A final list of reasons a church may struggle to develop a team mentality:
4. Leader's Reasons
Leader wishes to retain strong control over all aspects of church life
Developing a team means the leader sacrificing doing some of the stuff they personally enjoy most
Wrong theology held by the leader. eg "growth happens through teaching, I am the teacher, so I do everything"
Feeling disenfranchised and threatened by others who don’t have the benefit of my professional training taking a leading role
Leaders who don’t have time or perceived ability to develop team
Leaders being unable or unwilling to cope with negative consequences of things being done less well or of trying to change long-standing traditions
We might summarise the four lists as follows. Churches struggle to develop a team mentality when:
- structures don’t encourage it
- leaders don’t want it
- congregational institutional assumptions don’t want to
- historical assumptions don’t’ allow
- personalities are not temperamentally amenable
All of which are likely to cause leaders to dismiss developing teamwork as an unwelcome extra burden