The right mix
When building a team a leader needs to have a range of people who are able to bring unique features to that team’s welfare and performance which, together, represent a balanced and equipped team. For a team that is focused on creating an event, such as the Newfrontiers Together on a Mission Conference referred to earlier, the skill set will be very critical. It will need to include people with relevant skills for the event and who can carry the appropriate level of responsibility. This may arise from natural talent, training or a combination of the two.
For the longer-term team, such as an eldership team or trustees of a church, specific skills may be less prominent; spiritual gifting, character and spiritual maturity may feature more prominently.
Let’s now look at each of the six categories already mentioned namely:
- Skills or talents
- Spiritual gifts
- Spiritual maturity
- Time availability
- Temperament
- Heart’s desire
Skills and Talents
These may vary greatly but tend to be practical. They may range from traditional ‘hands on’ skills, such as the building trades or computing, to mental skills such as planning or design. Then there are the additional people-skills that would be expected with, say, a project manager.
Examples of such skills are plentiful in the Bible particularly in the books of Exodus and Nehemiah. For example, when constructing the tabernacle there were women who spun with their hands (Ex35:25) and men who understood the construction of the sanctuary (Ex 36:1). When rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem Nehemiah mobilised all he could, though I sometimes wonder how good perfumers and goldsmiths would have been at laying bricks (Neh 3:8)!
Management is also important as any activity requires leadership and oversight. So those with appropriate people-skills are vital, otherwise a skilled but unhappy team will result.
Natural+Spiritual
Some of the skills and talents can also be seen in a list of spiritual gifts e.g. leadership or administration. Often the Holy Spirit adds an anointing to natural talents to grace people for ministry in these particular areas. For myself, I have administrative skill (though no formal training) but believe that God has added to the ‘natural’ ability he has given me with the grace-gift of administration, as referred to by Paul in 1 Cor 12:28.
Next time we shall look more deeply into spiritual gifts.