The Team Leader's Handbook: How to help Christians serve Jesus together

by Dave Moore

We’ve all had the unfortunate experience of being in a team with poor leadership. But nobody wants to be that sort of leader, so when we’re asked to step up and lead a gospel ministry—where eternal futures are at stake—it can seem pretty daunting.

But you’re not on your own. From his wealth of leadership wisdom and experience, Dave Moore

why good leadership matterswhat good leaders do—always, regularly and oftenpractical tips, real-life examples and useful leadership tools.The Team Leader’s Handbook is a highly accessible must-read guide for any current or future leader of a ministry team.

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction

187 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2024

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Dave Moore has put together a really helpful training resource for churches on leading teams. For a church to mobilize for ministry, it needs to be able to gather teams of people together for a purpose. Those teams need leaders. For many, however, the prospect of leading a team of volunteers seems overwhelming or the task of leading is not sufficiently clear. Is it just telling people what to do? Or is it something more? Moore would say it is much more than just providing direction to people. It's about directing and developing people in the stewardship of their gifts for a particular mission. In this book, pastors, elders, deacons, and leaders (current and future) will find some helpful frameworks for thinking through the leadership task. This would be a good training resource to use in a class for ministry team leaders or in one-to-one training.

One area that Moore could have developed more fully is the mental shift that needs to happen when we shift from doing ministry directly versus leading others in ministry (he uses the example of being on the field of play versus coaching from the sidelines). Both are critical roles, but to shift to a leadership role involves a conscience decision to work through the gifts of others for a purpose. For many in ministry (my self included), this can be a difficult shift either because we love the 'on the field' ministry, we have trouble letting go of control, or we misunderstand (or under appreciate) the importance of leading. The book could have been helped by providing more counsel to would-be leaders in making this shift (Craig Hamilton's "Wisdom in Leadership Development" would be a worthy supplement here).

[Richard Sweatman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Very helpful for anyone working out how to lead others for the first time. Lots in there for established leaders as well. The S1-S4 model will change your team culture too.

[Sandy Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 4.5 star book on leading ministry teams Christianly and practically. Important ideas include the importance of praying the ‘big team prayer’, distinguishing what kind of conversation you might be having with team members, the need to shift from play to coach as team leader. There are somewhat unorthodox ideas to make you think: such as his rejection of the oft-stayed need to have job descriptions. The aim is to build teams where people are trusted and empowered. Lots of practical exercises and reflections. I also appreciated that the
non-negotiable importance of character was not just assumed but emphasised early on.

Suspect it is most helpful to volunteer team leaders but also helpful to leaders of paid ministry teams.

One small but (I think) important criticism is that (inadvertently I’m sure) Dave appears to almost verge into social trinitarianism by making the Triune God a model of team-work (p25), and working together in teams somehow is part of being in God’s image. I get the impetus for this but wish that point had been expressed more carefully or just omitted.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. This was excellent in a lot of ways - some great advice on forming and leading teams that I'm keen to keep referring back to. However, his grounding of this advice in the idea that the Trinity is "team-like" is quite a serious error that put me off early on.

[Tim Goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does your church have groups of people who are committed to doing a task and nothing more, or are you growing teams who are driven by the bigger picture and keen, not only do the thing that needs doing, but actually grow a ministry.
The Team Leaders's Handbook is a wonderful tool to challenge what teams look like in church, how we grow them, how we empower people in our teams, and most importantly (for this reader) how we make sure that we are not the bottleneck, getting in the way of ministries flourishing.
I particularly enjoyed thinking about the kinds of conversations I have with people, how my desire to be an effective support may actually be keeping people from really "leaning into" areas where they serve, and that when other people let me down, the genesis of the problem is often that I haven't been clear in articulating what we're trying to achieve.
This is not just a book for big churches with complex teams. This would be equally valuable for someone in a small church looking to unleash the members in their service!

[Alastair Gooderham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores team leadership in a Christian context specifically applied to churches but useful elsewhere. Has lots of useful chapters and practical insights, some were helpful reminders some were new.

The biggest positive was the chapter on the four conversations tool which then flavours the book. The biggest challenge is that the book seems to assume medium to big sized church with large teams it will need some thought invested into application to small churches.

Helpful and useful especially as few ministry leaders have team leading training.

[Michael King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many other Matthias Media classics, Dave gives us a clear, short and Gospel-shaped model of leading our ministry teams at church. The "four types of conversation" model is a nugget of wisdom that provides the clarity to faithfully lead teams. I'm keen to use this book as a reference point for serving at my church.

[Kerryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a helpful guide. Every team leader should read it.

[Caleb Brussel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chart on what types of conversations to have with your team is worth the price of the book! Other than that, good tips and suggestions.