Mobilizing Congregations by Wimberly John W. Jr.;

Author:Wimberly,, John W., Jr.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Good interpersonal and communication skills

A commitment to working in/as a team

A demonstrated ability to adapt to things as the team faces unexpected challenges and opportunities

The gift of dependability

An ability to take initiative within the team[9]

While possessing the required skill set is crucial, the second and third characteristics on the list are routinely undervalued in the recruitment of team members. Skills can overcome a lack of interpersonal skills in certain instances. For example, a congregation creates a team to revamp its computer network. A prickly personality who has incredible computer networking skills may be worth the difficulties he creates on the team if no one else with similar skills is available. Without the person, the team will probably fail.

However, there are some people who are team players and some who are not. Putting a “lone ranger” on a team is an invitation for team dysfunction. In like manner, there are some people who have the personality and communication skills to work through conflict and some who don’t. If a team doesn’t have a few people who know how to manage conflict, the team will suffer when conflict inevitably occurs. We will talk more about this in chapter 3.

Many congregations in the United States have a relatively homogeneous makeup. People seem inclined to join faith communities that have approaches to life similar to their own. As a result, historically, congregations have tended to have similar demographics when it comes to race and economic class.

Hackman has an important insight on how the issue of homogeneity can impact the creation of a team. He writes, “Members of excessively homogeneous groups may get along well together but lack the full complement of resources needed to perform well. An excessively heterogeneous group may have a rich diversity of talent and perspective but be unable to use it well because members are too different in how they think and behave.”[10] The smaller the congregation, the more difficult it may be to address the homogeneity factor in assembling a team. However, in larger congregations, attention should be paid to it.

A lack of intergenerational diversity within a congregation can be particularly problematic for creating effective, vital teams. The millennial generation is the largest in our nation. Polling data shows that they have significant preferences that differ from the gen Xers and baby boomers. For example, they are more inclined to be optimistic about the future than other generations. Failing to bring the millennial perspective into a team’s membership robs the team of key insights that will make the team more effective.

I was on a team where the millennial team members kept reminding the baby boomers that our style of communicating would fail if directed at their generation. For example, baby boomers, who expect questions to be answered thoroughly, will push until they are satisfied with the responses. Given their positive orientation toward life, millennials can find the boomer approach as overly critical and contentious.[11] Being sensitive to the millennial generation’s values, we ended up communicating decisions or actions to the larger congregation in ways that included the communication preferences of younger generations.

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