The Team Leadership Podcast

It's been a great second season for the Team Leadership Podcast, but it's time to take a break to prepare for the next one. Peyton, Andrea, and Barry are taking a short hiatus to rest, plan, and pave the way for another round of episodes with the Team Leadership Podcast. Sit tight and we'll be uploading more episodes soon.

In recent years, bullying and callused leadership has gotten the spotlight, but is it possible to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction? Can leaders be too nice? Peyton and Barry think so! You still need to be able to handle conflict and the difficulties of people who are still being transformed into the image of Jesus.

When we stray too far into being people-oriented, we run the risk of dysfunction and not getting enough done through our organizations. Yet if we go too far towards being task-oriented, our team members end up just being numbers that show up for work. We use people to accomplish tasks. But why do we think that being task-oriented and people-oriented are at odds? Peyton and Barry believe that we need to value people and still get tasks done. The best way to do this is through investing in people to develop them, which allows them to work most efficiently and the organization thrives. Listen in to learn more.

Without innovation and creativity, a church will die because it will fail to keep up with a changing world. Even though God doesn't change, the way his church interacts with the rest of the world does need to at some level. Together, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry talk about how to remove obstacles and fear from team dynamics that make it difficult for people to bring forward and pursue new ideas.

Discipleship isn't just about personally following Jesus, it's both relational and interactive. Everyone on your team should be discipled and discipling others - that's how you can begin to catalyze a culture of discipleship in your church. So in this episode, Peyton Jones flies solo and talks about how to disciple others well in the context of team leadership.

Ministry isn't about using people to acheive your objectives, it's about empowering others and helping them be better so that everyone can fulfill God's mission. Mentoring and coaching then are part of a healthy team and in this episode, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry talk about how to create a culture that facilitates mentoring naturally.

Each one of us is an interim leader, which means we need to spend some time focusing on developing other leaders, both to replace us and to go beyond what we're currently doing. But talking about leadership development is the easy part. It's much more difficult to actually identify and develop leaders. Peyton, Andrea, and Barry get practical in this episode, discussing how they've looked for new leaders by observing people in their church, and how they draw out their gifts. They tackle challenging topics, like how to identify leaders who are more introverted and may not display the same type of public qualities that people normally list off for leaders.

Remote work is becoming increasingly common, and while it opens up opportunities for many people, it also presents unique challenges when you're leading a virtual team. Face-to-face leadership varies in signficant ways from digital leadership, so it's important to play by the new rules of the game. Peyton, Andrea, and Barry discuss how to keep your team on track and maximize your time together in this new edition of the Team Leadership Podcast.

Leadership teams lead together, but that can be challenging when everyone has a different style of leadership. Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry as they talk about what the different leadership styles are, what motivates them, and the pros and cons of each. When you understand where both yourself and others are coming from, you can more easily find a path forward.

Change is the only constant in a church plant, so you'd better learn how to lead people through it well. Peyton, Andrea, and Barry talk about how to get buy in and make sure people are heard while you're leading them through change. They also discuss how to work with people who won't agree with you and how not to get bogged down by the 1-2% of people who are always in opposition.

Léonce Crump, pastor of Renovation Church in Atlanta and former NFL player for the Saints joins Peyton Jones on the Team Leadership Podcast to unpack his new book The Resilience Factor: A Step-by-Step Guide to Catalyze an Unbreakable Team. COVID exposed the weaknesses and fragility of church teams and structures as ministers quit and churches closed. Now more than ever, it's important to focus on distributing specialization and responsibility so that your team doesn't crumble under pressure. Among other things, Léonce share the importance of staying dialed in on your purpose as you experiment and seek new paths forward.  

Many leaders don't consider the role that emotional intelligence plays in ministry and on leadership teams. It's an unseen dimension that we aren't trained on or aware of. However, as Peyton and Barry point out in this episode, it's critical to the health of a team. Low emotional intelligence manifests itself through immaturity, insecurity, and a lack of self-awareness. Yet when we get these things right, our teams are able to build trust and accomplish more.

Trust takes months and years to build, but can be lost in a moment. That's why you have to constantly be aware of your words and actions...are they cotinuing to build trust among your team? You don't graduate from building trust. In this episode, Peyton and Andrea talk about how to extend trust to your team by letting people take ownership, how to extinguish gossip before it erodes your culture, and how to make love and serving the foundation of your team environments. 

Could anything be more frustrating that an awesome, capable, healthy, enthusiastic team that can't get anything done because of poor communication? Don't let that happen to your team. Listen in as Peyton, Andrea, and Barry talk about things like being open to questions, repetition, active listening, and the importance of being aware that a message sent is not the same as a message received.

When you put people together, it doesn't matter how much they love Jesus, problems will arise. So what should you do when your team's unity is threatened by disagreement and division? Peyton, Andrea, and Barry dive into the ways you can maintain unity on your team including communication, compromise, and companionship.

Everyone hits a wall in ministry and needs the support of others. That's why team leadership is so valuable. In this episode, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry talk about what to do when you notice that you or someone else needs a break from leadership and how to serve one another well in those seasons.

