Doing Church as a Team: Leadership and Group Dynamics
This paper examines Wayne Cordeiro's Doing Church as a Team, connecting the book's theological themes to broader concepts in group dynamics and organizational behavior. The discussion begins with an overview of group norms — the internal rules that govern participation, decision-making, and interpersonal behavior within any collective. It then profiles Cordeiro's New Hope Christian Fellowship and his vision for distributed, community-wide leadership. The paper concludes by analyzing Cordeiro's argument that effective spiritual leadership requires steady, purposeful effort directed at both existing believers and those not yet reached by the Gospel.
- Group Norms and Collective Behavior: Defines group norms and their function
- Wayne Cordeiro and New Hope Christian Fellowship: Profiles Cordeiro and his innovative church
- Leadership, Team Building, and Spiritual Community: Explores Cordeiro's principles of inclusive leadership
- Sustained Progress and the Role of Every Believer: Argues for steady, purposeful community effort
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What makes this paper effective
- It bridges sociological concepts — group norms, participation patterns, and collective culture — with a faith-based leadership text, giving the analysis broader academic grounding.
- The paper uses a concrete illustration (the Aesop tortoise fable) drawn directly from Cordeiro's own writing, demonstrating close reading of the source text.
- It situates Cordeiro's argument in the context of the Great Commission — reaching the unconvinced, not merely shepherding existing believers — which sharpens the paper's central claim.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models conceptual framing: it opens with a general theoretical definition of group norms before narrowing to a specific case study (Cordeiro's church). This funnel structure — broad concept to specific application — is a standard and effective technique for book-review and reflective essays that must connect a text to a wider scholarly conversation.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a short thesis paragraph announcing three thematic areas of discussion. It then defines group norms in organizational terms, introduces Cordeiro and his church, examines the book's core argument about inclusive leadership, and closes with a meditation on the book's recurring metaphor of steady, level progress. The single reference entry is formatted in APA style.
Group Norms and Collective Behavior
Group norms are defined as a set of internal rules followed by group members in order to increase the overall efficiency of the group's activity. These norms usually govern members' behavior toward one another, toward hierarchical superiors, and toward group outsiders, as well as members' approach and attitude toward the work they are expected to perform. Norms determine the way in which groups solve problems, make decisions, and carry out their work. They influence interactions among members and between the group and its facilitator, and they reflect the group's culture of shared values.
Although norms differ from one group to another, there are typically sets of commonly observed rules. These tend to address: taboo subjects, open expression of feelings, interrupting or challenging a leader, volunteering one's services, avoiding conflict, and the length and frequency of individual contributions. Additionally, group norms tend to cluster around four types of activity: participation, decision-making, mutual aid, and affective expression.
Wayne Cordeiro and New Hope Christian Fellowship
Pastor Wayne Cordeiro is the founder of the New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii. This organization is recognized as one of the ten most innovative churches in America and boasts attendance of over 10,000 per week. Pastor Cordeiro has written several books; among them, Doing Church as a Team focuses on the responsibilities of both leadership and team building for all members of the spiritual community — not just those who are ordained. The central focus of the book is to embody the teachings of Jesus and Paul in spreading the Gospel of love to the masses, and to give people the opportunity to be saved through the Word of God.
Leadership, Team Building, and Spiritual Community
For Cordeiro, leadership and team building are about forming a set of principles that guide a way of life. Because no person is perfect, there will always be a need for leadership mentoring and attention to group dynamics. As social beings, Christians must continually strive to bring others to the Word of Christ in every action they undertake — from a trip to the grocery store to formal work within the structure of the church.
Furthermore, the role of leadership described in the book is not limited to caring for those already convinced of the salvation offered by Jesus and the truth of Christianity. Instead, Cordeiro points to a more difficult and challenging path: reaching out to those who are not convinced, who have strayed from goodness or salvation, or who have yet to discover that they, too, can benefit from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Reference
Cordeiro, W. (2004). Doing Church as a Team. Ventura, CA: Gospel Light Publishing.
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