In order to move forward in firing on all cylinders in your ministry, with your team and with your volunteers you need to have trust. Trust is the rope that keeps everything together while you are moving. Your people need to trust you and you need to have trust for your people. Without it, it’s going to be a hard thing to move forward in.

How do you get and show this trust?

Be Regular – Trust takes time. People are always weary at first. To gain trust with the people in your ministry you need to be regular in how you respond to things. Over time, when people see how you react to situations, in a calm and cool manner, they will see you are trustworthy and capable to take care of most things. If you are hot and cold in your responses, people will take longer to trust. You also need to tell your face that others can see it. I struggle with this one because my wife tells me I always look so serious. People need to be able to read you and people need to be able to see where you are coming from and why you made certain decisions. One of our worship pastors always says, “If you’re happy and you know it, tell your face!”

Faithfulness – You need to show faith in your team and they in you. Loyalty is huge in trust being faithful earns it. I always want and expect our team to praise publically even when being criticized, then privately check the facts later just in case a conversation is warranted later. I always want to assume the best of my team and I hope they assume the best of me. This also means no gossip. It’s a cancer to a team. Just like cancer, it needs to be taken out quickly. Nothing will kill loyalty and faithfulness quicker.

Delegate – Share the load. Spread responsibility. Don’t hoard power. It only go as far as you can take it, but when others have power they can take it further. When leaders delegate to their team they say, “I trust you with this.” Many people “delegate” and then micro-manage from afar. Delegation is giving people permission to run with it and to complete a task to completion even if it’s not how you would have done it. As the leader you cast vision and let them go. You will find out how good you are at casting vision by the end result of your team executing whatever it is you have given them. Trust your people with big stuff and they will trust you when you push to move forward on bigger things.

 

 @justinknowles3