This article is authored by my husband Rev Jon Sims. Jon is employed full-time as a project manager in the corporate world after working in churches for nearly 20 years. He leads teams, trains teams, and coaches teams for a living. And helps them stay organized. Among other things. Lol.
Leading teams within a local church context can be a daunting responsibility for new pastors and ministry leaders. Many individuals step into these roles without formal training in team leadership. Some groups—such as formal committees—may operate with defined roles, expectations, and established rhythms, often shaped by denominational structures or prior leadership. In these cases, new leaders inherit a framework they must learn and navigate. However, even well-established teams can lack a strong sense of spiritual purpose and momentum. More commonly, teams—particularly ad hoc groups or those formed around individual passion—function without clear guidelines, leaving leaders to define structure, direction, and purpose from the ground up.
How a new pastor engages with a team can significantly influence both the effectiveness of the ministry and its broader Kingdom impact. It is essential to prioritize building trust by actively listening and honoring the church’s history, while also providing clarity around vision and roles. Strong leaders empower others by delegating meaningful responsibilities (not just tasks), foster open and transparent communication, and remain committed to prayer and leadership development. These practices create a foundation for sustainable, healthy ministry growth.
Below are a few thoughts on each of these. These principles are also scalable for use at various levels of leadership — individuals, small task-oriented teams, admin committees, Sunday school or adult discipleship leaders, teams of leaders, and so on.
Building a Foundation and Vision
Listen First: Spend time getting to know people, their roles, and the church’s history. This is especially helpful to gain context into how things are done and the values the group holds. The more you understand the culture in which you minister, the more effective you will be as a leader.
Honor the Past: Respect previous leaders and traditions to build bridges and show you value the church’s journey. Celebrate past successes. Celebrate past heroes. These are the people and happenings that built what you now stand upon. Also, learn to honor the tough times in the past, for these have had a sharpening effect on the church’s identity (even though sometimes churches don’t realize that).
Cast Clear Vision: Regularly communicate the church’s larger mission, values, and future goals to keep everyone aligned and focused on the big picture. Not in a militant way, but in a ‘reminder’ way. If the church doesn’t have a clear ‘vision’, use the most recent version or begin articulating biblical imperatives of mission in light of their history.
Ways to build foundations:
Surveys of leaders and participants — gauging perceptions at various levels.
Meeting with leaders individually to hear their story of God’s work in their lives.
Ask, “How can I be the best leader for you?” Don’t underestimate the power of this question. It will give you an idea of the team’s developmental level (see Part 2) as well as indicate who is open to coaching, etc.
In every meeting start with a brief reminder of the church’s vision.
A note about surveys: If done right, surveys can be instrumental in gauging where a group of people are and provide momentum for change. If done poorly, surveys can cause undue complexity, setup unrealistic expectations, and even exacerbate angst within an anxious system. Spend time learning what makes a good survey! And prayerfully discern what to ask.
Empower Your People
Identify and Develop Leaders: Be opportunistic in finding and mentoring potential leaders for future growth. Begin praying for your future leaders now. Have some sort of qualifications in mind to help you discern who will make a good leader. Possible considerations…
Spiritually vibrant — Are they passionately pursuing Jesus? Are they regularly engaged in spiritual disciplines?
Emotionally healthy — Do they have a level-head when it comes to crisis or complexity? Do they respond well in difficult circumstances? Do they avoid gossip? Do they authentically own up to their mistakes?
Needed competence — Every role and/or task may need a specific set of gifts. Without thinking through what is needed, the tendency is to only look for those whose gifts mirror our own.
What other qualities would you recommend?
Delegate Ownership: Once you know a potential leader can deliver in small tasks, give them responsibility and ownership for larger things, working up to whole areas (e.g. acolytes, small groups, retreats). Don’t just keep them at the ‘task’ level.
Trust and Let Go: If someone can do a job 80% as well as you, delegate it to them. Focus on the big picture, and provide ‘heliotropic’ leadership — i.e. keep them focusing on the raison d’etre, undergirding the group’s ministry. When we pass on ministry ownership to a new leader, it is tempting to keep coaching at the task level. Change that! Remember the phrase:
“If you want someone to build a boat, teach them to fall in love with the ocean.”
Ways to empower your people:
Ask them to help. Err on the side of assuming everyone wants to help. Don’t wait for them to ask. Also remember: an announcement is NOT an invitation!
Clarify expectations to ensure they know what they are to do and how they can measure success.
Follow the EDGE method of training others:
E = explain.
D = demonstrate.
G = guide.
E = Empower.
Check-in regularly to see how they are doing and what they might need.
Foster Healthy Dynamics
Cultivate Trust: Be authentic, transparent, and consistent. Trust is earned slowly and lost quickly. Your character will speak much louder than your competence!
Encourage Open Conversation: Create spaces for honest feedback, discussion, and collaboration. Be careful how you address open conversation. In an unhealthy culture, open discussion often devolves into complaining or gossip or placing blame. Plan your questions to keep everyone on task and in a positive, helpful vein. And decide ahead of time how you will react when someone broaches unconstructive complaining or gossip.
Care for Your Team: Celebrate wins, manage meetings effectively, and show care for your team leaders, volunteers, and participants. Connecting with your leaders outside of your meeting rhythm or ministry purview can be an effective way to show you care.
Ways to foster healthy dynamics:
Have a ‘best practices’ time at leaders’ meetings — share what is working in their groups.
Ask, “How can we support each other as leaders?” This puts some of the responsibility on the community of leaders to build each other up — we are in this together!
Celebrate wins by asking, “How has God moved in your group recently?”
Brain Steering: ask for feedback on an idea you have and might want to try. Receiving initial feedback can help gauge where people are with that idea. ‘Testing the waters’ in this way also helps them realize it may not be a wholesale change — “Oh, he’s just experimenting! Whew.” Lol.
Lead Spiritually
Prioritize Prayer: Make prayer a central, consistent, part of team meetings and personal leadership. There is nothing wrong with opening a team meeting with prayer. Or closing in like manner. But there is something transformative and powerful when you dedicate a good deal of intentional prayer time.
Lead by Example: Model the faith, values, and commitment you want to see in your team. The spiritual tenor of the group is set by the spiritual tenor of its leader.
Ways to lead spiritually:
Write hand-written notes to your leaders/participants on a regular basis. Let them know you are praying for them. Praise them for how God is using them or what you see in them. (Hand-written notes go a long way to communicate care; don’t send an email — that’s the easy way out. Lol.)
Ask how you can pray for them. Then do it.
Don’t just have a prayer. Be prayerful! Maybe it’s a block of silent listening during the meeting. Or perhaps a time to share prayer concerns, then pray over each other. Or even take a whole meeting timeslot and surprise-meet in the chapel; then offer words of encouragement, short worship, and anoint your leaders as everyone prays over each other. (See for more ideas the book Leading with Prayer.)
Discussion
What would you add to this? What are some of your experiences in team leadership — good or bad? Which of the above do you find the most rewarding? The most challenging? Share in comments below.
In Part 2 we will explore Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model, which provides a helpful framework for engaging teams at their developmental level.