Healthy church teams are such an important part of being a healthy church. Ray Galea talks about the differences of building a team from his time at MBM, and inheriting a team from his time with Fellowship Dubai

Ray talks about:

  • The importance of looking of the fruit of the Spirit rather than the gifts of the Spirit in your team
  • Working out a clear structure
  • Knowing yourself as a leader, you don’t have to have all the answers
  • Learn to be a good learner and listener to the team and church
  • Learn to ask the question “what are you trying to guard?” when getting to know staff
  • The importance of creating a safe culture for the team
  • The change in the role of the leader as he puts on more staff

TOOLBOX:

316: How do I Create Trust in my Team

280: Joining a New Team

CREDITS:

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TRANSCRIPT:

The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.

Now.Leading teams is a really important part of ministry.Healthy churches need healthy teams now.Regalia has been a leader of a number of ministry teams, some he has built himself.Now he leads A-Team he’s inherited as lead pastor at Fellowship Dubai Ray, it is so good to have you back on the one thing.

Good to be here, Jo.You’re now living in Dubai.What’s something you miss about Australia?Don’t say Vegemite.And apart from the grandkids and the kids, I would say green.I love green and I love waves at oceans that want to throw me back out because the water is so flat.

It drives me nuts.So I have to do paddle boarding or something because there’s no waves there.And when there are waves, but that I mean like a foot high, they’ll close the beaches sometimes.But no.Well, I, I think sometimes it’s to let the board riders finally have their moment in the sun.

But it it’s, we love it there.Awesome.Well, we’re looking forward to hearing from you today on The One Thing.But for now, you’ve pressed play on another episode of The One Thing leading teams you’ve inherited.Today’s podcast is brought to you by Expedia.

Are you ready to explore help with your church bookkeeping and payroll?Contact the friendly specialist at XDR.That’s EX dia.com dot AU.And now back to the podcast.Well, right.

As I mentioned, you’ve inherited A-Team at Fellowship Dubai and you’ve built A-Team when you were the senior minister at MBM.Can you talk to us about some of the differences between building a team versus inheriting a team?Well, building a team, I did it over 32 years, so I got to make lots of mistakes over a long period of time.

Probably mistakes I didn’t realise that.I mean, I tell you what, the one area I was so thankful for never with respect to godliness.So, you know, if you make the fruit of the Spirit a non-negotiable, it’s amazing you, you do get away with a lot, so to speak.

And so I’m really thankful that that was a core value from the very beginning, you know, people who were tried and tested.And so we, we, we wanted to value fruit of the Spirit over gifts of the Spirit.And so that that allowed those mistakes that happen.I mean, when you, when you restructure and, and, or you realise the person’s not in the right role and all that, that, that, that kind of worked well because I think you were dealing with people who are godly and able to adjust to some change and, and they themselves didn’t put themselves at the centre of the story.

So that’s so that’s, I think that that’s, that’s been one thing.I haven’t made a mistake.And I think, but with regards to growing it, yeah, it, it took me a long time to think through structure.I’m a like, I, I think relationally, not structurally.

And so these things came to me quite late in my ministry, like 10-15 years later.And it kind of evolved from having a specialised ministry model to then taking on where we took on the purpose model in 2010.Cause we couldn’t cope with the growth that was happening with the new building that had arisen mid people were falling through the cracks.

Staff, we, we, we weren’t working the, the staff weren’t in the right places with the clear goal to achieve the purposes that God would have for the church.So working all that out took some time, but with the key was right mentoring for me personally and just having a really good set of mentors that helped me in that, as well as the kind of wisdom that reach gave or pre reach, if I put it that way, all the people who make reach reach kind of were ministering to me and the staff.

And and so just journeying through organisational structures, you know how to cut the cake of ministry.You can cut in different ways by getting the right healthy ecosystem staffing to having a clear structure, staffing to that structure.What I used to do is like, they’d be the next fad that came from the States and you, I think we need to employ someone for that.

And it was always reactive rather than thinking, no, this is what, what kind of church do we want to present to Jesus on the last day?What are those things that mark a healthy church and then create portfolios or purposes around that and then staff them?

Now that was a slow evolution at MBM, but one that I came to a resolution on with with much greater clarity by the end.And so it was lovely.By the time I left, I know Danny felt like we had the right structure, the right role, subscriptions, organisational accountability was clear.

I had the right staff and the right role.So like, I really felt like, wow, it’s like a moment we’re kind of confirmed it was it was OK to leave.Yeah.Yeah, nice.And you touched on earlier what you look for in a team member and you mentioned fruit of the Spirit, godliness as you were building the team at MBM.

Anything else you were looking?For OK, there’s kind of like it’s those those seas, aren’t they?But I think I worked out about 8 seas.We don’t have the time to go through them all, but obviously character conviction, you know, are they conduits to leadership?Do they raise up teams?

That’s it.That was a key one.Chemistry.I mean, you know, there are really, there are outstanding leaders here at Reach I could probably not work for and I respect them, but I just think there’s a, you got to understand the humanity of the, of the, of the thing.And so chemistry wise, probably I wouldn’t fit their church and they probably wouldn’t fit my church.

So, yeah, working out and not apologising for that, you know, what’s that?Chemistry at convictions, Obviously, no, not just in terms of theological, but also in terms of philosophy of ministry.So that it’s amazing how a little difference at point A ends up being a big difference at point E Yeah.

And so just trying to work out that you’re generally on the same page.And then someone who’s, you know, like I’m a, I’m a grey thinker.I I’m not a black and white thinker that has its weaknesses.You’re black and white thinker that has its its strengths and weaknesses, but knowing who you are and able to sort of have enough self awareness and EQ to know that that my perception of the world isn’t infallible.

Even my theological world isn’t infallible and I need others to speak into it.And that there’s no well rounded leader.There’s just a well rounded team and I don’t have to have all the answers.And a good leader doesn’t have to have all the answers.What he needs to do is raise up leaders and allow them to be the best they can be as we seek to grow the gospel and and create healthy churches that we present to Jesus on the last day.

Yeah.So we’ve talked a little bit about building a tape at MBM, moving to Dubai.You’ve inherited a team that already existed and that’s that’s usually what happens for a senior pastor.When you inherited that team, what helped your team?

What helped you as a leader?What kind of things were you thinking through as you took on leadership of that team?Well, I, I knew I was going cross culturally, so I was entering into another world.And by cross cultural, I mean, Oh my goodness, you know, 120 different nations represented in the church and 200 in the country.

You, you know, the, the three colour world view, you know, of cultures, you know, there’s innocent guilt, which is western, There’s shame, honour and power fear.And I, because I’m Maltese, my shame, honour and my innocent guilt is probably about the same perspective.

That’s why I probably feel I’ve always felt slightly odd in Sydney, in Sydney evangelical churches, because it’s a higher value for me to shame on an element.But you’re working with people who actually drenched in each of those cultures and boy, you can bud up really hard.

So we have training every month on this issue.And you know what, it’s actually been helpful even reading the Bible because the Bible has a lot of shame on a power fear issues going on there.And it even, you even see the way in which the cross solves not just guilt, but shame and fear as well.

So it gives you kind of a framework to open up.But as it pertains to staffing, we’re we’re forever coming back to that issue and seeing and not seeing that one is right ones wrong.I think that’s the mistake.It it’s just that this is the fullness of humanity and recognising if we’re going to love and work together, we need to understand that as I relate to you, I need to relate to you on your terms.