The Church Revitalization Podcast – Episode 264
Many organizations find themselves caught in an endless cycle of talking about what needs to be done rather than actually doing it. This gap between discussion and action isn’t just frustrating—it’s a significant barrier to organizational growth and effectiveness.
Building a true culture of collaboration isn’t just about getting people in a room together or creating more committees. It’s about establishing systems and practices that transform good intentions into tangible results. Whether you’re leading a small ministry team or a megachurch staff, the challenge remains the same: how do you move from endless deliberation to meaningful action?
The good news is that creating a collaborative culture isn’t complicated, though it does require intentional effort and consistent application of key principles. By understanding the core challenges that keep you from effective collaboration and implementing specific solutions to address them, every church can develop a more effective approach to working together.
Let’s explore the major obstacles that prevent effective collaboration and, more importantly, how to overcome them to create lasting change in your ministry.
The Barriers to Good Collaboration
Time Constraints
Time constraints present the first major hurdle to effective collaboration. Most church teams meet monthly at best, creating a persistent cycle of lost momentum. You discuss important initiatives in one meeting, but by the time the next gathering rolls around, you’re essentially starting the conversation fresh. This pattern becomes even more problematic when meetings get canceled or rescheduled due to conflicts. When you constantly push meetings back to accommodate various schedules, you send an unintended message that these planning sessions aren’t really a priority.
The Talk-Action Gap
The second challenge is what we might call the talk-action gap. Put simply, it’s easier to discuss problems and solutions than to implement them. The incentive structures in most churches inadvertently reward discussion over action. Everyone wants to be a decision-maker, but fewer people are eager to be the ones executing those decisions. This creates a dangerous imbalance where meetings become forums for endless deliberation rather than launching pads for meaningful action. And in the end, it prevents you from being a fully healthy church.
Temperament & Conflict
Finally, temperamental differences in approaching conflict can significantly impact collaboration. When teams start working together on important issues, underlying tensions often surface. Some team members may interpret this emergence of different viewpoints as creating division, when in reality, collaboration simply reveals what was already there. It’s like lifting a rock in your garden – you’re not creating the insects underneath; you’re just making them visible. Depending on individual comfort levels with conflict and direct communication, these revelations can either lead to productive discussion or shut down meaningful dialogue altogether.
These challenges might seem daunting, but they’re not insurmountable. Understanding them is the first step toward creating effective solutions that can transform how your team works together.
Solutions for Building a Collaborative Culture
Prioritizing Planning
The solution to time constraints begins with a fundamental shift in how we approach planning itself. First and foremost, planning meetings must be scheduled well in advance – not just weeks, but months ahead. Instead of trying to find dates that work for everyone and then scheduling around them, set the dates first and build your team around who can commit to those times. We previously wrote this article on strategic planning rhythms, where we outline a sustainable schedule for meetings.
Now, this might seem counterintuitive, but it’s crucial: have the meeting even if everyone can’t attend. When you constantly reschedule to accommodate various conflicts, you communicate that these sessions aren’t truly important. By maintaining your scheduled meetings regardless of perfect attendance, you reinforce that planning is a priority, not an afterthought.
Most importantly, churches need to understand that strategic planning should be a habit, not just a moment. While certain elements of your strategy – like mission statements or core values – might only need review every five or so years, other aspects require regular attention. This means establishing different types of planning rhythms: annual sessions for big-picture strategy, quarterly reviews for measuring progress, and monthly check-ins for tactical adjustments.
When you prioritize planning in this way, you create a culture where strategic thinking becomes part of your church’s DNA rather than an occasional exercise. This consistent approach helps eliminate the stop-start pattern that often derails collaborative efforts and ensures that momentum builds over time rather than dissipating between meetings.
Clearly Defining Roles
To bridge the gap between talking and doing, churches need to fundamentally rethink their approach to teams and committees. The first step is to abolish purely deliberative committees – groups that only discuss and decide but never actually implement. While there are some exceptions to this rule (such as finance teams and senior leadership/elder boards), most teams should be action-oriented rather than oversight and advisory-focused.
Simply changing a committee’s name to “team” isn’t enough – it’s about changing what they actually do. Real teams do real work together. They don’t just meet to discuss what should be done; they actively participate in implementation between meetings. This shift requires creating clear position descriptions that outline not just meeting attendance expectations, but specific actions and time commitments required between meetings. In the Healthy Churches Toolkit, we have dozens of plug-and-play job descriptions for ministry teams to help your team focus on action.
The exceptions to this rule are important to note. Finance teams, for instance, naturally function as deliberative bodies, reviewing budgets and making spending decisions that others will implement. Similarly, senior leadership or elder teams might maintain a roughly 65-35 ratio of deliberative to action-oriented work, as their role involves creating vision and overseeing its implementation rather than handling every tactical detail.
For all other teams, the expectation should be clear: membership means commitment to action, not just participation in discussions. When team members understand this from the outset, it transforms how they approach their role and increases the likelihood of actually accomplishing objectives rather than just talking about them.
Preserving Clear Communication
The key to managing different temperaments and approaches to conflict lies in establishing and maintaining clear lines of communication. While this might sound simple, it’s one of those principles that’s easy to understand but challenging to implement consistently.
For senior leaders, this means setting clear expectations for meetings while being intentionally last to share their opinions. Why? Because leaders carry such significant influence that their early input can inadvertently chill further discussion. By establishing ground rules for open dialogue but reserving their own perspective until others have spoken, leaders create space for varying viewpoints to emerge.
Another crucial aspect is becoming comfortable with silence. In addressing difficult topics, moments of quiet aren’t failures of communication – they’re opportunities. These pauses create doorways for more hesitant voices to contribute, often leading to valuable insights that might otherwise remain unshared.
Finally, leaders should actively engage quieter team members. Rather than hoping they’ll eventually speak up, directly invite their perspective: “Susan, what are your thoughts on this?” Breaking larger groups into smaller discussion pairs or triads can also help, as it’s much harder to remain silent in a group of two or three than in a room of fifteen.
The goal isn’t to achieve unanimous agreement on every issue, but rather to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute. Success looks like having 100% of team members feeling at least 80% good about decisions – a realistic target that maintains both unity and forward momentum.
It’s Time to Work Together
Building a culture of collaboration in your church isn’t about implementing complex systems or radical changes. Instead, it’s about consistently applying straightforward principles that transform how teams work together. By prioritizing planning through consistent scheduling, creating action-oriented teams with clear responsibilities, and fostering open communication that welcomes all voices, churches can bridge the gap between discussion and implementation.
The key is remembering that collaboration isn’t just about getting people in a room together – it’s about creating an environment where meaningful work gets done. When teams understand their roles, commit to action rather than endless deliberation, and feel empowered to contribute their perspectives, the result is more than just better meetings – it’s tangible progress toward Kingdom-centered goals.
True collaboration doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional effort and consistent application of these principles. But for organizations willing to make these changes, the reward is a dynamic culture where ideas don’t just get discussed – they get implemented.
The choice is clear: continue the cycle of talking about what needs to be done, or build a culture where collaboration leads to real results. The principles are simple. The path is clear. The only question is whether you’re ready to take the first step.
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Scott Ball is the Vice President and a Lead Guide with The Malphurs Group. He lives in East Tennessee with his wife and two children. (Email Scott).
