okay, and it includes you as the leader! You have to continue evolving, learning, growing, and drawing yourself back to the core mission that you’ve been called to.

Advice for someone being asked to join a leadership team

One of the things I see time and time again, and I find it so beautiful, is that when someone is asked to join a leadership team, they often don't feel worthy.

“I could never do that. I'm not that person. There’s someone better than me!” I just love that humility.

Some people feel entitled to be in specific roles, and that's a red flag! You should be willing to play whatever role you're invited to for God's glory and the impact of others!

Leadership teams aren’t just support or a sounding board for the pastor; they’re actually sharing the pastor's leadership.

A leadership team for a pastor is sharing your chariot with the people that God has placed around you and who possibly have even more capacity than you do for influence and wisdom. It's surrounding yourself with people even better than you!

So if your pastor is asking you to join their leadership team, it's because he believes that you will make him better. He believes that you can have an impact in your Parish that will glorify God and reach others!

If you're being asked, don't say no! Give it a try. For six months or a year, and then re-evaluate. I guarantee your faith and understanding of the church will be transformed! You don't have to be ordained to make a significant difference in the world.

See who God has placed around you!

Time and time again, I’ve watched pastors realize the value of leading alongside a team. Once they see it, none of them go back because leading out of a team helps them make decisions that are way better than they ever made alone!

It also forms friendships that become like family in ways that are so life-giving and beautiful. Leadership starts to feel less stressful and isolating, and we can share the responsibility and burden with others who are grateful for the opportunity to take it on. It's not a burden for them. They want to be beside you!

I pray you'll consider leading out of a team.

And if it’s fear that’s holding you back, I hope you’ll confront that fear. Invite the Holy Spirit into it, and be honest with yourself.

And I also pray that God will put people you can lead with and trust in your life.

When you have that sense of identity as a church, and you’re working together to free people up to thrive in their calling, you will begin having a greater impact and seeing results you didn’t believe were possible!

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This episode was adapted from an audio transcript from Episode 84 of the Ron Huntley Leadership Podcast, 'How To: Building Your Leadership Team’

Watch the full conversation on YouTube: How To: Building Your Leadership Team | Ron Huntley Leadership Podcast #84