Communication Rules!

No, I'm not talking about grammar. Today, after our noon meal I grabbed a piece of candy out of the left-over Halloween candy jar. I ripped the wrapper off and popped the candy in my mouth. I turned to my wife and said, "Ah ree-y aak ees sma unk-a bg unk!" She laughed at my attempts to talk with my mouth full. I tried several times, but she only laughed harder. I started to giggle myself, and finally when things cleared out sufficiently I was able to speak clearly, "I really like these small chunks of Big Hunk!" We both had a good laugh over the silliness.

But that got me thinking. How often do we try to communicate something and we might as well be speaking a completely different language? The people we're talking to just don't get it!

Teamnet Ministries -- or any networking organization for that matter -- is fueled and driven by communication. LOTS of communication between all elements of the network! Every organization operates at some level of balance between functional and dysfunctional (just like families). Mark this down: The level of dysfunction is directly related to the presence of secrets and lies within the system. Conversely, the more honest and open the information flow within the system, the healthier the system. The system will work marvelously if all relevant information is freely shared -- in a language everyone can understand!

So, there needs to be a forum, or clearinghouse of sorts for sharing plans, ideas, visions, available funding, or whatever else. Or, a telephone call or email from one team leader to another, just to ask advice, or perhaps invite the other team to share a project. It seems to me we need to develop a culture of communication, where sharing with everyone in the system comes as naturally as breathing. Is that a worthy goal? Or practical? How can we do it?

Ok. Brainstorm with me here. I'm listening.

Networking Teams

I first discovered the idea of networking teams while on a long train journey from Portland, Oregon to Cincinnati, Ohio during Christmas week, 1994. To pass the time I bought a book I thought looked interesting. The contents of that book revolutionized my understanding of effective organizations in today's world. The core concepts formed the structure on which we would eventually develop Teamnet Ministries. The book was The Age of the Network: Organizing Principles for the 21st Century by Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps, Oliver Wight Publications, Inc., 1994.

In The Age of the Network, Lipnack and Stamps proposed a new type of organization, what they called a "teamnet." The idea is that while teams are the best way to get anything done, a network of teams working together creates a nearly unstopable force. They coined the term "teamnet" to capsulize their idea.

As I read the book, I got more and more excited. I could see a church organized around this principle, coupled with the biblical doctrine of spiritual gifts, and administered by visionary leaders rather than status quo managers. Old-fashioned committees that normally talk more than act could be replaced by lean, focused teams composed of dedicated, passionate church members driven Holy Spirit inspiration. At the next Nominating Committee season in the church I was then pastoring (Hamlet, Ohio) I presented some of the ideas that had been rattling around in my mind since reading Lipnack and Stamps' book. One thing led to another, and eventually the intial organizational structure of Teamnet Ministries began to take shape. In time, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the project, which I defended in 1998, and graduated in June of that year from Andrews University with my D.Min. degree.

Since then, five churches that I have pastored have decided to try the Teamnet Ministries experiment, with varying degrees of success. Some have continued, while others have gone back to a more traditional method of filling church offices. Teamnet Ministries continues to be a work in progress as needed refinements are recognized and corrections are made.

This blog is open for input from people who have experienced working with Teamnet Ministries, for those who want to learn about it, and for those who believe in the potential of a church organized as a network of ministry teams working together for the purpose of God in the earth. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Teamwork - The Heart of Everything

Think about it. Nothing happens anywhere in the known Universe outside of some kind of relationship. Even the physical cosmos is governed by the relationships of heavenly bodies balanced by gravity and centrifugal force. In other words, everything that is contributes to the way things are. As John Donne said, "No man is an island." We all make a difference, one way or another.

Synergy is the product of two or more entities working together for a common purpose. Synergy accomplishes more that the sum of what each individual could achieve alone. Ducks and geese fly farther together in formation than if they all flew separately. Teaming up for a common cause makes everyone in a team more successful. Teamwork works, because that is the way creation works best.

