Article
How to Build a Team
When the Lord Jesus launched His public ministry on the outskirts of Galilee, it wasn’t long before He began recruiting others to His team, purpose, and mission.
You cannot plant a church alone.
I want to free you from the tyranny of any hero-mentality established in your heart, journals, or whiteboards. Brothers, messiahs are no longer needed. The church has one, and He is doing great. When planting a church, you need to build a team. Jesus doesn’t expect us to labor in the cruelty of isolation.
Jesus Builds Teams
When the Lord Jesus launched His public ministry on the outskirts of Galilee, it wasn’t long before He began recruiting others to His team, purpose, and mission. The constant call in the Gospels to follow Jesus also entails joining Jesus’s mission. “And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men’” (Mark 1:17). If there is anyone in all of human history who doesn’t really need a team, it’s Jesus of Nazareth, but that’s not how the kingdom of God works.
Jesus recruited the unlikely, trained the stubborn, discipled the difficult, and empowered the unimpressive. And He continues to do the same thing today—with you, me, and the people you’re going to invite to join Christ’s mission and plant a church. One way you embody godly, Christlike leadership is by building a team and inviting them into Christ’s mission. Call people to the compelling mission of Christ. Our whiteboard phrases can’t compare to the white pages and red letters that say, “Go and make disciples” and “You will be my witnesses.” And building a planting team happens in two stages.
1. Identify
In building a team, you begin by identifying the needs. You are not omnicompetent. You may be a solid preacher who is weak in planning. You may be a great evangelist who struggles with spreadsheets. There’s a reason the apostle Paul employs the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ. We need the various parts. We need one another.
A body that’s all preaching and prayer isn’t a body. Remember what happened in the first few months of the church in Jerusalem? The Lord ascends, Peter preaches, the Holy Spirit flexes, and thousands are saved—and then a system problem is revealed. An issue arose with the Greek widows being overlooked in the food distribution (Acts 6). The solution? The apostles realized they needed to grow the team. They identified that it was good for them to stay in their lane and empower others to oversee this needed ministry. A system was needed to serve the church well, and the apostles knew they weren’t the guys for the task. Humility is a key ingredient in building a team.
Here’s a starter list of the needs of a church plant:
- Preaching and Teaching
- Shepherding
- Evangelism
- Sunday set up, music, communion supplies
- Planning
- Organizing
- Finances
- Music
- Internal ministries (children, small groups, etc.)
- External missions to the community
Write down where you could invite others to serve and participate in meaningful ways. Once you identify the plant’s needs, holes, and opportunities, you can begin identifying the people who could join the team.
When the apostles wanted to build out the team in Acts 6, they wanted men who had a good reputation and were full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3). Make a list that identifies the competencies and character of people you think could join the team, and then begin to pray for God’s will and wisdom.
Take these two key questions: 1) How will we engage the city? 2) How will we make disciples? And now ask who will do this? Now you’re ready for this crucial next step.
2. Invite
Boldly invite people to join the mission.
Make the phone calls, buy the coffee, smoke the brisket, and cast the vision for the plant. When you call people to the mission, invite them to consider a specific role. “We want to see this community reached by Jesus, and I would love for you to join our team. It’s obvious how the Lord has gifted you for evangelism and discipleship, and He’s given you a heart for college students—will you help us reach and disciple these young men and women for Jesus?” Invite the accountant to help manage the finances. Invite the assistant manager to run the evangelism team. Invite people to engage the city, make disciples, and plant the church with you. Don’t confuse this with passing out positions and titles. Invite them to the team and a task, not a title.
Consider how Paul put these principles to work. On his second missionary journey, he went to Derbe and Lystra (modern-day Turkey) and met a young man named Timothy. In Acts 16:2–3, we see that “Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium”—identified—“so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey”—invited. The rest is our history.
As much as we like to think of Paul as a solo planter and preacher, it’s just not true. Paul had a team. Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas out together (Acts 13:2–3). John Mark joined the team but, for reasons unknown to us, left the team (Acts 13:13). It happens. Paul and Barnabas eventually split over whether or not to put John Mark back on the team (Acts 15:38–39). Barnabas and John Mark went one way, and Paul added Silas to his team and went another way (Acts 15:40). This happens, too. Some teams aren’t forever. Don’t let this deter you from the mission to plant the church, make disciples, exalt Jesus, and enjoy him together.
It’s clear in Acts 16 that everyone on this team owned the gospel mission. When Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man crying out for help, the team concluded that the mission wasn’t just Paul’s. Luke wrote, “After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10, emphasis mine). They heard Paul’s vision and said, “Let’s go.”
The best teams share the burden, ownership, and excitement for the mission. Invite people to the mission, not you. Invite people to carry the fire in their hearts, not simply obligations on their calendars. Invite people to support the work of the kingdom, not just to support you.
Coworkers
There is one final principle I want to leave with you on team building.
Paul didn’t view teammates as subordinates—they were his coworkers. “Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 16:3). Paul refers to Mark (yes, that same John Mark), Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke as his coworkers (Philem. 24). He tells the Corinthians that Titus is his partner and coworker in ministry for them (2 Cor. 8:23). The Philippian Christians are told about “Epaphroditus—my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier” (Phil. 2:25). When people join the team, remember this isn’t your team. Yes, you are the leader, the planting pastor, but you are not the owner. Your blood wasn’t shed. A coworking mentality honors your team, corrects any messiah complexes, and prepares you for the plurality of elders you are laboring toward.
The Son of God invites us to be His coworkers in God’s global enterprise called the church (1 Cor. 3:9; 1 Thess. 3:2). Jesus honors us by calling us His coworkers. Do the same for the team you are identifying and inviting.
Our Lord began His church with a team. Twelve apostles and a band of other men and women assembled by Jesus to spread the good news of Christ’s dying and rising from the dead and the eternal implications of his conquest. The strategy hasn’t changed. Build a team, brothers.
