Summing Up Teams in 7 Years...

Every day when I pick up my Banshees from school, they know I'm going to ask, "So what did you learn today?" It's a fair enough question many of you are asking me upon completion of my dissertation. I hope to greatly expand my answer through a series of articles and a book in the coming year, but for now, let me simply post my "abstract" that sums up seven years of labor in 350 words or less:

What I learned in seminary today...

What is a pastoral team and how do you lead it? What differences, if any, are there between teams and team work? What are the practices that pastors need to learn to be effective at leading a pastoral team? These were the questions that led to this research project.

The purpose of this study was to explore how pastoral staff members utilizing a team approach describe effective leadership practices within a team. Many pastors have some exposure to leadership training, but they do not understand how teams are built on different relational dynamics that require them to adjust their leadership approach. This study sought to explore those dynamics in general, and then focused on three best leadership practices: common team vision, team accountability, and a common team culture.

This study used an interpretive comparative qualitative case study method that focused on two different well-regarded pastoral teams. Each team consisted of five teaching elders ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America. Each team member was interviewed using a semi-structured approach. A focus group was held at each team’s home church following the interviews. The literature review and analysis of interviews centered on issues such as essential team dynamics, leadership concepts and principles, and the best practices to bring them together fruitfully.

The findings of this study showed a need for team leaders to have a clear understanding of the essential relational dynamics of teams, the irreducible complexity of those dynamics, and their biblical foundation from ecclesiology, trinitarian theology, and pneumatology.

The study concluded with the best practices recommended for effective leadership in three of the essential relational dynamics of teams: vision building, accountability, and creating and nurturing a common team culture. It suggested that teams may be the most comprehensive and in-depth expression of what the church should look like in practice as it pursues its God-given mission by the power of the Spirit.

What does all that academic speak mean for WPC?

That will take more than a blog post to explain! We have been growing our teams for a couple years and have made a good start. But we have some learning and adjusting to do if members of those teams are to really experience the joy and power of being changed together as you labor together for the glory of Christ. I hope to explain that more in some coming articles that I will post here from time to time.