Articles

Learning from ants: a look at evangelists and cross-cultural missionaries. Lausanne World Pulse: June 01, 2007.
Learning from ants: intelligent swarms in many settings. Lausanne World Pulse: September 01, 2007.
Learning from ants: missionary teams and the pyramid model. Lausanne World Pulse: August 01, 2007.
Learning from ants: missionary teams and the skyscraper analogy. Lausanne World Pulse: July 01, 2007.
Learning from ants: the possibility of missionary swarms. Lausanne World Pulse: October 01, 2007.
When Team Relationships take a Dive by Chris Bocutt 03/05
 
Mackin, Sandra. “Multinational Teams: Smooth as Silk or Rough as Rawhide.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 28 (1992): 134-140.

At missionarycare.com (tons of links to article summaries)

Team Development

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 (www.leadnet.org)
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 or vitalfaithresources.com. For weekly letter of encouragement buildingoneanother.org.)

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.

At the SEND U resource page

Multi-cultural teaming

• Regina Washko’s session at 2011 Eurasia Family Conference
  • PDF Multi-Cultural Teaming EURASIA SEND 2011-06.pdf
  • Handout Core Values in Concentric Circles.pdf
  • Handout_Patterns of Logic – Eurasia Conference.pdf
  • Handout_Patterns of Logic – Eurasia Conference.doc
  • Handout Direct- Indirect Exercise to fill out – für Eurasia-Konferenz.docx
• Filipinos and Americans Working Together.docx – written by Joy Lao
• 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

Team Building Activities / Games

Crowd Breakers & Mixers For Youth Groups  By Youth Specialties
Crowd Breakers And Mixers 2  By Youth Specialties
Miller, Brian Cole More Quick Team-Building Activities For Busy Managers  
Miller, Brian Cole Quick Teambuilding Activities For Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results In Just 15 Minutes
Rohnke, Karl Quicksilver: Adventure Games, Initiative Problems, Trust Activities And A Guide To Effective Leadership  
Rohnke, Karl E. Cowstails And Cobras Ii: A Guide To Games, Initiatives, Ropes Courses & Adventure Curriculum  
Rohnke, Karl. Funn ‘N Games  
Special Events For Youth Groups  By Youth Specialties
Trent, John, Rodney Cox, Eric Tooker Leading From Your Strengths: Building Close-Knit Ministy Teams 

Recommendations at the SEND U Missions Resource Page

Building Strong Teams

• Keys to Strong Teams– PowerPoint by Ken Guenther adapted from PP by Frank Severns.
  • Keys to Strong Teams (Russian)
• 10 signs of a healthy team
• Why Teams Fail – Dealing with Friction and Dissension – webinar by the Ken Blanchard Companies
• Good Teams, Bad Teams: Under What Conditions Do Missionary Teams Function Effectively? — article by David R. Dunaetz
• Kinlaw’s Pillars of Commitment
• Five common questions about building teams of missionaries
• Team Development Stages
• Taking Time to Listen and Provide Feedback – article from Ken Blanchard Companies’ newsletter
• 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)
• Belbin Team Roles – an assessment tool that looks at team roles. We have used it with the International Leadership Team. It is a little pricey but gives great insight on the different roles that team members play.
• Understanding Yourself – links to a variety of self-assessment tools
• 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.”
• The Performance Factor: Unlocking the Secrets of Teamwork by Pat MacMillan It’s a great book on teamwork that could greatly impact your ability to lead a team.

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.
• Discussion guide from FER – on the topic of building trust on a ministry team, with comparison of teams that have trust and those that don’t.
• Team-building activities that build trust and interdependence – from MindTools
• A trust survey which has been used by our Macedonia field in 3 successive years. This survey was adapted from Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust. The two survey files are pretty much the same, with one being for self and the other being for the team or the Ministry Leadership Team for the area. The Macedonia area did both of these the first year, and then each year after that they just did the team survey.
  • Team trust survey
  • Self trust survey
  • Survey on Survey Monkey
• 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
• Kindle highlights of Five Dysfunctions by Dave Brubacher.
• Diagram explaining the 5 dysfunctions
• Ministry Team Diagnostics – How to avoid the 5 most common dysfunctions of a ministry team an article by Nancy Ortberg
• 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

• A Tale of Three Team Leaders (simulation game) (created by Ted & Wendy Szymczak) – used at 2013 Ukraine annual conference by Alfie Mosse.
• http://wilderdom.com/games/
• http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/ index.php?title=Main_Page
• http://top7business.com/?id= 1200

Team Covenants

• TEAM COVENANT sample 1.docx
• TEAM COVENANT sample 2.docx
• TEAM COVENANT sample.docx
• Ministry Team Charter Template.docx
• 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 May 31, 2016.