Good to Grow: I love team!

If you are around me for any length of time there are recurrent topics I will speak about in reference to leading a church. Team building has to be a major one of these. It’s not going to be surprising then to find that it is a topic that appears in the book Good to Grow...

‘It would be my observation that too many leaders set up their leadership teams so that their own abilities appear to be head and shoulders above those of the team they lead. This can give a false impression that they are extremely good leaders. I believe one of the true tests of great leadership is the stature of the men and women around the primary leader. I am surrounded by men and women of great gifting and capacity, each in their own area of expertise far more gifted than I am. I would have it no other way. As I have said before, ‘staff your weaknesses’ – and this also explains why we have such a large staff team at King’s: I have a multiplicity of weaknesses!’


‘I have since learned, through the input of Brian Watts, who pastors a church in Battersea and who is also an excellent coach in team work, that how the team members relate to each other and work together reflects how the church does the same. A look at the former will tend to give you a clear reading of the latter, especially when it comes to ‘church temperature’. Signals from the team mirror what’s happening in the church. This gives useful information to help you pastor people through change.’


‘To grow a large church, you need strength in depth. It also requires the team leader to be secure enough to cope with having many gifted people on his team, not to be threatened by their abilities but to recognize his key role in leading, enabling and supporting such a team to achieve their best.’