Articles
Mackin, Sandra. “Multinational Teams: Smooth as Silk or Rough as Rawhide.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 28 (1992): 134-140.
Jarvenpaa, Sirkka L. and Dorothy E. Leidner. Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams (1989). Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication’s 3 (4) June 1998
Books
Barna, George. Building Effective Lay Leadership Teams. Ventura, CA Issachar Resources, 2001.
Chalke, Steve with Penny Relph, Making A Team Work, Kingsway, Eastbourne, 1995
Cladis, George, Leading The Team-Based Church: How Pastors and Church Staffs Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1999
Cordeiro, Wayne. Doing Church as a Team.
Cormack, Dr David, Team Spirit: People Working With People, MARC Europe, 1987
Heuser, Roger (ed.), Leadership & Team Building: Transforming Congregational Ministry Through Teams, Christian Ministry Resources, Matthews, North Carolina, 1999
Jones, Gordon & Rosemary, Teamwork, Scripture Union, London, 1995
Maxwell, John C., The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 2002
Murphy, John J., Pulling Together: The Power of Teamwork, Wynwood, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1997
Ott, E. Stanley, Transform Your Church with Ministry Teams, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2004
(See VitalChurchesInstitute.com.)
Cross-cultural Teams
Matveev, Alexei V. The Perception of Intercultural Communication Competence by American and Russian Managers with Experience on Multicultural Teams. 2002 (209 page dissertation)
Roembke, Lianne. Building Credible Multicultural Teams. Pasadena, California: William Carey Library, 2000.
- Leveling the Playing Field on Cross-cultural Teams– article from Harvard Business Review blog recommended by Sophia Wang
- Tip #1: Increase awareness of the challenges faced by team members from other cultures
- Tip #2: Make the team norms explicit
- Tip #3: Work hard to create a psychologically safe and inclusive team environment
- Tip #4: Dedicate time and resources to skill building
Building Strong Teams
- Kinlaw’s Pillars of Commitment
- Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility – book by Duane Elmer, recommended by Frank Severn.
- What strong teams have in common (Gallup Management Journal)
- Home Cell Group Explosion: How Your Small Group Can Grow and Multiply [With Study Guide]by Joel Comiskey. Highly recommended by Leif Gustafson, team leader in Siberia. He writes, “I love to think of my team as a cell group because it makes my ministry clearer for me. Even if you only look at the page on what contributes to cell group multiplication and what doesn’t (at the end of chapter one if I remember correctly) it makes this a worthwhile read. It is good at helping make priorities with our relationship with God and prayer for those we are caring for being at the very top of the list.”
- Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page by Larry Osborne. Larry Thiessen recommends this book and says, “This book focuses on how to keep your leadership team and staff on the same page. It gives very practical advice to church boards or leadership teams on how to build and maintain unity as well as explaining some of the growing pains of a leadership team that can cause disunity.”
Trust in Teaming
- Building Trust on a Team – list of discussion questions, activities and resources put together by Ken Guenther. References many of the articles below.
- The #1 Essential for your ministry team – article by Robert Crosby
- The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything a book by Stephen M. R. Covey. Summarized by David Mays on his web site.
- Team-building activities that build trust and interdependence – from MindTools
- The Currency of Trust: the difference between flourishing and floundering.
- Understanding the Trust Equation – (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-orientation = Trustworthiness.
- See also The Trust Quotient and the Science Behind It, explaining the implications of this equation
- The Four Trust Principles – A focus on the other, a collaborative approach, medium-to-long-term relationship perspective, and a habit of being transparent
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
- Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) also by Patrick Lencioni
- Other products from Pat Lencioni and the Table group to be used in training and assessing your team regarding the five dysfunctions
Team building activities
Team Covenants
- A book by Patrick Lai that talks about the importance of team covenants – Tentmaking: The Life and Work of Business as Missions
This page was last checked for dead links on August 17, 2026.