It seems to me, then, that teams and teamwork should be the most natural organizational structure for the church. Hence: Teamnet Ministries. The whole doctrine of Spiritual Gifts is built around this concept. God gives different gifts to different people to use in concert with everyone else's gifts to accomplish His purposes through the church -- the body of Christ on earth. See Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; and Ephesians 4.

In another post I'll talk about using our gifts as priests in the priesthood of all believers.

Website Update

I've done a little updating and rearranging of some of the material at http://www.teamnetministries.com/ . The Introduction to Teamnet Ministries is now much easier to read and follow as I brought all the pages together onto one page. Sometime next week I plan to add several more articles to the website, spelling out the thinking behind Teamnet Ministries in more detail. As always, your comments are welcome. Let's talk!

Also, you'll notice on the left column of this page there are some new items. The "Ads by Google" are there if you want to click through to any of those sites. Plus, I've also added a section called "Some Relevant Links." If you have suggestions for some websites or other Internet places that would be appropriate to this blog, please email them to me directly at loren@akrana.com. Thanks!!

Purpose-Driven Teams Create Mission Statements

In the previous post I referenced Rick Warren's book Purpose-Driven Church, with a link to the PD website. Teamnet Ministries uses the purpose-driven concept, but drives it down even further into the organization of the local church by creating purpose-driven teams for conducting the mission of the church. As I noted before, each team is created to concentrate on a specific arena of church life. After the team is formed (more on that later), the very first action the team members must work on is to formulate their own "mission statement," aka "statement of purpose."

I have found that this exercise does more to bond the individual members of the team more quickly than just about anything else. The process is every bit as important as the final product. In other words, the resulting mission statement itself is a good thing, but the time, energy, and combined efforts of the team members is actually what forms the foundation for their effectiveness as a team.

Full Steam Ahead! is a great little book by Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner, that gives valuable insight into the components of a mission statement. You can easily order it from www.amazon.com, www.bn.com, or your local bookstore.

A Quick Introduction to Teamnet Ministries

Teamnet Ministries is about trying to find a way to organize a local church for widespread involvement and broad cooperation among the people who really are the church: the individual members. I am completely convinced that the vast majority of church members really do want their membership to be meaningful and fulfilling, and they want to serve their fellow members with the gifts God has given them. Everyone wants to believe that his/her contribution makes a difference. Unless, of course, they've become so discouraged for whatever reason that they just don't care anymore. That's another story. But most church attendees/members are there for more than just the music or the potluck dinners.

Teamnet Ministries tries to address this need by organizing church life into five major arenas: Worship; Fellowship; Ministry; Evangelism; and Discipleship. If you're famaliar with Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven Church (learn about it at http://www.purposedriven.com/en-US/AboutUs/WhatIsPD/What+is+PD.htm.) you will immediately recognize where these came from. In Teamnet Ministries, each arena of church life is served by a team of people who are especially gifted or passionate about that specific ministry. Team leaders network with each other, and lead the teams first in discovering their purpose, then developing plans and excuting them to reach toward their goals.

I'll have more to say about how this works in future posts. Meanwhile, you can still jump over to www.teamnetministries.com to explore further. I've still got quite a lot of work to do over there, but all in good time . . . . I promise!

A New Beginning

Ok. Here we go again. I tried to get a Teamnet Ministries blog going a while back and got discouraged with it. Now I've got inspired to give it a try again. I would welcome suggestions for future posts dealing with any aspect of Teamnet Ministries. I'd also be glad to get your emails with questions, frustrations, success stories, or whatever. Let's see if we can develop an online community for mutual support, encouragement, and active promotion of Teamnet Ministries. Anyone care to join me? Let me hear from you! God bless.

If you are reading this and wondering what Teamnet Ministries is about, you may find the material at www.teamnetministries.com helpful. After you have browsed around there for a bit, I'd be pleased to hear from you. You can email me at loren@akrana.com.