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Team building helps establish a successful small church ministry team. Check out these ideas to learn what you can do to impact your ministry team and volunteers positively. These ideas are strategic to help you build and develop your team. Use these tools to improve your communication, team culture, and unity.
In his book, John Maxwell writes, “Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.”
A strong ministry team has a solid foundation. In addition to the foundation, it is necessary to regularly offer team-building activities outside ministry responsibilities for your team to interact casually to build and develop relationships among your team members.
These two factors, strategies to build a strong foundation and team-building activities, work hand in hand to build a solid foundation and keep your team strong and effective. Just because several people work together for a common cause doesn’t mean they feel they are part of a team.
Build A Strong Ministry Team
Whether your small church ministry team has two members or ten, or more, having a strong team is a must for effective ministry. You want your team to work well together and serve your congregation, men, women, children, or youth well.
When we hear the phrase, team building, something comes to mind. We may think of job training, team retreats, team games, or uncomfortable trust exercises. While those are efforts to build a team, we should shift our focus from the “what” to the “why.”
When we understand the possible results, we begin to truly value the steps and activities needed to build a strong team that functions as a whole in purpose, unity, and vision.
Characteristics Of A Successful Church Ministry Team
Think about the characteristics of a strong team.
- Trust
- Understand the vision
- Loyalty and dedication
- Strong leadership
- Good communication
- Minimized conflicts, good conflict resolution
- Team culture/mindset
- Active volunteer participation
As you build your team, the above characteristics develop within your team culture. While team-building activities and strategies are just a piece of the big picture for a strong team, they are vital pieces.
Do These Strategies To Build Your Team
It is vital to your team building to implement strategies to build and protect your team. These strategies are part of your foundation and are equally important to doing fun parties and outside activities. These strategies work to build the solid foundation your team needs.
1. Learn Something Together
Extended learning, professional development, and skills development classes, conferences, and workshops help develop cohesiveness within your group. Everyone who attends is learning together for a common cause to improve what you do in your ministry.
2. Evaluate Together
Evaluating after an event in a group setting is a great team-building activity. In doing an evaluation together you are solidifying the team concept. Value everyone’s feedback, and work together for the common cause of doing it better next time. What went well? What is one thing we could improve for next time? Did you feel set up for success? What is something you noticed that maybe nobody else saw? How could we do things differently next time? For more on evaluation and event feedback, check out this post, How To Get Honest Volunteer Feedback.
3. Use Icebreakers As A Valuable Tool
Use icebreakers at the beginning of meetings, parties, or events. Icebreakers are an underestimated team-building tool. So often, we can think of icebreaker questions as trivial. On the contrary, they engage team members with each other, help members discover commonalities, and lay the foundation for trust as participants give a small tidbit of self-disclosure.
4. Discuss Core Values
Have short discussions about team core values such as honesty, being a team player, valuing each other, respecting others’ property, and respecting the timeline of practices, sessions, meetings, and events. These topics all speak to protecting your team. Understanding core values is a vital component of team building.
5. Develop An Overall Team Culture
Refer to tasks with a team mindset. Substitute “I” with “we.” Instead of, “They asked the men’s ministry to …” say, “They asked our team to …”
When a need to pivot arises, rally your team to adjust and get the job done. Sometimes the need to pivot or adjust plans happens because of weather, unanticipated circumstances, or personal emergencies. If the needed change is because of one person, throwing shade or blame sows seed to tear down the team, not build it up. Resist the urge to dwell on the “why we need to change our schedule or plan.” Instead, encourage your team, “This is what we need to do. I know we can do this because we have a great team! I have confidence we can do this!”
Why Ministries Should Do Team Building Activities
A strong ministry team achieves more than hosting great events. Your team members can:
- Have a renewed energy for your ministry
- Enjoy being part of what you do
- Disciple one another
- Be motivated to look for ways to do things better
- Build relationships that last
- Participate more because they feel they are a valued part of the team
You establish and strengthen team culture as you get to know each other and develop friendships. Team building reinforces the concept that everyone has a part to play and that everyone’s contribution is important and valued. Developing this mindset in a casual environment of activities and low-key events strengthens your ministry team. Building a team takes planning and strategy. Incorporate these fun and casual events into your team schedule quarterly.
Top Team Building Activities For Small Churches
Team building is a great use of your time and should be embraced as part of your regular ministry schedule. The increased creativity, excitement, and
The purpose of these activities is to develop and build friendships. These are moments to spend time with fellow team members without pressure or focus on completing ministry tasks. As individuals participate in these activities, they feel and understand they are a meaningful part of the team.
Build Your Team During These Activities
Taco Night
Substitute a Taco Night or other potluck meal for a regularly scheduled meeting or practice.
Team Worship Night
Set aside the first Monday evening in February and October to gather together for some praise and worship. Have a time of music, then finish the night praying for anyone on your team who has a prayer request. Check out the idea here>> 3 Small Church New Year’s Events
Game Night
Gather together for an evening of board games. Everyone brings an appetizer-type snack.
Group Activity
Go hiking, go to a golf driving range, sign up for a group painting class, gather together for a cooking class, or bring lawn games and picnic at the park.
Jingle Bell Scavenger Hunt
Set this up for the week before Christmas. Find more details here >> 5 Fun All-Church Family Christmas Events.
Attend A Local Sporting Event
Plan this event well in advance, so everyone has time to mark the date on their calendars.
Host A Team Appreciation Dinner
Set aside a meeting time or practice to have a Team Appreciation Dinner.
Share a meal. Do a printable trivia sheet. Take a moment to appreciate your team. Mention each team member by name and tell one thing you appreciate about them.
Progressive Dinner
A progressive dinner is a win for all ministries. 10 Holiday Events To Spice Up Your Women’s Ministry gives the basic idea to start.
Take Advantage Of Local Offerings
Rent a pontoon boat, hit up an amusement park, tour a chocolate factory, and then go out for dinner.
The goal of team building events and activities is that EVERYONE participates and builds relationships with fellow team members. Consider activities that are beneficial to building your team. Choose activities that everyone on your team can join in. If lack of finances may be an issue, opt for a Taco Night or Worship Night. If you have someone with mobility issues or allergies, keep that in mind when planning.
Avoid highly competitive activities and those that ask for too much self-disclosure. These types of activities can cause backfire and work against building positive relationships and trust. Never pressure anyone to share more than they are comfortable with. Some people need more time than others to trust their team with personal information.
A word of caution. Team-building retreats are pretty popular. These retreats offer a weekend away for fun and activities to get to know fellow volunteers and begin to build relationships. However, if you ONLY have a retreat once a year and there is no follow-up, any beginning formation of team culture is quickly lost once everyone gets back to their weekly ministry tasks.
Start Building A Stronger Team This Month
A team culture doesn’t happen overnight. It comes over time as relationships develop through working together and having fun together. To truly create and build a team culture and a strong ministry team, incorporate the following strategies into your ministry times AND plan team-building activities to enjoy having fun together.
Build a stronger team for your ministry. First, incorporate one of the strategies into your ministry times this month. Then, set a date within the next four months for a team-building activity to have fun. As you do these things, watch the culture of your team change. Remember, whether you have 2 or 10 on your team, be intentional to build your team. It is worth the effort.
Read More:
7 Ways To Build Community On Your Worship Team
