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Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. This week we’re talking with Chad Asman, executive pastor of Heritage Church just north of Detroit, Michigan. He is with us today to talk about developing team culture at your church to create future leaders.

• Start with culture. // Heritage Church worked to create a leadership pipeline not only to develop future leaders for the church, but also anyone else in their area. Begin by identifying the talent and leaders present in the area and then work to grow them. Focus on developing the culture of the church so that it will be a place that attracts leaders.
• Learn about your personality. // If it’s fun to be at work and you like the people you’re around, it creates great chemistry. Chemistry is one of the big points Heritage focuses on as they develop culture. Use personality tests to give staff and high level volunteers an awareness of how God has made them. Tests such as Myers Briggs, the Enneagram, StrengthsFinder, or spiritual gift assessments can help them understand how they are wired so a role can be built around their gifts and strengths. Understanding each other’s wiring also helps encourage empathy for one another and builds a foundation of communication. Taken as a whole, you’ll be able to see that your staff covers a range of gifts, strengths and personalities and how you need each other to make up the body of Christ.
• Bridge generational gaps. // Understanding each other’s personalities has helped tremendously to bridge generational gaps on Heritage Church’s staff. Ages vary from the Gen Z and Millennial to Gen X and Boomers and it can be easy to blame differences on age. In reality it doesn’t matter what age people are, rather we need to recognize God wired us with different personalities. Underscore how the younger generation can learn from the older generation and how the older generation can equip and encourage the next generation coming up. Recognize that you are one team working together toward a common goal and you need each other.
• Develop the DNA. // Infuse your values and philosophy into your staff and then they will help develop the DNA of the church. At Heritage Church they have staff meetings every two weeks with the essence of a leadership lesson included during that time. Once a year, usually in January, there are staff meetings weekly which focus on all of the values, and teaching phrases and slogans to remember.
• Serve the team. // At Heritage the leadership tries to do one fun team experience every quarter. It could be anything from handing out Grubhub gift cards to the leadership grilling for the team. People love when they are thought about and cared for and these experiences bring a lot of joy to the team. Having the highest leaders in the church taking a role as a servant and serving the team is a culture-setting opportunity.
• Be openhanded and loving. // As a senior leader do what you can to interact, coach, and care for your team. Be real with your team, love them where they’re at, and help them to be the best possible leaders they can be. Be openhanded with them and understand that the people on your team are not your resources but God’s resources.

You can learn more about Heritage Church at www.heritagechurch.com.

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Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

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