Ministry Teams at First Baptist
How They Work
Kinds of Teams
• Ministry Teams: Carry out a
concerted ministry of the church.
• Service Teams: Their work is
periodic, easily rotated, or requires
little planning time.
• Teaching Teams: The people who
lead Sunday Morning Bible Study
classes – Teacher, Outreach
Leader, Fellowship Leader, Prayer
Leader, & Care Group Leaders
• Members can be members of
one Ministry Team and one
Service Team. Teaching Teams
do not count against either.
Team Task Directives
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Scope of Ministry
Up to Four Basic Objectives
General Responsibilities
Indicators of Success
How Teams are Formed
• Team Leaders selected by
Pastor & Deacon Leader by
March 31.
• Team Leaders select team
members in consultation with
pastor.
• Team Leaders enlist members
by May 31.
• 3 to 5 Members – exact number
determined by the Team Leader.
• Terms are One Year –
Renewable, but not automatic.
Learning, Planning, Reporting
• Each team forms its own action plans –
within the scope of their ministries.
• Teams will regularly meet to evaluate the
effectiveness of their work and to
measure progress.
• Teams shall report their progress to the
church.
• Each team is expected to seek training
and to continually hone their skills.
Teams & Others
• Teams may involve others from the
church body in their ministry.
• Teams co-labor with the ministerial
staff.
– Staff members may be assigned as
team leaders or assigned to teams as
resources persons, liaisons, &
equippers.
• When a team’s responsibility overlaps with another team, they are to
communicate and cooperate.
Teams are Needed…
At the three-way corner of:
• Need
Acts 11:19-20
• Opportunity
Acts 11:20
• The Moving of God Acts 11:21
When God is moving and you get
there, things can reach critical
mass!
Acts 11:23-24
Teams Are…
• Collaborative
– They co-labor
– Every team member is involved in the
planning and in doing the work.
• Creative
– Teams don’t just blindly follow
someone else’s plan out of the box
(even the denominational box); they
find the best way to get the job done.
Teams Are…
• Causative
– Teams cause things to happen and get
things done.
– They take the initiative.
• Cooperative
– Teams communicate with and
compliment other teams and
ministries.
Teams Are…
• Contemplative
– Teams honestly consider where we
really are.
– Teams pray and seek God’s
leadership about where we need to
go.
– Teams are the leading learners in their
area, the church experts in their
ministry.
Team Vision
• True vision comes down from God; it is
not worked up or arrived at by consensus.
• Vision is the unique role of your team – its
special niche in Christian service.
• Vision is not just what we do, but how we
do it.
• Vision is what the team members rally
around.
• The team’s vision must be in complete
harmony with the church vision.
Biblical Insight
“The ministry which I
received from the Lord
Jesus” – Paul, Acts 20:24
Bear Bryant on Working
Collaboratively
• Another rule I believe in: I don’t have
any ideas, my coaches have them. I
just pass the ideas on and referee
the arguments.
• I don’t want ideas just thrown out, I
want them thought out.
Bear: The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama’s
Coach Bryant, Paul W. Bryant & Paul Underwood,
Bantom Books, 1974. Pages 341-343
Shug Jordan on Recruiting
• Questioner: Coach, would you
rather have the player who gets
knocked down and then gets up to
make the play? Or would you rather
have the player who gets knocked
down twice and gets up again to
make the play?
• Shug: I want the guy who keeps
knocking all those players down.
Bear Bryant’s Rules
for Success
• One, surround yourself with people
who can’t live without football [have
great passion for the ministry].
• Two, be able to recognize winners.
They come in all forms.
• Three, have a plan for everything.
Bear: The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama’s
Coach Bryant, Paul W. Bryant & Paul Underwood,
Bantom Books, 1974. Page 339
Creating Synergy
• Blend idea people with doers –All
dreamers and no doers makes for
great meetings and no results.
• Don’t pick people just like yourself –
it will be more comfortable, but will
not provide the full array of the skills
needed.
• Staff to your weaknesses
Blend Complementary Skills
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Creators – Dream things up
Organizers – Plan things out
Pluggers – See things through
Promoters – Talk things up
Managers – Keep things flowing
Analyzers – Figure things out
Inspectors – Check things out
Peacemakers – Work things out
Blend Complementary Skills
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Mobilizers – Bring folks in
Relaters – Love on folks
Servers – Help folks out
Motivators – Spur folks on
Discerners – See through things
Specializers – Can do things
Team Leaders – Make things
happen
Bear Bryant on Staff Selection
• Don’t make them in your image.
Don’t even try… You don’t strive for
sameness. You strive for balance…
You want different personalities
around.
Bear: The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama’s
Coach Bryant, Paul W. Bryant & Paul Underwood,
Bantom Books, 1974. Page 102
Biblical Insight
“One of those days Jesus
went out to a mountainside
to pray, and spent the night
praying to God. When
morning came, he called
his disciples to him and
chose twelve of them,
whom he also designated
apostles” – Luke 6:12-13 (NIV)
Discerning Potential
• A Willingness to Follow –
This reveals their attitude.
• A Willingness to Sacrifice –
This reveals their perspective
on life.
• A Willingness to Learn – This
reveals the condition of their
ego.
• A Willingness to Serve – This
reveals their heart.
• A Willingness to be Honest –
This reveals their maturity.
Dan Reiland, The Pastor’s Coach,
October 2002,
www.injoy.com/thepastorscoach
“Once I started getting the
right people involved,
everything started
to click.”
- A pastor whose church uses
ministry teams
Enlisting Your Team
• Tell each person why he or she was
chosen for the team.
• Talk about needs, not programs.
• Give the person a copy of the Team
Task Directive. Go over it and
explain it.
• Give the person time to pray it over
and the right to say no.
• Set a date certain when you will recontact the person for an answer.
Teams are Learning or Dying
• A team should be the “church
experts” in their area of ministry.
• People with a passion for their
ministry are always anxious to get
new ideas about how to do it better.
• We live in a society of such rapid
change that regular training is
essential.
• Our most anointed service is on the
cutting edges of our own growth.
Teams Know Their Boundaries
• Each team has a Team Task
Directive.
• Be aware of the other teams’ scope
of ministry.
• Plan and do your team’s job and not
another team’s.
• When roles overlap, communicate
with the other team and co-labor.
Teams Communicate
• Teams communicate with each other.
• Teams communicate with the church.
– They make reports at church conference.
– They put news in the mail-outs.
– They put up bulletin up boards.
• Teams communicate with the ministerial
staff.
– To seek input.
– To learn about new resources.
– To keep the staff members informed.
Evaluating Your Team Service
• Am I in Fellowship? – with Jesus
• Am I being Faithful? – in my place of
service
• Am I being Fruitful? – Am I seeing
“grace results”?
• Am I being Fulfilled? – or is it time for
a change in my place of service?
• Members should answer these questions
toward the end of each year of service
and then indicate whether they wish to
continue with the team.
Four Keys to Teams
• Teams need leaders who will lead…
starting the ball rolling and keeping things
going.
• Working collaboratively is different…
 Different than hierarchical structure or the lone
wolf structure. Collaboration means every
member helps make the plans.
 Collaboration involves every member having a
clearly defined piece of the work.
• Teams MUST have REGULAR meetings!
• Success depends on enlisting the right
team members. Since teams have
freedom, they need people who take
initiative… the system won’t carry them.