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Leading LifeTree
Leadership Case Study

Chris Payne
Kevin Rodriguez
October 20, 2018
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Leading LifeTree
A large church in Northern Ohio (LifeTree) made the decision to move from an

“attractional” model to what is now called a “missional” model. Without digging too far into

detail, this change was a drastic paradigm shift, especially for their technology department.

Almost overnight, the leadership shifted the vision of the church to make its weekend services

less of a production and adopted a “good enough” standard. This meant that monetary and staff

resources would be less focused on the three weekend services they currently offered. The staff

within the technology department felt like they had the rug pulled out from under them. This

team consisted of four staff members who focused on video, audio, editing and stage design.

Once the decision was made by the leadership to lessen the focus on production, the technology

team became a very toxic department. There was almost immediate tension between the on-

stage teams and the technology department. Rehearsals were tense and communication broke

down.

Finally, the campus pastor, Aaron, who handles staffing and team development, came to

the conclusion that the top two technology team leaders needed to be fired due to their attitude

and insubordination. With that firing, many volunteers who did not understand the dynamic also

left because their team leader had been let go. After about 6 months, there were only 2 staff and

7 volunteers for 9 weekly positions that needed to be filled during weekend church services.

Through a friend of a friend, the campus pastor contacted William, who was at the time

leading music at a church in Indiana. Although not having a background in video production and

the mechanics of a mega-church weekend service, he was quite proficient in building teams and

creating a healthy culture that functioned well within the context of a larger environment. After

a few rounds of interviews, the leadership team of LifeTree had found their new tech director in
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William. Upon hiring him, however, William was very clear that he was not interested in the

tech director position permanently. He hoped to establish balance and create a healthy

environment within the program to hand off to someone who could take it to the next level in 3

years or so.

William’s role would be to assess the remaining staff, develop their new consolidated

roles and build a team of volunteers who could successfully and competently make the weekend

services operate at the necessary level. At this time, the church would record the Saturday night

preaching and send it to other church campuses throughout the area for use on Sunday morning.

Once in the position, he began to see that things were still not quite right, even after the

firing of the 2 team leaders who had created the negative culture. The remaining 2 team

members, Mike and Kyle, were still making negative remarks about the worship leader and the

pastors in front of volunteers. Unfortunately, they were also uninterested in teaching William

how to edit videos, operate equipment and train new volunteers. To make matters worse, they

would regularly miss production meetings and show up late to work without calling.

William sat down with Mike and Kyle and told them what he expected of them, and if

they did not meet those expectations, they would be let go. Thinking that they held all of the

knowledge and were indispensable, both continued showing up late, bad-mouthing their place of

employment and after completely missing an entire weekend without calling or showing up,

William fired them both at a Monday morning meeting.

However, William did not simply wait around for them to be fired. He would spend

much of his free time going to the office after hours to practice editing video and learning the

equipment. He also consulted with other professionals in his position at other churches to help
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him learn what he needed to know. William soon became proficient in the role, and in a pinch

could perform all of the tasks needed to make a weekend service work.

After the 2 most knowledgeable tech staff members were let go, William then went to a

couple of volunteers and started teaching them how to edit video and run the lighting boards and

other equipment that used to be exclusively the domain of the tech staff members. One of those

volunteers was an older gentleman by the name of Gary. Gary had actually competed with

William for the tech director role and did not get it due to lack of experience in team building.

Gary was an experienced videographer, however, and had an eye for detail. Not only was

he skilled, but he also loved his church. Despite not being hired on staff, he stayed on as a

volunteer to help the person who was hired into the tech director position, which ended up being

William. Gary was also old enough to be William’s father. At first, William was not sure what

to think of Gary, but he soon proved his worth.

As the only tech team person on staff at this church of 4,500 people, William quickly had

to delegate important responsibilities to volunteer team members, many of whom had only been

around less than 6 months. At production meetings William would lay out the structure of the

upcoming weekends, give direction from the creative teams and give general instructions to

lighting, video, stage and audio teams.

