Instead of freeing people to play their God-designed parts, we often pinhole them to exercise certain functions. Rather than chastising workers for not fulfilling their job description, we would do well to focus on the issue of ministry identity. Establish a team-building assessment process through which each team member clearly discerns his or her spiritual gifts, passion and team style. After the assessment portion has been completed, give team members the opportunity to interact about how each person's ministry identity affects the way he or she serves on the team. Provide safe settings for teams to share individual liabilities.
Most teams never learn how to openly share weaknesses.
We tend to focus exclusively on strengths and never admit our liabilities to one another, even in a safe environment. When such open sharing happens by design in a team-building process, it is often the turning point in which community deepens and people acknowledge their need for others. While the handling of such sharing is very sensitive, it is not an optional piece of team process. There are two important issues here. Second, until a leader values the importance of listening to the hearts of team members, he or she will never catch some of the specific, practical ways God intends to work out the vision through these players.