EMQ » April–June 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 2
By Lance Witt
Baker Books, 2018
Grand Rapids, MI
298 pages
ISBN: 978-0801075681
UAD $17.99
Reviewed by Richard Hibbert who served for twenty years with WEC International as a member and leader of church planting and leadership development teams in West Asia and Europe. He is currently the Director of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Mission at Sydney Missionary and Bible College, Australia.
The majority of today’s evangelical missionaries serve as members of teams. Although teamwork is an expression of God’s design for his people, it is not usually easy or straightforward. Becoming an effective mission team in any context requires team members and leaders to pay attention to what Lance Witt calls certain “universal principles and best practices” (25).
High-Impact Teams advances a set of principles and practices that Witt believes will help any team to work well. Its overarching message is that good teams are both healthy and high-performing. To become such a team, we need to have a “bifocal perspective” that keeps both team health and team productivity in focus. The author successfully applies this message to the structure of the book by dividing its eight sections equally between these two foci. The need for this twin focus is helpfully supported by scores of stories and vignettes drawn from his own experience as a leader or member of multiple church staff teams in North America.
The book’s focus on health encompasses both individual team members’ spiritual and emotional health and the team’s relational health. Convinced that the greatest gift team members can give to their team is their own spiritual and emotional health and growth, Witt devotes the first quarter of the book to explaining how team members can work on their relationship with the Lord. These chapters are enhanced by Witt’s honesty about his own struggles to keep growing in his relationship with God in the face of a busy life and demanding ministry. A later section of the book advances the theme of health by focusing on how to nurture good relationships with fellow team members. Prioritizing relationships, building trust, and applying the biblical “one another” commands with teammates are key emphases.
Paired with the need for health is the focus on achieving results that bring glory to God. These sections of the book are a treasure trove of practical advice framed in pithy and memorable statements. Particularly helpful are Witt’s emphases on the need to clarify vision, avoid distractions, and be good stewards of time and energies, and his deft interweaving of health and results into the final chapters on team culture.
This volume’s greatest contribution is the way it integrates the twin needs for health and productivity in teams. This much-needed message, together with the wealth of practical advice about how to apply it, will be of great help especially to team leaders. The book assumes a North American, monocultural context, and so leaders and members from this context who are serving in monocultural teams will benefit most from the book. Those from outside North America or who are serving in multicultural teams will need to do a little more work to think through how to contextualize its principles.
For Further Reading
Hibbert, Evelyn, and Richard Hibbert. Leading Multicultural Teams. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2014.
Linder, Johan. Working in Multicultural Teams: A Biblical and Practical Guide for Team Leaders and Members. Sydney, Australia: Hudson Press, 2017.
Jones, Gordon, and Rosemary Jones. Teamwork: How to Build Relationships. Bletchley, UK: Scripture Union, 2003.
