Is your children’s ministry team one-dimensional? This question applies to any church size because your Kidmin team can be made up of paid staff, volunteers, or a combination of the two. We all want to grow the ministry God’s given us, but that will be challenging if your team’s gifts and skills all look the same. Growth requires different types of people working for a common goal.

The Working Geniuses

Our children’s ministry staff recently read the book,  The Six Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni. In his book, Lencioni maintains that there are six character traits that help accomplish all business tasks. These center around the ability to question the way things are to provoke the team to action, invent solutions, intuition when judging situations, rally and motivate people, provide support to others, and push the project across the finish line. According to the author, each person excels in two of the six. The remaining four are split between competencies and frustrations.

I oversee curriculum development and production for our church. My “geniuses” revolve around creative solutions to problems and discerning which ideas will likely work. However, my frustrations fall in the areas of finishing the project and providing support. If you’re like me, you’re always looking for the next problem to solve. That’s great, but the current project still has to be completed. Thankfully, I have a teammate who is great at helping and finishing those essential tasks that drive me crazy. When we looked at our “geniuses,” we realized why we make such a great curriculum team.

Creating a Balanced Team
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The challenge is that we don’t always consider how giftings and abilities align when forming a team. If we’re honest, availability is usually our most desired quality. Our teams become top-heavy in one direction or the other. For instance, a team may be
strong on details and organization and weak on creativity. To be truly successful, you need each gifting represented. None of these traits are better or more important than the others.

This isn’t a mandate to break up your current team. But it is a great time to think about the people you hire. While we may not pay our volunteers, treating the recruitment process with a hiring mentality is helpful. How does this volunteer fit our structure? What gifts and abilities do he or she bring to the table? Maybe you’re a lone staff member in the children’s area (I was for a decade), could you build a team of volunteer leaders to assist you in the same way you’d use a paid staff? If so, what qualities do you need on your team?

Staff to Your Weaknesses
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In leadership, it’s essential that you staff to your weaknesses. The temptation many leaders fall into is only picking people who mirror that leader’s strengths. Why? It’s comfortable. Having people on your team who are wired just like you will make life so much easier and less complicated. It will also restrict growth. Comfort isn’t the goal in ministry. In fact, we must fight the urge to be comfortable. You won’t be as effective without a multitude of skills represented.

Volunteers or staff whose gifts differ will push you to improve. The differences may get under your skin from time to time. That’s exactly what you need. Think about Proverbs 27:17. It’s often quoted in leadership contexts. Iron sharpens iron. How does that happen? Through friction. Your ministry won’t grow to the level it can reach without friction. I’m not advocating strife. That’s different. But people with different gifts and skills will inevitably rub each other the wrong way. Each gifting sees the world in a slightly different way. That resistance is what sharpens our ministries. Instead of a myopic view of ministry, a well-rounded team will create higher-quality ideas. The different perspectives will make your Sunday services and special events stronger.

Who have you invited on this adventure we call ministry? Do they all look, talk, and think the same? That’s your cue to recruit people with other skills. If you haven’t built your team yet, pray and ask God to help you identify potential volunteers or staff who will bring the skills and gifts you need to grow. We weren’t meant to do ministry alone or only with people who work just like us. Our ministries thrive when all of God’s gifts are at work.

Dwayne Riner has been in children’s ministry for over two decades. He serves on the children’s ministry team at The Ark Church in Conroe, TX. Dwayne oversees the development of the curriculum for birth through 5th grade. The Ark Church provides its curriculum to other ministries at no charge through https://lessons.church. Dwayne and his wife, Staci, have been married for 25 years and have two children.
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