Times have changed and Gen Z wants to engage in their faith and community in different ways. Chestly Lunday talks with Peyton Jones in this episode about what the newest research tells us when it comes to discipling and empowering Gen Z. They discuss hybrid approaches, accessibility, and how to reach the unreached. Check out Chestly's resources at chestlylunday.com/futureoffaith

We've talked about team leadership, but does the dynamics of a team change in a microchurch setting? Join Peyton and Barry as they talk through what exactly a microchurch is, how to focus on the essentials, and why team leadership is a critical component of any microchurch.

One of the most challenging aspects of ministry leadership is knowing what God's plan is for you and your team. Brittany Ann, founder of Equipping Godly Women, shares how you can identify your gifts and the gifts of others in this podcast. In addition, she discusses with Peyton and Andrea what you can do to create opportunities for people within your ministry based on their gifts.

Peyton, Andrea, and Barry have served on many teams, some of them good, and some of them not so much. In this episode, they discuss some of the best teams that they've been a part of and what made them a great experience. From collaboration to communication and from trust to laughter, find out what you can do to create a great team culture.

Season 2 of The Team Leadership Podcast is here! Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry as the catch up and talk about what they've been doing since the end of season 1. Expect the unexpected as they talk facemasks, cheese, and a leaky shoe, plus find out how to connect with the team and recommend future topics.

It's often difficult to extend trust to others who do things differently than you. Will they mess up? Have I trained them well enough? Are they ready for this responsibility? The reality is, people are going to make mistakes – that's how they learn and improve. But finding the fine line between giving people enough freedom to make minor mistakes while protecting them from making major errors isn't a natural ability. Peyton, Andrea, and Barry discuss in this episode how give people the right amount of freedom so that you aren't micromanaging or running a ministry into the ground.

Scripture is meant to be a tool for encouragement and inspiration. Something that you can use to cheer people on...not a weapon to bludgeon someone with or make them feel guilty. To avoid misusing scripture, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry talk about how you can cultivate a heart of humility, realizing that you don't have everything figured out, and you should continually be open to learning and revising what you know about the Bible and the ways of God.

We're excited to announce that NewBreed's resources are being used in nearly 50 countries around the world! Peyton Jones shares, in this special message, where NewBreed is making an impact and how you can be a part. For $25/month, you can help us train an indigenous missionary. As an added bonus, any new donors that sign up during December at $25/month or more will receive a free bag of Commissional Coffee. Donate at: https://newbreedtraining.com/giving/

When people encounter your church, they should encounter a community full of grace. Too often churches are known for what they're against and for telling people how to behave. Then, when people don't behave as expected, they either hide their true feelings and actions in order to remain, or they leave. But in a Jesus-centered, grace-filled church, there's room for shortcomings and people just embarking on the journey of following Jesus. Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry as they talk about how to practically create an atmosphere of grace in your church and leadership team.

Your job when discipling someone is to nurture their soul and help them form a deeper relationship with God. Easy, right? For something expected of all Christians, discipleship can go wrong in a lot of ways. But Peyton and Barry discuss on this week's episode how to keep your discipling relationship grounded in love and healthy.

One reason you need a healthy leadership team in place is to ensure accountability and to be able to protect the victims of any sort of abuse in the church. Often, churches err on the side of protecting a leader instead of protecting a victim, with disastrous consequences. Join Peyton and Barry as they discuss how to navigate difficult situations and create a safe church culture.

Few things shut down a thriving faith community like gossip and the fear that your sins or failures will be the talk of the community. So in this episode, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry discuss how to create a culture of respect and discretion so that people feel loved and comfortable in your church.

It's easy to get defensive and dismiss the criticism of others. Whether it's from anger, insecurity or embarrassment, we often find ways to justify our decisions and behaviors that were out of line. In this episode, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry discuss how to humbly receive correction from others and accept responsibility for our decisions. In doing so, it allows us to lead at the next level and get better over time.

As a closed country, Iran is a particularly difficult place to plant churches, but Nathan Rostampour has helped spark 20 secret house churches that empower new believers and continue to multiply. In this podcast, Nathan shares what it looks like to plant house churches in Iran, why discipleship is the critical engine for multiplication, and how they train leaders to be able to step in at a moment's notice in times of persecution.

When a leadership team is open and honest, it fosters community and builds trust. Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry as they talk about why leaders shy away from honesty and how to keep it at the forefront of your ministry.

Rob Wegner joins Peyton Jones on this week's episode to talk about what a Starfish organization is and why church leaders need to a more decentralized, servant leadership posture. He gives some practical tips for teams that want to plant starfish churches and shares his own personal journey of repentance that led him to this conviction.

Jesus modeled servant leadership for his disciples and then instructed them to lead like he did. But sometimes we make leadership a status symbol instead of a holy responsibility. Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry as they discuss what Biblical sevant leadership looks like. Together, they share stories of ministeres that made an impact on their lives and practical tips for create a culture of servanthood in your church.

