Building Bridges Across Ministries
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15
No matter the size of your church, there are a multitude of ministries and programs happening all at the same time. In my context, on any given Sunday morning, there are over ten different teams, each with several team members operating simultaneously under the same roof, and that’s not including the pastor preaching! Needless to say, there’s room for many opinions and preferences. Everybody has their schedules, events, and tasks they have to do, and it’s easy to lock into those and lose sight of other people or ministries.
So how can we, as worship leaders, stay unified to the team and not go off and do our own thing? I’d like to recommend four ways that I’ve found to work well:
Pray for them. This may seem overly simple, but God does something special in our hearts when we pray for people. You’ll soon see your compassion and grace levels increase when things change at the last minute, and you’ll be quick to have their backs when someone in the congregation has something sharp to say about their leadership.
Text them, asking them how their service/event went. Did they have a big service or event they’ve been planning and preparing for? Ask them how it went. When we celebrate with others, their joy is doubled; when we weep with them, their sorrow is halved.
Do what you said you would do. Every time you follow through on a commitment, you’re investing trust into that relationship. The more often you do this, the more reliable you become to your team- and they will be blessed for it!
Slow down and talk with them. Sundays can be incredibly busy between fixing the lyrics and doing sound checks. But you'll be surprised at how far it will go if you can carve out just five minutes to stop and say hello to someone on the kid's team or the greeter team.
Take some time this week to think through one simple way that you can start building bridges with other ministries in your church. You don’t have to go over and beyond; just doing small things consistently will produce a stronger bond between you and your teammates. We aren’t trying to build our own kingdoms—we want to see His Kingdom come and His will done here on earth.
Father, we cannot express how grateful we are to be called Your bride. One worthy of You laying down Your blameless life for. Give us eyes to see with a proper perspective that our role in our church is only one of many puzzle pieces that make up the beautiful masterpiece of the kingdom of God. Give us more opportunities to bless our co-laborers, and help us have more creative visions of how to partner with them to reach out city for Your Name. Amen.
