Every church goes through several life cycles over time. The goal of any church should be health. That can’t be achieved by running through your current stage to get to the next, but instead by leaning into it and finding the lessons God has for you now.

One of those key lessons is how you build your teams. At any life stage, teamwork and cooperation are vital to the health of your church or organization. This isn’t something you can skip over or wait until the next stage to get right. Start today by building teams and structures that make healthy disciples.

Here are a few things to keep in mind in the early stages of growth of your church as you build teams. Again, the focus should be on the health of your staff, your volunteers, your members and yourself. As you put each of these tips to use, remember to center it around the health of your church in its current life stage.

Keep Your Team Size Manageable
In the early life stage of your church, team size is largely dictated by the number of people who you have on hand. If you’re church planting, you likely have a team that has stepped out to be part of the launch phase. This may be a small group or a large contingent. Either way, make sure to control the size of your team from the get-go so that it stays manageable.

Leaders of new churches often make the mistake of bringing anyone and everyone on board who wants to help out. The first flaw in this is a bloated team. Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon and a leading entrepreneur, teaches the “2 pizza rule.” Simply put, any team that needs more than two pizzas for dinner is too large. If you find yourself ordering an extra pie at your next meeting, think about cutting down the size of your team.

But why is this important? Large teams feel good, after all. Seeing a lot of people committed to surrounding us and supporting our vision gives us good vibes. But what we gain in satisfaction we lose in effectiveness. Teams that are unmanageable will quickly get out of control and lead to gridlock.

This happens in two ways. First of all, groupthink takes over. In order to make any decision a consensus needs to take place. The larger the group, the more difficult it is for divergent opinions to emerge. No one wants to speak out of turn or make a mistake. Pretty soon everyone gets in line with whatever the leader suggests without any substantive growth.

Structuring your team around key goals and markers instead of individual talents and skills multiplies your effectiveness throughout change.

The other way this causes gridlock is that people assume others will handle key responsibilities. With a large group, each person may believe that someone else will pick up the slack, so they avoid stepping up. But smaller groups produce more focused and dedicated team players.

Brace for Change
Think about where you want to be positioned when you enter the next life cycle of your church. Instead of assigning each current team member to a specific role in that vision, think of what positions will be necessary when that time comes.

Here’s why that’s important. As you grow, your organization will change. In fact, change is one of the only guarantees we have on this side of eternity. There are people on your team who won’t be there five years from now, two years from now, or even six months from now. If you are banking on an individual team member for a specific contribution, you may not be building a team that lasts through change.

Bracing for change means that you’re ready for the next eventuality, whatever it may be. Structuring your team around key goals and markers instead of individual talents and skills multiplies your effectiveness throughout change. If a team member leaves, your structure will allow a new person to step up and continue on to the next phase of vision.

Do What You Love with People You Like
Whatever you do, make sure you’re doing it with people you like. After all, you’ll likely be spending a lot of time with them, so you might as well enjoy it. This doesn’t mean you should only hire your best friends. But it does mean that you put people on your team who you genuinely regard as your friends.

Before inviting people onto your team, get to know them. Find out details about their family, their background and their interests. Who’s their favorite football team? Or do they enjoy watching Jeopardy instead? Are they a dog person or a cat person? What do they do in their spare time? I can honestly say from experience that some answers can end up being deal breakers when it comes to building your team.

Doing work with people you like doesn’t mean you build a team of people who look, act and think just like you. You can enjoy being with someone you disagree with on certain things. In fact, differences of opinion and points of view are vital to healthy and long term team building. The more diverse your team, the more effective it will be. Build a team of different but likeable people.

Finally, remember to keep their health in view at all times. Check in on your people and make sure they are growing personally. Professional traction is often cut short by a lack of personal discipline. An effective leader will ask about their team member’s spiritual life, as well as their personal life. Don’t be so focused on getting to the next stage that you end up leaving someone behind.

This has been part three in a four-part series. Don’t miss part one and part two.