Great leaders are able to take principles from outside the church and apply them to their ministry in the church. Whether it’s the world of sports and coaching, business and administration, or government and public service, influential leaders adopt and adapt the right plan for the right time.

One of those principles is collaboration. Successful staff leadership involves being able to get various people from a variety of backgrounds all on the same page and moving together as a team. Collaboration is key in getting that done. It ensures that problems get uncovered sooner and handled quicker. It releases people to thrive in their best gift set. And it allows leaders to constantly monitor and mentor those who they lead. Collaboration is all about putting the right people in the right places.

With adopting and adapting key leadership skills from the world outside the church, one factor must always be in play. Your work in ministry will never fully be successful until it is spiritual. You can dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, but unless you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you may miss something big. You can be the best leader by the world’s standards, but unless you are walking in the Holy Spirit your footsteps won’t be worth following.

The church must always be a place where the Holy Spirit is free to direct. But it must also be a place where we grow and adapt as leaders, pastors and ministers. These two ideas can go hand in hand, though. Spirit-filled collaboration is one of the most impactful ways to do this.

How the First Church Collaborated
Go back with me to a text that I know will be quite familiar. When the first Christians began this great movement called the Church, they used Spirit-filled collaboration. From the very beginning, those leaders were sensitive to the Holy Spirit and embraced ways to release people into their best gifts. Take a look:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:1-4).

From that incredible beginning a great fire spread throughout Judea and beyond! At the end of the chapter (Acts 2:42-47), we’re told that the early Christians began with a plan of collaboration. They committed to a central mission, the teaching of the apostles. They met in the temple but also organized house leaders. They even shared offerings to meet needs.

Your work in ministry will never fully be successful until it is spiritual.

Later, as the church grew, the believers encountered problems. In Acts 6, they collaborated with those who were different, the Hellenistic Christians, to ensure that all needs were met in their great community. And when a huge theological debate arose in Acts 15, the leadership listened to all sides of the issues before deciding how to respond. This was Spirit-filled collaboration in action.

The Right People in the Right Place with the Right Spirit
In a Spirit-filled church, collaboration takes on a whole new meaning. Finding the right people and putting them in the right place is never enough. You must also exhibit the evidence of the Spirit in your life expressed through your ministry. Without that, you’re only filling a need instead of fulfilling your mission.

How does Spirit-filled collaboration work? Take, for instance, hiring for a vacant position. Generally, there are two ways to fill it, either hiring a position or hiring a person. The first way is to fill the role with the most qualified individual possible. The benefit is that you give that ministry area its best chance at success. The downside is that your new hire may or may not fit into the culture of your church.

The alternative, to hire the best candidate regardless of how they will fill that position, has been used quite a lot lately. They may not be the most competent in their new role, but their character and compatibility with your team makes them a huge asset. Later on as you gauge their effectiveness, you can move them around to their eventual sweet spot.

You can be the best leader by the world’s standards, but unless you are walking in the Holy Spirit your footsteps won’t be worth following.

Neither approach is totally right or wrong. In each case you’ll need some stabilizing influence. And this is where Spirit-filled collaboration is best applicable. He is able to supernaturally empower people of all different types, talents and temperaments to get moving in the same direction.

The great old Kings James Version of Acts 2:1 uses the phrase “one accord,” and I still love that. It’s actually related to a musical term. Think of a choir of different people with different voices singing different parts, yet they all harmonize together. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. It harmonizes your collaboration to create a beautiful outcome.

We often think that in order to collaborate effectively, everyone has to agree. But the Holy Spirit is not an equalizer. It’s not His job to make everyone the same. It’s His job is to take those who are different and put them in “one accord.” Spirit-filled collaboration means we are unified even if we aren’t uniform.

The Holy Spirit is a stabilizer though. Putting different people together and trying to move down the field can be difficult. Collaboration includes hard work and dedication and can often be hampered by hurt egos or unmet expectations. The boat may rock, but the hand of the Lord will keep it steady.

Throughout the Bible all great leaders had one thing in common. They all exhibited power through the Holy Spirit of God over their lives. You can never discount the impact you make when you are a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led leader.