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.