In this episode, special guest Caesar Kalinowski talk with Peyton Jones about how to disciple your leadership team. Together, they discuss what it means to disciple someone, why discipleship should be done in community, and how to create situations for people's unbelief to rise to the surface.

Christian leadership should be servant leadership – Jesus made that clear when he washed the disciples' feet. In many churches though, a culture of elitism develops amid Sunday morning productions and mid-week closed door meetings. Members of the church gradually begin to think of leaders as set apart and holier than themselves. Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry as they talk about why this is dangerous and how to prvent it.

Peyton Jones interviews Oneya and Dele Okuwobi of 21st Century Church in this interview on creating APEST teams that are multiethnic and multicultural. Without this key frame of diversity, our leadership will artificially narrow what APEST is designed to reflect.

Peyton, Andrea, and Barry pick up outlining warning signs that a leadership team might be operating in an abusive manner. They discuss why you need to watch out for leaders weaponizing scripture, micromanaging, and creating an elitist atmosphere, among other topics.

Not all leadership teams are healthy and life-giving. Unfortunately, some are abusive and you need to stay as far away from them as possible. This episode begins to lay out some of the warning signs that your leadership team is abusive, such as being unnecessarily secretive or unable to hear constructive criticism.

Most Christians in North America are more familiar with a form of church leadership that sees solo leaders attempt to manage ministry by themselves, retaining all of the most important decisions. After someone is used to that, it's very difficult to transition to a team leadership structure where decisions and direction for the ministry is shared. In this episode, Peyton and Andrea Jones discuss this challenge and how to overcome it.

Neil Cole is one of the most experienced movement leaders around and in this episode he shares what he's learned about planting a movement of microchurches and how how we need to recover essential functions of the APEST to see multiplication. Join Neil and Peyton Jones for an exciting conversation that will drive you to pause and resasses how the Church is best expressed amongst new believers.

The role of men in leadership is being revaluated in the midst of abuse and scandal. Yet these are difficult waters to tread. How do we tell the difference between healthy and toxic masculinity? How should men and women relate to each other in a team leadership setting? Peyton, Andrea, and Barry address these issues and more in the latest edition of the Team Leadership Podcast.

Daniel Yang joins Peyton Jones for this special edition of the Team Leadership Podcast to talk about how marginalized kingdom voices are critical for the future of the Church. Find the article mentioned in this episode about preparing immigrant church planters for North American training here.

Preaching is serious business and has stirred up more than a few arguments about its purpose and the way it's to be handled. While some leaders favor expositional approaches, others preach from burdens or pressing issues more regularly. As Peyton Jones and Barry Waters discuss in this episode, there's more than one right way to preach, depending on your APEST function. That's why, when it comes to team leadership, there shouldn't just be one person that bears all the burden of preaching. 

Even in the most egalitarian churches, women can easily be excluded from leadership and other ministry opportunities. Oftentimes, we fail to recognize and address the way that women have been socialized differently by our culture and churches to take a back seat. In this episode, Peyton and Andrea Jones interview Dr. Susan Harris Howell on what gendered socialization is, why it matters to the church, and how we can remove invisible barriers to women in leadership.

Peyton Jones and Barry Waters have led in APEST ministry structures for years to the point where anything else almost seems foreign. Yet this is not the norm for most churches. In this episode, they discuss whether someone can move back into non-APEST systems after being sold out to that paradigm for so long or whether it "ruins" you for team leadership.

Most ministry leadership teams are male-dominated, but when that happens, we leave much of what God wants to say and do on the table. In this episode, Peyton and Andrea Jones talk with Send Network's Tiffany Smith about how to bridge the gaps in our leadership when it comes to including women.

In this episode, Peyton, Andrea, and Barry continue the conversation on what full time staff roles might look like for each member of a leadership team. Together, they discuss the activities of the evangelist, shepherd, and teacher.

God has wired our brains in incredibly beautiful and surpirising ways. Understanding how he has designed the ways we think and relate to each other is an important part of leading as a team, so Peyton and Andrea Jones sit down with neuroscientist and ministry leader Jessie Cruickshank to crack open how the brain affects team leadership.

One of the most important questions when it comes to team leadership is: how do you divide the labor? It's easy when there's a single person at the top, but how do you decide who does what when there's a leadership team? Peyton and Andrea Jones discuss what it looks like for Apostles and Prophets in the first of two parts on this topic.

Put two people into a room together and they can find something to disagree about. A whole team? Yes, they'll find even more disagree on. So how do you keep disagreements from getting out of hand and derailing the mission? Join Peyton, Andrea, and Barry for a discussion on navigating the politics of team leadership.

If you've ever felt stuck, plateaued, or just lacking clarity, chances are that you need come back to your values. Teams that buy in and agree upon a set of shared values go further and faster together because they feel empowered to make decisions. Join Keri Ladouceur, Peyton Jones, and Andrea Jones for a conversation on team leadership. And check our Keri's book Together as a Team: https://multiplication.org/product/together-as-a-team/