William was a visionary leader and could motivate people to stretch themselves, but he

struggled with the details. Often, at production meetings, Gary would ask at least 20 questions

that often frustrated William. William just wanted him to do what he said, but Gary wanted very

specific instructions. After several weeks of aggravation, William finally came to the realization

that Gary processed things differently and just wanted to execute the vision that William laid out
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for the team. This was the pivotal moment when William began to understand that Gary was

gifted differently than he was and that he saw potential blind spots that William just did not see.

Shortly after that revelation, William hired Gary to be the video director. Not only did

Gary love the vision that William had for the team, but Gary wanted it to be long-lasting and

effective. While William was excellent at navigating the future and inviting people in to the

team, Gary was equally as gifted in one-on-one conversations, seeing other people’s perspectives

and creating clear lines of communication. William was incredible at bringing people in to the

team, and Gary was just as good at keeping them there and making them feel cared for and

valued.

While the video side of the tech department was growing and fully staffed, William still

struggled to get the audio side on steady ground. Even with a local college that was turning out

audio engineers, they struggled to find one who was a good fit and would help further the

positive culture William was trying to foster. There were plenty of talented engineers, but none

who wanted to teach volunteers how to be proficient.

About a year into his tenure at LifeTree, William was given leadership of the tech teams

at their 2 other campuses and tasked with building a tech team that would go and help launch a

new campus about 5 miles up the road. Already understaffed, this seemed like an impossible

task. How would William successfully build up a team that would run a service every weekend

without him being there, when he was not really that great of a technology guy himself?

During a local technology director’s lunch meeting, William met Steve, an audio

engineer at one of the LifeTree campuses. Steve was employed part-time at the campus, and

volunteered with their youth program. He even mentored a couple of the teens in how to run

audio at their campus and they became quite proficient. William pulled him aside after lunch
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and asked if he would be interested in coming to the main campus of LifeTree. Steve flatly

rejected the offer, citing his concerns with rumors surrounding the culture within the tech world.

Not to be deterred, William continued to pursue Steve and even invited him to come

experience it with no strings attached. After meeting with William and Gary and being offered

the opportunity to continue to build the culture, Steve finally accepted the offer. Steve was a mix

of skills that complimented both William and Gary’s. Steve was also a bit of a slower learner

and did not catch on to a vision quickly, but when he did, he was fiercely loyal and meticulous

about each step of the process. He was not afraid to disagree with William, but when a decision

was reached, he would not complain nor give less than 100% to make it happen. Steve also

began to find immense value in replacing himself. He trained adults and teens in how to run the

audio for the weekend services and celebrated the volunteers in front of the pastors and worship

leaders.

What he had hoped would take 3 years ended up only taking about 18 months. Without

even an announcement from the stage, William was instrumental in taking the toxic environment

of the technology team from 7 tired volunteers to a team that was almost 40 people strong! He

had hired people who different from himself and created a culture where the team had a voice,

felt cared for and celebrated wins.

Despite this success, William was dreading the next conversation. He had done what he

had set out to do, and now Gary and Steve were both developing into excellent leaders. William

had taken the team as far as he wanted to and now he did not know what was next. He was

going to have to meet with his campus pastor and tell him he had done what he planned and was

not sure if that meant he may no longer have a job. Unbeknownst to William, however, the

leadership of LifeTree had seen what he had accomplished and were preparing to ask him to go
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to one of their oldest campuses and help develop the ministry teams the way he had done with

the technology team.

Discussion Questions:

1. Describe the changes that happened within the the technology team at LifeTree’s main

campus. What type of leadership theory is present during these changes?

2. Considering Leadership Making Theory, how do William’s leadership skills develop

throughout his time at his position? What caused this development to occur?

3. Discuss the differences in the overall atmosphere within the church both before Aaron

fired the top 2 technology team members, and after William terminated the remaining 2

members. Explain how William’s leadership skills enhanced the new healthier

atmosphere.

4. As William pursued the hiring of Steve, he was met with challenges based on the

reputation of the church resulting in Steve not being interested in joining. What

leadership skills assisted William in changing Steve’s mind? Were there signs of

SuperLeadership within William during this process?

5. What contributed to William achieving his professional goals in half the amount of time

at LifeTree? Describe any leadership skills present that helped contribute to this success.