I was watching an AFL game a while back, and one of my kids yelled out, “That guy looks like Papa.” My kids were poking fun at the age of Chris Fagan, the coach of the Brisbane Lions. Full disclosure, we support the Suns, so a big of ageist banter is to be expected. Chris Fagan has charted an unusual course to being a dual premiership coach. He had a background as school teacher, did not play AFL professionally, and in the fast-moving world of professional sport, was decidedly old. When he was appointed head coach at the Brisbane Lions, they were perpetual cellar dwellers.
I recently listened to a podcast that was recorded after their first premiership where Fagan recommended a book called The Culture Code that, in his words, was “what he was trying to do at the Lions.” I read the book as an AFL fan but was challenged by the potential applications to ministry teams.
Build Teams That Are Like Family
When Chris Fagan turned up to the Lions, the club was a mess. But instead of going into fix-it mode, he spent weeks meeting with players to understand them as both people and players. He continues to devote time to talk one-on-one with each of the forty or so players on the squad every few weeks.
The best coaches I had were the ones that built relationships with me. I felt like I would want to do more for them and sacrifice more for them than the coaches that just saw you as a player.
Fagan gets that his players aren’t just guns for hire; they are humans. And the lingua franca of our humanity is relationships—relationships built on sacrifice, no less.
Warm and fuzzy teams without a sense of purpose isn’t the application of this principle to Christian ministry. But those on our teams are more than names on a roster, or resources to be deployed. They are human beings made for relationship. Sometimes we’ve emulated corporate models in ministry that prize efficiency. Let’s be real, there are kingdom imperatives that should drive us. But Fagan reminds us of an important truth that Christian leaders should uphold: God cares not just about what we do, but how we relate to him and others.
Daniel Coyle, the author of the book that Fagan loves, says this:
When you ask people inside highly successful groups to describe their relationship with one another, they all tend to choose the same word. The word is not friends or team or tribe other equally plausible term. The word they use is family.[1]
You’d think that Coyle has read some of Paul’s epistles. He recommends eating with one another, taking time to know what makes those on your team tick, and having fun together. It isn’t rocket science! But it is possible that in the busyness of ministry we forget these things.
Build Teams That Are Vulnerable
It is well reported that Fagan told the players when he arrived at the Lions that they were going to “fail their way to the top.” Why? Well, in his words, “Often the wound is the place where the light enters. The biggest mistakes are the biggest learnings.” The resonance of this advice with the gospel is obvious. It is in our weakness that the power of the gospel is displayed all the more (2 Cor 4:7–18; 12:9–11). More than this, the gospel also brings us onto a team where Christian leaders are under-shepherds, or just one part in a body (1 Pet 5:1–4; 1 Cor 12:12–31). So we, more than any other leaders, should be able to admit mistakes and recognise how much we need each person to play their part.
It perplexed me when transitioning from secular work to full-time ministry, that there was this assumption that those who can preach, teach, and disciple are best placed to run meetings, look after executive administration, strategically plan, oversee building projects, and manage human resources. An MDiv or a BTh is good. But not that good. Job creep from broader cultural and administrative pressures can contribute to this. But it is also possible that we’ve assumed expectations that have inadvertently built barriers to others playing their part. Fagan and Coyle make simple recommendations to work against this. Admit your mistakes. Why? Because we should. But also because it creates a culture where a team can admit mistakes and then grow. And be okay with saying things like, “I have no idea what to do, what would you suggest?” or “I reckon you are much better at this than me, why don’t you do it.”
There is another factor to keep in mind. Often ministry contexts are far less resourced than many secular organisations—or at least they begin this way. They can be like the small family business that depends on a small few who are the jacks of all trades. But as the ministry grows, we must remember that Jesus gifts the church with what it needs (Eph 4:11–12). This requires self-awareness of the areas where we are weaker and the openness to notice where Jesus may provide others that can help the ministry flourish. This is not about false humility masquerading as vulnerability, but a keen awareness of Jesus and his capacity to provide.
Build Teams That Share a Clear Purpose
It would be easy to think that building a vulnerable family-like team is the antithesis of a team with a clear purpose. Not so. When the Lions run out onto the field at the GABBA, they run underneath a pair of boxing gloves. These boxing gloves speak to the story that shapes the Lions. Coyle explains that successful teams are attuned to the same story:
Purpose isn’t about tapping into some mystical internal drive but rather about creating simple beacons that focus attention and engagement on shared goals. Successful cultures do this by relentlessly seeking ways to tell and retell their story.[2]
We know that we are story-creatures playing our part in God’s grand theo-drama. Yet we wonder why our staff and volunteers are not motivated by rosters and responsibilities. Maybe we see this as unimportant in the midst of all the big things in ministry. Perhaps we feel uncomfortable with parts of corporate subculture that cynically deploy values and vision statements to maximise profits. Whatever the reason, we should remember that God is the one who has placed us in a grand drama, and the outworking of discipleship is that we would together faithfully play our part in this story.
It is an act of service to help our staff and serving teams to have clear lines of sight to the gospel story. If not, what are they doing? We should give them clear beacons that fire gospel motivation as we together play our part in God’s story. This could include team gatherings where the gospel goals of the ministry are discussed and agreed to, roster reminders that include encouragement around why we serve, and regular celebrations of the ways that God is using those on our teams in his story.
Chris Fagan charted an unusual course to being an AFL Coach. But he has now won the respect of the AFL industry as he goes for three premierships straight. He also seems to have stumbled on some old wisdom that might be useful to those of us in ministry.
[1] Daniel Coyle. The Culture Code. (Penguin Random House, 2024), 6–7.
[2] D. Coyle, The Culture Code, 180.
