I watched in wonder for several years. It was impressive. The department’s volunteer bench was always comfortably full, its ranks swelling for special events as the people executed hundreds of coordinated tasks with excellence and without drama. Everyone enjoyed working together.

Weekly ministry tasks hummed along in a predictable rhythm characterized by calmness, relational warmth, quality work and positive morale. It was the kind of department many church leaders might hope to have just once in a lifetime. To consider it normal would be beyond their wildest imaginations, and for good reason.

The following may be more familiar: Empty staff slots that are hard to fill (including, most painfully, in critical roles). Weary leaders who find recruiting burdensome and ineffective. Bickering, backbiting and negative murmuring. Volunteers who try helping a ministry but then politely (or sometimes, not so politely) exit, or perhaps well-intentioned, willing individuals consistently falling short of the envisioned impact.

How can you turn the tide?

Answer the Question

Ongoing, quality ministry performance by engaged staff and volunteers doesn’t just happen. If you desire to build and nurture a high-performance team, you must start by satisfactorily answering for team members a foundational question: What do you expect of me?

The more specific you can be, the better. Ambiguity discourages initiative and engagement. Individuals will be hesitant to run with a task or responsibility if roles are hazy, success is not clearly defined, lines of authority are gray, and there is no assurance of support.

What do you expect of your team? Jesus anticipated His followers’ need for an answer to that question:

• “ … stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

• “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

• “These were his instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff — no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them’” (Mark 6:8-11).

Great leadership always answers the question.

Outline and Share Expectations

Under pressure to fill a teacher’s role for an elementary small-group Bible study, a pastor walked up to a neatly dressed woman in the church lobby one Wednesday evening. Smiling in anticipation of the pastor’s greeting, she was taken aback by his request to facilitate the group, starting that very night. The pastor hurriedly explained that the previous teacher had to quit unexpectedly and that he heard the woman had experience with kids and thought she’d be great in the role.

Feeling a little on the spot, yet flattered, she agreed to help. After all, it was an emergency.

Visibly relieved, the pastor assured her, “It’s easy! Here are the materials. Use them how you wish. Thanks a million!”

Can I add she had only been at the church a few weeks? A couple of months later, feeling frustrated and alone in her new role, the woman decided to stop teaching, and the pastor found himself right back where he started.

Perhaps you can relate to this pastor. Sometimes the need to find enough warm bodies to fill ministry roles can unwittingly supersede the need to equip people for success in those roles. Clearly outlining and sharing expectations can help you balance both well.

Ongoing, quality ministry performance by engaged staff and volunteers doesn’t just happen.

When was the last time you sat down and reviewed a ministry job description that included basic statements about the role — clearly articulating what success looks like?

A clear ministry job description helps focus and channel action. Knowing what is expected empowers a person in his or her decision making, interactions and performance.

Perhaps the performance issues you are facing are simply that you and your team are on different pages. Can your staff identify what is important to you and the organization? Do they understand how their roles are contributing to achieving God’s vision for the ministry?

Individuals within a high-performing staff know the desired outcomes for their roles and what they are responsible for accomplishing. They understand priorities, allowing them to identify when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”

Most importantly, they understand the ministry’s goals and their role in meeting them. When you take time to outline and share these expectations, you are laying a solid foundation for great staff performance.

Provide Access to the Big Three

While providing a clear job description is essential, individuals also want to know they will have practical support to be able to do their jobs well.

Jesus masterfully addresses this need, assuring us of assistance:

• “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:26-27).

• “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth … and he will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13).

Here is what this means for my work and yours: We have a Helper on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to teach, instruct, coach and remind us of important things Jesus has said. The peace of Christ is always available.

My 24/7 Helper will never stop attending to my steps so that I will become biased toward truth. In addition to all this, He will prepare me for what is coming. Jesus knew we would need the Holy Spirit’s support for success in life and ministry.

Keeping this truth in front of team members is foundational to helping them grow in effectiveness. However, leaders also have a responsibility to support those they lead by providing access to the big three: information, materials and equipment.

I was shocked and embarrassed to discover from one of my best staff members that what I had been asking, and holding that person accountable for, was out of reach because I had overlooked a few basic access points.

The staff member couldn’t retrieve necessary data and didn’t have equipment that worked. I regretted not taking time to cover expectations about the role and confirming I had provided the essential resources for success.

Are you supporting your staff by encouraging them to rely on the Holy Spirit in their daily work and by providing access to the big three?

Assess and Disciple

Setting clear expectations for staff and volunteer roles is necessary to build a highly effective team, but the purpose goes beyond improving outward performance.

Leaders have the great privilege of daily discipling the individuals they work with. By asking the right questions and offering clear guidance, as Jesus did for His followers, you will demonstrate to those you lead how much you care and that you are committed to their growth.

Also in This Series

• Part 1: Building a High-Performance Staff
• Part 3: How Am I Doing?