Help for Ministry Leaders

Help for Every Ministry Leaders to Equip & Disciple Team Members

Church Leadership| Discipleship| Healthy Churches
June 17, 2025•3 min read

Has this ever happened to you? You receive a call or perhaps have been stopped in the church parking lot on Sunday and someone pleads with you to serve on a ministry committee. Of course, the pleader was chosen strategically as they were a friend of yours who was most likely to get a guilt-ridden yes response from you. Or perhaps, have you been the chosen pleader? Too often, arm-twisting, pleading, and lowering serving expectations have become part of churches nominating and recruiting practices. Here (one, two) are two different blogs on recommended shifts for a more effective and healthier nominations process.

Ministry leadership can be difficult. Exhausting.  Frustrating. We hear you, stand next to you, and offer these thoughts and recommendations to help you equip and disciple your ministry team.  

  • Provide job descriptions for all church positions (paid and unpaid). Providing a clear understanding of how to serve, what is expected, identify intended outcomes from the ministry, and what fruitfulness in the ministry looks like. Join our complimentary Resource Hub to find ministry job description examples and other ministry resources.

  • Provide equipping opportunities and feedback so those serving feel comfortable and confident. Use this simple, yet effective approach for equipping as outlined in Gear Up:  1) I do. You watch. We talk. 2) I do. You help. We talk. 3) You do. I help. We talk. 4) You do. I watch. We talk. 5) You do. Someone else watches. You talk. I move on to equipping others.

  • Create a covenant for each ministry team defining how the team will do their ministry together, the expectations of one another, and how to hold each other accountable. Here is a blog outlining further details about the importance of a covenant and how to create one.

  • Use the accountable leadership cycle (found in Mission Possible and Mission Possible for the Small Church) to align your ministry team with your church’s mission, vision, and core values. This helps ministry team members see how their ministry focus is part of the church’s fruitfulness. The accountable leadership cycle also guides the ministry team to identify the intended outcome and how to measure ministry fruitfulness before launching or continuing ministries. It also offers the reminder to evaluate the ministry  for the intended outcome, fruitfulness, and alignment. The accountable leadership cycle is also available in the Resource Hub.

  • Shift from an organizational structure of standing committees to a structure of teams for ministries. Teams come together for a specific purpose, but disband when their work is complete. People are more apt to serve on short-term teams than on standing committees for years.

  • Recognize and show appreciation for ministry team members. (See blog post). Highlight how their participation in the ministry has provided an impact in the church and beyond. 

  • Refer to this blog for even more powerful steps to equip ministry teams for missional impact.

  • Understand that part of leading a ministry team is the responsibility and honor to disciple the ministry team members. Link the ministry outcomes and their ministry team participation to their own and others discipleship journey.

Use this plethora of resources to launch healthy, vital ministry teams of growing disciples who serve willingly with gratitude while using their spiritual gifts for Kingdom impact.


equip discipleshealthy leadershiphealthy teams
Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry. Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community.  Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging. She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, a TQ (Transitional Intelligence) Certified Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy. As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years. Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade. She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron. Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, as well as the co-author of the books titled: IMPACT!: Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders: Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible: Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ. Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

Kay Kotan

Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry. Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community.  Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging. She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, a TQ (Transitional Intelligence) Certified Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy. As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years. Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade. She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron. Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, as well as the co-author of the books titled: IMPACT!: Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders: Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible: Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ. Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

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