What Sucks the Life Out of Your Team?
For the past several weeks, I’ve been exploring the importance and nature of successful intergenerational teams. We’ve considered what it means to be entrusted with our people, a mentoring model we can incorporate, God’s design for intergenerational ministry, and the characteristics of a belonging culture. Now I want to look at one of the qualities of a thriving intergenerational ministry or leadership team: it must be life-giving. So, here’s a question: what sucks the life out of you? What is not life-giving? Take a minute and list some things that come to mind. Actually, write them down. One thing that sucks the life out of me is complainers. I…
Does Your Team Have a Belonging Culture?
Today I want to talk what it means to have a belonging culture on our intergenerational teams. In this series about intergenerational ministry, I’ve been addressing several characteristics of successful ministry teams. We talked about what it means to be entrusted with people, explored a model for building mentoring into our teams, and dove into some ideas around God’s design for intergenerational ministry. Let’s start with a minute of reflection this time. Consider these questions: Do you feel you belong on your team or on the teams you serve on? Do you believe your teammates belong? When I was growing up in the church, here’s how I thought belonging worked:…
Designing the Best Teams
One of my favorite models of intergenerational ministry is the relationship between the apostle Paul and his mentee Timothy as described in Paul’s letters to Timothy. As his Wise Guide, Paul continues mentoring Timothy as he pastors one of the world’s first mega-churches in Ephesus. In the community I serve, we often refer to “Leadership 412.” This refers to what Paul instructs Timothy to do in chapter 4, verse 12 of Paul’s first letter to him. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12, NIV) Paul…
