Embracing a Team Mentality to Spark Growth at Your Church with Aaron Tredway

Welcome to the unSeminary podcast – so glad that you have decided to tune in. This week we have with us Aaron Tredway, Lead Pastor of Fellowship City Church in Ohio.

As church leaders, we know that when we empower others, we can accomplish more together than we can alone. But it can be hard to “give your job away”. Listen to today’s podcast as Aaron shares how the team mentality at Fellowship City Church has allowed them to turn around from a place of decline to growth.

* Team philosophy on leadership. // There’s always a temptation to fill the gap yourself rather than bring others in to raise them up and release them. Church leaders wear a lot of different hats and we have limited capacity so we have to get creative about problem solving. Team leadership can be a solution to our limitations, but it requires us to lay down our egos and not build the ministry around our own personalities.* Team preaching. // One example of team leadership at Fellowship City Church is the preaching team. Every Thursday this team of more than ten people meets to do a full runthrough of the message, whether Aaron or another person on the team is preaching. The team vets the message together and, as a result, on Sundays it’s really the voice of the team bringing the message even though one person is communicating it.* Give your job away. // At Fellowship City Church, the staff is taught to embrace a team mentality where they are working themselves out of their jobs. Everyone needs to hold their position and title loosely, and intentionally think about how they can operate from a place that serves the team best. To combat fears about being replaced, Aaron reminds us that because there is always enough work to go around and enough people that need to be reached, there will always be an important place for people to serve out of their callings. * Help them find their place. // To help people at the church get plugged in, a vocational paid staff at Fellowship City Church created a leadership system that raises people up and releases them into ministry. He worked to get the system off the ground, but then handed it off to unpaid staff who are now facilitating it. Rather than shy away from empowering volunteers in these roles, create intentional touch points to help them continue to grow in their leadership while staying aligned with the church’s mission and vision.* Aim for significance, not success. // As people start to reach their life goals, they have a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, but it doesn’t last. Aaron has written the book, Don’t Miss Your Life: The Secret to Significance, which reveals that many of us are dissatisfied with our lives because we are aimed at the target of success rather than the target of significance. Gift this practical guide and read it together with your team to discover how we can find a life of meaning in God’s kingdom.

You can learn more about what’s happening at Fellowship City Church by visiting fellowshipcity.org, or find out more about Aaron and his book at aarontredway.com.

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