Because I focused on team ministry in my doctoral studies, have taught the team approach to ministry, and appreciate George Barna’s expertise and understanding of our world, I took special note of this book. I read it with enthusiasm and was not disappointed. The background research and practical ideas make it perhaps the best book on this subject that I have read to date.

In the eleven chapters Barna deals with timely and challenging issues crucial to ministry today. A February 21, 2002 article in U. S. A. Today focused on the high rate of burnout, dropout, and failure in the ministry. The article cited statistics to show that the clergy has a higher “firing” rate than NFL coaches, and it delineated the negative effect this has on congregations.

The Power of Team Leadership addresses those issues. Barna gives statistics and draws conclusions that underscore how pastors are set up for failure based, in part, on some church growth philosophies and a consumer approach to ministry. He reminds us of the biblical truth ofHe the priesthood of all believers; church members are not only recipients or consumers of ministry, but should be doing ministry as well. “Leaders are only successful if their followers succeed.”

Barna points out that while quality of leadership is indispensable to ministry, we tend to expect too much of individual leaders. “The problem is not that we do not have enough good leaders, but that we have an errant expectation about what a leader is called to do.” He raises the question that I have asked many local church leaders over the years, “Is your church led by a superstar leader or a leadership team?”

While the Bible addresses the topic of leadership, Barna points out that we often force a conclusion about leadership that we call biblical. By using examples like Moses, Nehemiah, Jesus, and Paul, he shows how the Bible endorses the value and significance of team-based leadership.

Having consulted with and trained church leaders who desire to move to a team-based philosophy and practice of ministry, I believe this book will challenge readers to think in this direction and help them implement that paradigm. I agree with Barna that humanly speaking a church cannot grow without good leadership facilitation. Barna is on target when he says that a team-based leadership approach more easily focuses everyone on God than the solo leadership model which tends to focus the spotlight on individuals. Churches and organizations that are built on the superstar model demonstrate this.

The key to vitality (or re-vitality) in a church is to implement the team-based approach to leadership. No other model is as effective in utilizing the gifted people that God has put together in the church.

Every church officer ought to read this book. If you are not already practicing the team-based approach to leadership, read it quickly. Pray about its potentials and possibilities. It will re-ignite the flame in your church because as the Apostle Paul says, “The church grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:16).

- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator