We have numerous teams at King’s for different areas of ministry – pastoral teams, worship teams, programme teams and so on. Over the years I have led or been part of many of these, but I now find myself on just five key teams, three in my home church and two in Newfrontiers. I lead three of these and sit on the other two. It is important to be aware of the role you have in any team context and adjust accordingly.

The ability to build effective teams is a key skill for leaders, one which hopefully I have become better at with experience. This week I am meeting with eight of our younger staff to talk about the importance of building teams. Here are some of the things I will be encouraging them to consider:
 
1. Get the right people in the room. I am slow to appoint new people to a team, especially ones that carry a lot of responsibility. Jesus spent a whole night in prayer before appointing the twelve disciples. I try to spend time getting to know someone before inviting them to join a team.

2. It is helpful to ask people to sit in on a team before confirming their position. This gives space for both the new person and the team leader to see if their gifting is a good fit before making their appointment official.

3. Help your team to catch your heart. To do that you need to spend time with them. John Maxwell says, 'A person with experience learns that people buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.' For a team to catch your vision, they need to feel they know you. Part of my motivation for meeting with our younger staff members is that I want them to get to know me, catch my heart and so catch the vision for the church.

4. Team culture is set by the leader. The leader sets far more than the agenda! You also set the culture, temperature and pace e.g., relaxed or formal, consultative or authoritarian.

5. Leaders need to give time to future development of the team. By this I mean considering the future needs of a team. Where are the potential gaps? What about diversity? How can I bring in the next generation? Thinking about the next appointment is a key leadership role.

Of course there is a lot more I could say on this subject, but hopefully the group I meet with today will find this helpful.

On Vision Sunday a couple of weeks ago, I spoke about our plan to gather the church for 21 days of prayer in January.

In preparation for this, I have been reading around the subject of prayer. I have begun with Tim Keller’s excellent book Prayer – Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. Like many of Keller’s books, it is content rich. It is not a quick read – each chapter requires focussed time to digest – but it is certainly worthwhile. It is both an encouragement and an inspiration to persevere in prayer. It has already helped my prayer life and I commend it to you all.

I am excited about starting next year with 21 days of prayer. Throughout this three-week period, we will be gathering the four sites together for an hour’s corporate prayer each day between 7pm and 8pm, beginning on Monday 6 January. I am aiming to be at all of them, and I have already heard from several others who plan to do the same. I am encouraging everyone at King’s to come to as many of the 21 prayer meetings as possible. In fact, why not put the dates in your diary now? If we are to see the fulfilment of Vision 2030 – to reach thousands of people and serve hundreds of churches – prayer needs to be at the heart of everything we do.

At our recent Vision Sunday, I asked King’s to respond to God’s call upon us as a local church by taking two steps: the first was a call to prayer, the second a call to give.

King’s is a remarkably generous church, and many are giving sacrificially in response to the grace we have received in Christ. This year I have asked 500 households to increase their monthly giving by at least £10 per month, and to also bring an additional one-off gift towards Vision 2030 at our two gift days in November. The first of these is this Sunday, 3rd November, and the second will be the following week. I’d like to encourage you to consider prayerfully what you can bring to the offering on either of these two Sundays. Deb and I have already looked at our budget and prayed together and will be ready to bring our offering this Sunday. The ongoing generosity of King’s is an essential part of fulfilling the vision God has given us to Reach, Restore and Resource.

If you would like to know more about King’s philosophy of giving, have a look at this video interview I did a few years ago.

The Vision 2030 update leaflet is available here and the invitation/giving review form here.

We returned yesterday from an excellent couple of days away with The Richmond Group. This is an annual gathering of leaders from some of the movements, networks and larger churches in the UK, hosted by Nicky Gumbel from HTB and Pastor Agu from Jesus House.

One of the highlights was a helpful discussion around the issue of diversity. As part of the programme, Nicky interviewed Ben Lindsay who recently published We Need to Talk about Race, about the black experience in white majority churches. He spoke with much grace, courage and honesty on this important subject. I have known Ben for many years, as he was saved on an Alpha course at King’s, and I recommend his book to you.

Building a diverse church is a high value of King’s. We have learnt a huge amount over the last couple of decades (and made many mistakes along the way!) as the church has become increasingly diverse, but there is always more to learn. If you are new to the church or interested in finding out more, I encourage you to take a look at Invited, our most recent teaching series on diversity. 

The Richmond Group meets at Lambeth Palace, which sits on the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament. We were highly conscious of the important political debates taking place across the river as we were meeting, and our time together concluded with a powerful time praying and calling out to God for our nation. As our politicians continue to be as divided as ever as to what should happen next regarding the UK’s future with the EU, it was good to finish with a reminder that we put our trust in a God far mightier and more powerful than any one politician or political ideology.