Ministries cannot grow and thrive when everyone involved holds a dog-eat-dog mentality. Creating a kingdom-minded culture means the people on your team want to help each other win because of the bigger picture and purpose. So, how do you guard against those you lead becoming so myopic that you end up with deeply fragmented teams?
I recently talked about this with Dr. Tripp Atkinson, the NextGen Pastor at the church where I pastor, for Episode 4 of the Leadership Culture Matters podcast series: We Win When My Win is Helping You Win. Here are a few highlights from our conversation on how to work together effectively in a world that often encourages us to live self-centeredly.
Corporately: Creating an Environment of Mutual Ownership
One of the greatest threats to growing businesses and ministries is when everyone looks out for themselves. Something Tripp mentioned was having worked in contexts before where every department was siloed, meaning you only look out for your corner of the ministry. You want your department's metrics to look the best. You may even be laser-focused on getting that promotion or that raise yourself. But the get-ahead mentality isn’t a kingdom-minded perspective.
As leaders, we must purposefully create environments of mutual ownership - meaning the individual teams and people within your church, business, or ministry aren't solely focused on their own performance. Instead, they are willing to help across teams. They support and encourage one another because they know everyone wins when they work together and help each other succeed.
This can look like departments being willing to give one another extra time, resources, and opportunities. It means refusing to hold tightly to the mentality of “Sorry, that's not in my job description, so I can't possibly help.” When Tripp first joined our team and started attending meetings, he couldn’t help but notice the shoutouts across departments where people thanked other teams who helped them win.
While this mindset may be challenging to implement because it asks a lot of every team member, it's worth the effort. When everyone buys into it, you will accomplish far more together, and the work environment will become healthier and more pleasant.
Personally: Learning to Live “We” Over “Me”
Are you living more "we" or "me" as a leader? As we learned in previous episodes, you cannot create a culture you don’t live in personally.
One of the greatest enemies of the gospel is Satan and the many ways he fights against it. But it's not that he needs you to believe in him. He just needs you to believe in you. He loves it when you are consumed with your desires, your wants, your needs, your dreams, and your aspirations.
One of the beautiful things that happens when people develop their identity in Christ, though, is that they begin to think of Jesus and His kingdom over self. Because they are secure in their eternity, the fear of hell is gone, and the weight of sin is off their shoulders. Yes, they still feel conviction, but not condemnation. They know they are fully forgiven, bound for heaven, sealed, secured, and loved by God. That means they can start living to bring glory and honor to Jesus, making His name known.
When heaven is our home, and Christ is our identity, we can begin to eliminate viewing life through a lens of "I need, I want, I'm fulfilled, I'm most happy," and start thinking in terms of "we." We can start functioning as the people of God, working together for the glory of God.
Eternally: Pointing People to Jesus
Ultimately, we need to know what the aim of our leadership is.
Tripp shared that one of his academic mentors defines leadership simply as "moving people from here to there." For followers of Christ, we have a calling and a mission to move people from where they are to where they can discover and live God's best for their lives. This is the gospel.
So, as believers, one of the aims of our leadership should be to point people to Christ. This is, again, where we think “we” over “me.” Tripp reminded us that we are a part of a massive army called the Body of Christ. In the end, it doesn't matter what church has the most people or the best buildings or programs. We don’t need to compete or compare with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to lock arms with them. We need to serve relentlessly, fight the good fight every day, and do what we can together corporately to move people from where they are into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
You can hear more about how the idea of "we win when my win is helping you win" applies to ministry, business, and our personal lives when you listen to Episode 4 of the Leadership Culture Matters Podcast featuring Dr. Tripp Atkinson here.