John Laster, Gaining Traction: Field Guide for Leadership Teams. Chalice Press, 2007.
Referenced in: Ministry Staff and Leadership Teams
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is written by a top-shelf consultant and astute observer of congregational life, John Laster. What he offers in this volume is not just a synthesis of the best material on teams (it is that but more). It is a set of tools that have been tested “in the field” through his consulting and the experience of others who have adopted his models. Romantic notions of team building soon break down when people actually try to do it. They discover it is hard work. This book is perhaps the best “field guide” available for the challenges. The book is especially valuable for elders and ministry staffs who want to function well together.
Laster divides his book into three sections.
- Section One: Leadership Team Foundations, discusses the DNA of a leadership team consisting of two strands: spirituality and team role clarity. It also looks at the visionary role of boards, alongside how boards function, role expectations, selection and appointment processes, team size, tenure cycles, and developing a common leadership lexicon.
- Section Two: Leadership Team Challenges, looks at the “Trust Myth” and the relational barriers of fear and mistrust that is fueled by fear. It also looks at the related issue of leadership credibility or “leadership capital.”
- Section Three: Leadership Team Tools, shares basic team principles and team formation through shared vision, honest communication, owning the vision, and playing your part. A special concern is how to bring on new team members without serious disruption. Laster also discusses the pastoral selection process in a way that enhances team capability. He provides a tool for role expectations, personal and congregational characteristics, and functional and behavioral characteristics seen by the candidate, the selection committee, and the congregation. Another chapter explores how to conduct ongoing training and resourcing for leadership teams.
This book is truly designed as a field guide, chock full of exercises, action items, assessments, etc. to get a team moving more productively.
From the Publisher
An experienced pastor, businessman, and coach, John Laster lays out major strategies for church leaders to use in developing a team concept and cooperation to lead a church to reach its leadership potential. Bill Easum describes Gaining Traction as, “a life-tested field guide to the future of your church.”
Using military metaphors with field briefings and field exercises for the reader, Laster lays the foundations that each leader must build upon. Laster shows step by step how to develop each of these foundations personally and corporately. Gaining Traction also explores leadership challenges and how to deal with them. These include overcoming fear and developing trust, building team credibility using suggested credibility tools, and amassing leadership capital.
The final section deals with practical matters of team formation, resourcing, recruiting, and training including how to conduct a pastoral search with congregational input, and how to develop leadership team principles.
- Based on years of experience in pastoring and coaching
- Practical tools for selecting, training, resourcing, and utilizing leaders
- Basic principles for church leaders in team building and leading.
About the Author
John Laster is an associate consultant with Easum, Bandy & Associates and founder of Creative Church Coaching. He also serves as a consultant for Horizons Stewardship Company, and as equipping minister at Rochester Church, in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
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