“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him”. John 13: 3-5
In this familiar passage above, we see Jesus model a significant and transformational act of servant leadership. The act of washing his disciples’ feet, and through this challenging them to roll up their sleeves and humbly serve others, has been preached on millions of time, demonstrated and dramatised in countless services, Sunday school classes and team away-days and has shaped our understanding of what true leadership looks like for the past 200 years.
I’ve read this passage on numerous occasions, but it was only last month when reading it again with the Lectio 365 app, that I noticed the significance of verse 3.
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God”
Jesus’ ‘action’ directly follows and results from his understanding and confidence of who he is, where he came from and what he is called to do. The gospel writer makes a point of emphasising this.
Could it be that if Jesus didn’t possess this clarity of identity, calling and value, he wouldn’t have been able to do the things he did? Would his impact have been hindered or diminished?
This is obviously a hypothetical question when considering the ministry of Christ, but it is decidedly less hypothetical when considering the ministry of church workers – administrative and otherwise in employment today.
UCAN regularly helps churches assess their organisational health and operational effectiveness through reviews and consultancy work. We’ve noticed an all-too-common reflection, which is becoming endemic in church life. Feelings of uncertainty, ineffectiveness and being ‘stuck’ due to a lack of clarity surrounding roles, responsibilities and the value of individual posts (and indeed the post holders).
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God”
What would your church team look like, if everyone served out of this sort of clarity. Clarity in who they are, what they’re called to do and the value it will add to the whole. Perhaps this clarity enables us to confidently and competently embrace the tasks God has for us? What treasure does God have in store for his church, when we roll up our sleeves and work in this way?
Sounds good in practice, right? But what can be done to make this a reality?
Here are a few practical pointers.
Start with (or reintroduce) clear role descriptions. Our template job descriptions can be downloaded here and provide a good starting point to ensure our written recruitment documentation is clear about the desired and intended purpose of a role, the tasks which need to be completed and the responsibilities of the post. Whether you are recruiting or not, perhaps it is a good time to review and update your teams’ job descriptions?
Use your annual appraisal process consistently and effectively. You can download our appraisal template here. Whatever form you use, please be encouraged to make sure the process provides encouragement, clarity, achievable and realistic priorities and clear development opportunities. If you’d be interested in either line management or appraisal training, please get in touch.
Invest in team relationships and resolve conflict. We love facilitating staff away-days, and helping teams strengthen their relationships, their approach to conflict and their ability to plan and function as a cohesive team. How does your team score in relation to this, and what can you put in place to help strengthen this function? Perhaps it’s a new pattern of meeting together, or a new annual planning flow. Do you have termly staff away-days, annual retreats, regular opportunities to pray for each other or a team charter / staff code of conduct? If you haven’t come across it, we’d highly recommend reading Patrick Lencioni’s book ‘The 5 Dysfunction of a Team, which explores developing healthy team dynamics.
How good is your internal communication? We often overlook how to communicate our decision-making process, agreed outcomes, minutes from meetings and who is responsible for which tasks and actions. This can breed unnecessary uncertainty and confusion. Start by asking yourself these three questions:
a. Am I clear on who does what, and is this clarity shared by others?
b. What method is used to consistently communicate decisions and outcomes and are these shared in a timely fashion?
c. What was the last example of confusion or misunderstanding within your team? Where did this originate and what can be done to prevent this from reoccurring.
We’ve noticed that the introduction of team collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Monday, Asana, Slack or Trello can provide a cost-effective and easy solution to strengthen team communication. At UCAN, we consistently use Teams as part of the Microsoft 365 suite and find it really helpful. Software tools are not a silver bullet, but when implemented well they can be a real help. Whether software based or not, ensuring you have a workable and consistent way to communicate as a team is a must! Perhaps take some time at a future team meeting to evaluate your internal communication and decide together what would help.
In John 13, Jesus demonstrates a clear picture as to what it should feel like to be part of a team. Clear about your own value, and the value of others. Relationally invested. Leading through servanthood. Practically minded, responding to Kingdom priorities. Let’s do all we can to make this a recognisable reality in our own teams. As always, if we can help support you in this discussion, please get in touch.
Andy