Rich makes his living as a draftsman. This field is in transition, so he takes the work he can get. At one point in the summer, Rich left his home at 4:30 a.m. to drive two hours to work. After eight hours on the job, he drove home another two hours in a car without air conditioning, but on prayer meeting night, he was still at church at 7 p.m. with a great attitude.
Rich doesn’t stand out. Rich operates a camera in the church’s video ministry, but he’s not seen on the screen. His heart and hands belong to Christ, but he is not a star.
Rich illustrates a recent article in USA Today, “Employers learning ‘B Players’ hold the cards.'” Author Del Jones points out that most employers spend their time trying to steal A players from their competition: “But some of those employers are coming around to the realization that failure and success might not lie among the weakest and strongest links, but in the solid middle, the B players … the 75 percent of workers who have been all but ignored…
“The backbone of every company,” he says, “is in the middle where the ether of great thoughts is hammered into reality.”
The same is true of 21st-century ministry. The A players are sought after and esteemed, while B players are often ignored.
The Church That B’s Built
My wife and I once visited an “A church,” well publicized and renowned for bringing people to Christ, sending and supporting missionaries. I had never heard the senior pastor preach, and I was expecting a lot. But when I left that day, I thought, He is a B player. He wasn’t an eloquent speaker or a magnetic personality, but he led with a calm presence and delivery.
B players do not depend on their own superior talents. It’s their quality of servanthood that renders them phenomenally useable. They learn to work faithfully while recognizing their ordinariness.
Like Paul, B players boast in their weakness. They tap the tremendous resources of heaven through the essential quality of “blessability,” which is humility. B players are not into themselves; they are into God.
B players are consistent. We all know that a great percentage of success is just showing up. B’s are defined by words like long-term and durable. They become faithful fixtures in the ministry.
I used to dream of an entire A-Team, but stars often have a way of flaming out. My grading system has definitely changed.
It’s not that A players don’t demonstrate these attributes. But A players can tend to rely on sheer talent. They make a big splash, but they can also sink quickly. I have known many A players in ministry, but one stands out. Bright, handsome, and a gifted communicator, he could dazzle an audience, but he had to leave the ministry. He was so talented, he thought he was above the moral rules that apply to everyone else.
Meanwhile, B players are often overlooked because of the very attributes that make them such assets to a church.
I finally understand that A churches are built mostly by B players who are led by God. The hearts of most of our churches are made up of B players.
At my church, John is a B player. He and his wife came to Christ about eight years ago. He plays guitar in our praise band. Recently, he met a college-age couple attending for the first time after seeing our church sign along the road. He made them feel welcome and took them to the café between services for some coffee. He introduced them to others in the church. They felt accepted here and stayed. Then one day they received Christ, all as a result of the faithfulness of one of our B players.
And then there is Rhonda.
Several years ago, our church was going through a transition in our music and worship ministry, moving from a paid staff person to a volunteer leadership structure, but we didn’t know who that would be. A small group of people began to pray that God would raise up someone within the church to step out by faith and lead this ministry.
Eventually our assistant pastor’s wife, Rhonda, said, “I was in the chorus in high school and have some music background. I will learn.”
Rhonda had no formal music education, but she is a self-starter. She recruits and trains musicians and organizes the program. Under her leadership, we now have more than 60 people involved in five worship groups that rotate in leading our congregation. Each year she produces a Christmas Dinner Theater with 100 people involved. She usually fills the leading roles with unlikely candidates. We are often asked if we hired our singers and actors because of their professional quality.
Rhonda was a B player who built an A ministry by humility and prayer. In the last seven years, she has personally grown into an A player while maintaining her B humility.
Growing Killer B’s
I used to dream of an entire A-Team—a whole staff of stars. Not anymore. I now pray for faithful B players, whose loyalty is to the place where God has placed them, not people looking for the next best offer or the next step up the ladder.
If it’s true that B players are the heart and soul of our churches, then we should spend far more time discovering and developing them.
- Start by identifying and thanking God for the B players in your church. Often we pray that God will provide new workers but seldom pray for the workers already in place. When I pray, I visualize those who sit in the pews and teach in the classes. I transport myself to their ministry spot, choosing for special intercession those who carry the load week by week.
- Encourage B players to develop their skills, but remind them that their greatest asset is their heart. You don’t need to try to turn everybody into an A player, just channel the B’s to the right opportunities.
- B players don’t need to be pushed, but they do need direction and permission to be creative in their ministry. The most effective stimulus is the constancy of the church leadership, which creates an atmosphere of trust and loyalty that allows B players to thrive.
- Hail the B honor roll. Send e-mails and notes of appreciation periodically. Our staff sends many notes of encouragement each month. Just this week someone told me, “You will never know what your notes of encouragement do.” Little words and tokens of recognition and appreciation for people have the same effect that water does on the roots of a plant, causing them to extend deeper and stronger.
- Create a culture that values humility, faithfulness, and longevity. Publicly applaud years of faithful service. This sends the right message: that we are looking for long-term ministers. The cause that we are engaged in is worth giving your life for. Many companies long ago quit giving the gold watch for years of service, opting instead to recognize only performance, usually meaning some recent project. But the church should reward both performance and faithfulness in the ongoing responsibilities.
It sounds paradoxical, but the A team in ministry is often made up of B players. Look around your church, and you see how often B players can make the grade.
John Arnold is pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Finleyville, Pennsylvania.
Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
