DOING CHURCH AS A TEAM

Last week, prior to the Large Church Team forums, Leadership Training
Network held a briefing for equipping church teams. For two days,
church teams shared their experiences and further explored the
philosophy, structure and leadership challenges of being an equipping
church. One of the resources for the briefing was Wayne Cordeiro,
senior pastor of the 6,500-member New Hope Christian Fellowship O'ahu
in Honolulu, Hawaii. Cordeiro and New Hope have become known for
their approach to leadership and ministry multiplication using the
fractal model to create and deploy teams.

According to Cordeiro, Ephesians 4 is not just a suggestion of an
equipping church but a mandate from God; pastors have a
responsibility to equip the people for ministry rather than do the
ministry. A key first step is to identify leaders already resident in
the church. Then, in order for them to reach their full maturity in
Christ, they must be involved; they must have an opportunity to be
released in ministry. New Hope uses a process called DESIGN to help
people discover their gifts, talents and areas of service. D is for
desire or passion; E for experience; S is for spiritual gifts; I is
for individual style or temperament; G is for growth in Christ; and,
N is for natural abilities.

Fractals are simply repeating patterns in organic matters. New Hope
uses a six-step process of developing new ministry teams:

STEP 1 is to draw a circle that will encompass the responsibilities
of the ministry.

STEP 2 is to divide the circle into four equal quadrants. In the
"crosshairs" of the circle, write the purpose, goal or objective of
the ministry.

STEP 3 involves identifying the four essential elements of the
ministry that describe its purpose. For example, New Hope's church
purpose is evangelism, education, equipping and extension.

STEP 4 is to determine what gift mix and talents are required for the
leader in each of the four areas.

STEP 5 is to identify leaders for each of the areas.

STEP 6 is to enlist them.

"A leader will always be measured by what others do because of what
he has done. When we talk about teams, it is not a buzzword or some
new thing. It doesn't start with a program but with the heart...the
goal is to equip others through which the Gospel will be proclaimed,"
says Cordeiro.