Article5 Reasons Why Collaboration is Good for Church Management

I suspect that this is also the case in church life; young people prefer the kind of leadership and management style that collaborates and supports contribution.

But the collaborative kind of management style is not only preferred by young people, it could also be healthy for church life as a whole.

Here are 5 reasons why collaboration is good for church management.

1. Collaboration allows the church to use different gifts.

The Bible is clear that Christians are endowed with different spiritual gifts, but all are to be used for the advancement of one body (1 Corinthians 12:7–12; Romans 12:4–8). That means church management cannot depend on the gifts of one or two people. It has to include pastors, leaders, and volunteers with different spiritual gifts—people who can exhort, evangelise, serve, preach, teach, lead, those who have the gift of praying, and others.

This method of church management calls for collaboration, where different people with different gifts collaborate, co-create, and contribute for the sake of the kingdom. Together.

The church is not a a place where people turn up every Sunday to be entertained by one charismatic motivational speaker (which only needs the gift of preaching/speaking) or an evangelistic outpost whose sole purpose is to convert non-Christians (which only needs the gift of evangelism). The church is the body of Christ—with members that have different functions that they use to serve each other. This leads us to the second reason.

2. Collaboration creates a cycle where people serve and be served.

In 1 Corinthians 16:15–16, the Apostle Paul talks about the household of Stephanas, whose role in the church is to serve. It is their duty to serve others in the church. However, Paul tells everyone to “submit to such people.” Although Stephanas’s household was there to serve, everyone should also submit to them and serve them. Here we see a vision of the ideal church—a community where people submit to and serve each other.

Collaboration culture in church management nurtures this kind of serving community. No one leader holds the absolute say. Similarly, a church is not associated with only one particular leader’s name, as if they’re the only one that matters and is indispensable. Collaboration creates a church culture where everyone serves each other under the headship of Christ.

3. Collaboration provides space for the different offices given in the Bible.

In Ephesians 4:11–13, Paul talks about the different leadership offices that “Christ himself gives”; pastors, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists. They’re not supposed to work alone, but together, to equip Christians and build up the unity of the church.

This implies collaboration in the church.

Pastors repeatedly report [link] that they are lonely in their lives and ministries. There is this mindset among pastors that their calling is to serve, not to be served. And although that is a good mindset to have, such a mindset often translates to pastors not having friends or a network of support. It makes ministry very lonely. Pastors are busy, so they are often bad at connecting with and supporting each other. The only people they see the most are the people in their congregation. But making friends with these people is near impossible because of the power gap.

This doesn’t have to be the case. God has given different ministries and different gifts to different people so that they can work together and support each other. Collaborating makes ministry more enjoyable.

4. Collaboration makes sense of the organisational structure that the Bible models.

In Acts 6:1–7, the apostles realised that there was a need in the early church that was overlooked (distribution of food among the widows). However, because they couldn’t leave their preaching responsibility, they appointed others to do the task. In other words, they delegated. They created a structure for collaboration and contribution. They realised they couldn’t do everything, so they allowed others to contribute.

This event formed the first foundation for the office of deacons, which is still used in many church structures today. A lot of churches differentiate between the office of elders, who has the responsibility to preach, and of deacons, who has the responsibility to take care of the physical and logistical needs of the church.

There’s a reason why the apostles modelled such an organisational structure. And there’s a reason why such a structure is still used today. We are not God. The apostles were not God. God gives us each other in the church so we can work together and collaborate.

5. Recent cases show that one-person leadership style doesn’t work.

From Mars Hill’s Mark Driscoll, Hillsong’s Brian Houston, to RZIM’s Ravi Zacharias, leaders fail morally when their organisations/churches depend on their individual names, reputation, and skills instead of having the collaborative structure that nurtures accountability with each other. No one can handle that kind of leadership burden.

Yes, this is negative reasoning. But as the 4 reasons highlight above, collaboration is what the Bible models for church management and leadership. That’s why one person-centric leadership is such a trap.

So, how should churches start nurturing collaborative culture?

If you are a church leader, there are several things that you can start doing today to nurture collaboration.

First, shift your ministry mindset from program-based to gift-based.

Often, church ministries are based on programs that have been running for years, even decades. There is a set of programs that the church has been running and needs to keep running; small groups, visitation, and service-based ministries like music, ushering, and Bible reading are the most usual ministries. And usually, churches start with these programs before asking people to serve and putting them into these already-established programs, like “Hey, would you like to serve as an usher?” without even knowing whether that person has the gift to be an usher.

But to nurture collaboration, a shift in thinking is necessary.

What if you start with the people and their gifts, before creating programs and ministries that fit these gifts? For example, if you have someone with the gift of evangelism, and you don’t have a ministry for that, instead of forcing them to serve as an usher, an MC, or to sing in a choir, what if you create a new ministry where they can engage with non-Christians and do the work of the gospel?

This way, you create a culture where people can use their God-given gifts well to collaborate, co- create, and co-serve.

Second, start discipleship and modelling.

This is especially important if you’re leading young people. Young people don’t appreciate the kind of leadership that directs and controls. Instead, they need a leader that disciples and models. That means, instead of telling them what to do, what to feel, who to be, you should instead show them through your life. As Paul says, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

It also means that you should give young people opportunities to participate, to collaborate, and to co-create with you and along with the older leaders. Having a Christmas service? Why not get your youth involved by asking them to participate in the planning, listening to their ideas, rather than just getting them to sit bored in the pews?

Third, use technology to help collaboration.

There are a lot of digital technologies today that can help your church collaborate. You probably have used some of these, like WhatsApp for text communication and Zoom for meetings. But there are others that can help you increase collaboration too. Miro, for example, is good as a whiteboard for virtual brainstorming and team-working. Trello is good for program management and delegation.

But none of these digital tools were developed especially for churches.

This is why Erista is worth considering. It’s created with churches and their needs in mind. All of Erista’s features are designed to help churches increase collaboration.

All other church management softwares (ChMS) have a member database that records members' data. Erista’s member database doesn’t only passively record, it also allows active note-taking. For example, perhaps a church leader meets up with a member and finds out that they have just been laid off at work and is currently asking for prayers. The leader can note this on the member’s profile (which is kept private only to users), notifies the pastor to follow up the next week, then the pastor can update with a new note on the same profile after they do the follow-up. Such a simple feature provides endless collaboration potential.

Erista also boosts collaboration using other features, such as: a two-way scheduling system, a small-group system that enables delegation, and a communication system that allows integration of most widely-used communication apps like SMS, WhatsApp, and email. In near future, other cutting-edge features will be added to boost your collaboration even further!

Try Erista for free today!