Communicating With Your Team
Angela Yee

Teams are the backbone of ministry. A tightly woven team can have far more impact than an individual or team that wanders randomly through ministry. Last month we explored ways to organize your teams for better effectiveness. This month we will explore an area that’s critical to creating a cohesive volunteer team: communication.

Creating a tight communication network can significantly enhance your team’s effectiveness. The better the communication between team members, the less chance there is of misunderstandings that lead to conflict, frustration, and burnout. Over the years, I’ve identified six keys to team communication:

1) Communicate your team’s purpose. A team without a purpose is like a lost hiker with a broken compass. He will wander about aimlessly because the arrow isn’t pointed the right way. Write a one-sentence description that describes why your team exists and what its purpose is, and then share it with the team regularly. The purpose statement serves as the arrow that keeps the team pointed in the correct direction.

Vision leaks. Don’t assume that people know or remember why they’re there—remind them. It only takes a few seconds to get people aligned properly again. If you’re avoiding the task because you’re not gifted as a motivational speaker, procrastinate no more! A reminder doesn’t have to be an inspiring Gettysburg Address. It may be as simple as starting off your meeting with: “Thanks so much for being here to help us all create a children’s Sunday program that will show kids how to know and love God more.” Then, as you continue on with the rest of the agenda, you have already realigned their hearts to be prepared to accomplish the purpose of the team.

If starting your meeting with such a statement feels awkward to you, open your time with prayer and slip the statement in there. “Thanks, Lord, for bringing everyone here and for their contributions in using their creative gifts to communicate your truths through drama.” Prayer is a wonderful clarifying tool, and people too often fail to call on the Lord to guide their meetings.

Each team member’s ministry description should start with the team’s purpose statement, as well as the individual’s detailed responsibilities and goals. That way, the volunteer is reminded of her team’s purpose whenever she’s reviewing what her responsibilities are.

2) Communicate each person’s unique contribution and fit to the team. Besides their official ministry position, team members should know how they uniquely contribute to the team.

“Cindy, you are so good at encouraging all of us. You’re our team cheerleader!” Cindy now sees (and feels) how she is valued on the team. She will understand her significance to the group as a whole and how she can make a personal contribution that will build up the rest of the team.

Try to find the unique role of each person and how they build up the team. Then consciously ensure that you build up that person’s strengths to them individually and to the whole team.

3) Clearly delineate lines of authority, responsibilities, and boundaries for decisions. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as a volunteer putting in 20 hours of work on a project, only to find out that another person on the team already did the work. When you communicate everyone’s role clearly, people know what they’re responsible for, as well as what decisions they’re authorized to make.

Detailed ministry descriptions are critical for accomplishing this. Distribute these ministry descriptions at the very first meeting so that people can know clearly what they—and others—are responsible for. Be sure everyone on the team has copies of each other’s ministry descriptions. This will prevent a lot of confusion and problems.

4) Confirm the location, time, and agenda a few days before each meeting. It’s easy to forget meetings, and a friendly email or phone message will help jog memories. Put the confirmation reminder on your calendar to refresh your own memory! I find it’s usually best to send out a confirmation early in the week, and another one the night before or the day of the meeting—especially for teams that have people with scatter-brained tendencies.

As you send out your confirmation, include a description of what the agenda will cover so that people can prepare information for the meeting. Having advance notice will allow people to maximize the meeting time so that the discussion can be purposeful and focused.

5) Establish a central avenue of communication for group-wide information. Plan how you will disseminate important information to your group. Will you report on news at the beginning of each meeting? Will you distribute minutes to each person?

If you have a computer-savvy group, setting up an email listserv (where all messages and their replies go to the entire group) can be very effective if everyone in your group has (and reads!) their email. Both Google and Yahoo offer groups that serve as free listserv sites.

However you choose to do it, set up a way for people to all receive the timely information they need. At times it may seem tedious to be distributing information to all your team members, but it’s better to repeat yourself than to find out someone has been negatively impacted by being left out of the loop.

6) Know each group member’s best avenues of communication. If Susan never reads email, don’t keep emailing her messages with the hope that she will eventually get the hint. Pick up the phone and call her if that works best. I’ve had to communicate to people regularly through cell phone calls, computer instant messaging, or even cell phone text messaging, depending on the person I was working with! Find out what they check regularly, and communicate with them through that mode.

You may find that each person on your team prefers a different mode of communication. If that’s the case, discuss with the team how you can best centralize the avenue of communication. Balance the preferences of your team members with what is manageable for your schedule and workload. If you don’t have the time to call everyone, ask if they would mind adjusting to receiving email on a daily basis. Teamwork is all about people supporting one another so that the entire team can benefit and ultimately be more effective.

Angela Yee is the Director of Serving Ministries at Fremont Evangelical Free Church in Fremont, California. She also does writing and speaking about organizing for ministry. For more information on Angela, see www.summitstarpress.com.