The ability to build a trusting and trustworthy organisation is one of the most important characteristics of leaders who seek to build churches and organisations which will share the responsibility of achieving vision, and operate on a model of shared leadership. Some of the most successful turn-arounds of failing organisations have been achieved by new management encouraging trust within the organisation. Many companies used to have large books of policies, rules and regulations governing what employees could and couldn't do. In many cases these have been replaced with much simpler statements and principles.
Trust takes time to establish, and seconds to destroy.
If trust is abused in a high trust organisation, then the impact can be serious. Trust needs to be accompanied by accountability. Whether it is a commercial organisation, or a relationship - abuse of trust has a major impact on people. The importance of trust for the church, both within a fellowship, and in the perception of those outside the church has often been understated. The traditional model of the stipendiary minister as ministry provider clearly leads to an organisation which is able to operate on a low level of trust.