Growing Your Church: Do You Have a Team Problem or a Vision/Strategy Problem?

“How do we know if we have a strategy problem or a team problem?” 

“Is it the people or the plan that’s our issue?” 

This is a question we hear from pastors and church leaders regularly when they are trying to discover what’s holding them back from the healthy growth they should be experiencing. 

Your team is the most valuable asset you have to move your vision forward. But if that vision is unclear or unrealistic that can quickly lead to stagnation and “stuck-ness.” 

Your team is the most valuable asset you have to move your vision forward. But if your vision is unclear or unrealistic, it can quickly lead to stagnation and “stuck-ness.” Click To Tweet

Or maybe you have a clear vision and solid strategic goals. But if your team is underperforming and dysfunctional or high-achieving but completely burnt out—your vision will never become reality. 

You need a healthy and high-performing team with a strategic, actionable vision.

In order to get there, you need to know where you are today. 

We’ve put together a series of questions your senior leadership can use to help identify what key areas are the main opportunities for growth and breakthrough. We recommend doing this exercise collaboratively with a few key leaders and having a candid conversation around each topic. 

Using a scale of 1-6, ask your staff leaders to rate how well they believe you’re doing as a team in response to the following questions. 

1 = strongly disagree  2 = mostly disagree  3 = mildly disagree  4 = mildly agree  5 = mostly agree  6 = strongly agree

1. Our team is aligned and dedicated to a common vision. 
2. We have great unity as a staff. 
3. We have very little staff turnover.
4. We are able to handle conflict in an open and healthy fashion.
5. Our staff are clear about each of their priorities.
6. We have regular conversations where we evaluate people’s performance.
7. Our staff executes at a high level.
8. Our team spends time together in God’s word and in meaningful prayer.
9. We have a culture of trust.
10. We are satisfied with the results we are seeing from our staff.

Scoring Your Assessments

• First, add up your scores to questions 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9, then take the average.
  That’s your team health score. 
• Next, add up your scores to questions 1, 5, 6, 7 and 10, then take the average.
  That’s your team performance score. 

How did you do? After each person scores their own assessment, let the results serve as the basis for a team conversation. 

• Is one score clearly higher or lower than the other?
• Did anyone score either category at a 3 or lower? If so, we’d identify that as a starting point for a conversation around stuckness.
• Where did your team agree and see alignment, or disagree and need to dig deeper? 

If you’d like to discuss your results with a member of our team, let’s talk.

Our process is uniquely designed to help church leadership find alignment and create teams that are both healthy and high-performing so that you can build and execute a successful vision and lead more people to Christ. 

You can lead staff teams that get stuff done and love working together—spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy, as well as productive and high-performing.