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5 Team-Killers in Church Leadership

5 Team-Killers In Church Leadership

By Matt Steen on Dec 22, 2025

Chemistry Staffing

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Healthy church teams don’t fail overnight. These five leadership behaviors quietly erode trust, unity, and effectiveness long before visible conflict appears.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16, Proverbs 11:14, Ephesians 4:1-3, Philippians 2:1-4, Romans 12:4-8 (view more) (view less)

Tags: Community, unity, Teamwork, team building, church leadership, community, Unity, Church Leadership, Team Building (view more) (view less)

5 Team-Killers in Church Leadership

As someone who has spent years building and equipping church leadership teams, I’ve learned that most team failures don’t happen suddenly. They develop slowly through repeated behaviors that undermine trust, listening, and shared responsibility. In this article, I identify five common team killers I’ve seen derail otherwise gifted church leadership teams and explain why addressing them early is essential for long-term health and effectiveness.

We hear about it in sports all the time: a player is labeled "locker-room cancer," or some other inspirational nickname. By the time it has come to the point of name calling and finger pointing we all know that the end of a team is near.

While we are often incredibly focused on finding out who is to blame for the failure of the team, how often do we look back at the team’s history to identify the behaviors that led to the team’s dysfunction?

How often do we look to see the seeds of failure that were sown in the past, and learn how to prevent team failure in teams to come?

Team building is an art, not a science. Over the last 15 years that I have spent building and equipping church leadership teams, I have learned more ways to kill one than I would like to admit.

A healthy team, a team that is clicking, a team that is running on all cylinders is something special and is capable of doing things that are hard to believe. While my hope is that every church in the country operates as a healthy, effective team, I realize that we are human and this is not always the case. Here are five things that keep church leadership from being healthy. Left alone, they become team killers:

1. Over-functioning

Are you, or is someone in church leadership doing too much and enabling others (including yourself) to slack off?

2. Mind Reading

Do you, or does your team, make assumptions about other team members' thoughts, agendas, or motivations?

3. Lack of Listening

Can your team listen, I mean truly listen, to one another or are conversations merely a group of people talking at one another?

4. Mistrust

Do you believe your team has your best interest at heart? Do you believe that they have your back?

5. Lack of Community

Does your team have a sense of community, or are you forced to work with one another?

Do you see the seeds of these team killers in your leadership team? While this list is in no way exhaustive, I believe it represents some of the biggest team killers that plague the church today. What am I missing? What do you think are the biggest team killers in the church?

Scriptures: Ephesians 4:1-16, Ephesians 4:1-3, Philippians 2:1-4, Proverbs 11:14, Romans 12:4-8

Matt Steen (website: Chemistry Staffing)

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Matt Steen is the Co-Founder of Chemistry Staffing. He has served the local church for over two decades as a youth pastor, church planter, and executive pastor. Originally from Baltimore, Matt currently lives in the Orlando, FL area with his wife Theresa, and has a B.S. in Youth Ministry from Nyack College and an M.Div. and MBA from Baylor University. Certified as an Urban Church Planter Coach by Redeemer City to City and as a StratOp facilitator by the Paterson Center, Matt has made a career of helping churches thrive through intentionality, clarity, and creating healthy cultures. He is convinced that a healthy church is led by a healthy team with great chemistry, and loves partnering with Chemistry’s churches to do great things for the Kingdom.

Talk about it...

Robert Sickler

commented on Apr 5, 2012

Good advice. I am of the opinion, however, that many churches are led by a clique or a gang.

Wendy Cronk

commented on Jul 10, 2020

The biggest team killer is when people are put in leadership positions on the team but don't hold to the real reason why we do what we do. It's hard when a player has your church's uniform on but is playing for the wrong team. If they do not follow the bible and what it says, have liberal or worldly ways of doing things there will be division. The team will not do well if it is not unified in spirit and are working from the same playbook (the bible).

Wendy Cronk

commented on Jul 10, 2020

I also like Robert Sickler's comment. I believe it's in 2 Timothy where it talks about surrounding oneself with YES people. Those same people often cliques do not always give the right guidance.