Barriers to Team

Before I became a full-time pastor I was a college basketball coach for 5 years. During that time I learned a lot about building a team. I feel like building a team is one of my strengths and I have built many teams in ministry successfully based on principles I learned coaching. Here are 5 barriers I think that hinder growth as a team.

1. Unclear Expectations- If everyone on the team does not know their role then it will hinder growth as a team.

2. Selfishness- If there are people on the team who are out on their own agenda then it will hinder the whole team. If people want to be in a different role than what is beneficial for the team, want to take all the credit, or become egotistical that the team is there to serve them then the team will not grow.

3. Harboring Conflict- If someone has a problem with someone else on the team then they should deal with it and not hold it in. If there is unresolved conflict then it will hinder the growth of the team. Healthy conflict is good for the team.

4. Mentally Weak- A team needs to be mentally tough. If every time there is a setback people fall apart emotionally or if every time there is a success people get too excited then there is a problem. Being mentally tough is not letting yourself get too high or too low. Many times when a team is mentally weak they take small things and make them big and it affects your outcome as a team.

5. Bad Apples- Many times you can have someone extremely talented but they become a cancer that infects the whole team. When that happens the bad apple needs to be cut out. To me building the right team is having the right people on the team. It all starts with the right person. In basketball there were many times that the right decision was to bench our best player because he was a cancer for the rest of the team. In ministry dealing with this person is even harder because many times they are a volunteer or getting paid to do ministry which many times isn't very much. It is hard to do that because they are so talented but in the end the team is better because the cancer is gone. You know if there is a bad apple in the team. If there is they need to be dealt with. No matter how talented they are. NO ONE is bigger than your team. As soon as someone thinks that they are then the cancer has set in and needs to be dealt with. This barrier to building an effective team is the hardest one to overcome.


If you have an effective team, a cohesive unit, you can accomplish anything you dream about. In basketball I saw many times a better team go farther and accomplish more than the more talented one. Same with ministry. I have seen a cohesive team of middle schoolers accomplish more than a disfunctional team of adults. I have seen a cohesive team of adult ministry volunteers accomplish more than a disfunctional team of paid ministry leaders. It is all about team.