Ministers Build A Little Unity Program Teaches Church Leaders About Teamwork, Trust

Thirty feet in the air, Frank Pounders put himself in a very precarious position.

The 70-year-old minister looked down from the climbing tree to see a crowd cheering for him on the ground.

“Go Frank!” yelled someone from below. “You’re OK, strong words,” shouted another.

Full of concentration, Pounders balanced in the air while the wooden pole quivered in the air - quite a change from a typical Sunday service in his Dallas church.

Instead of his formal Sunday suit and tie, Pounders wore jeans, a harness and a fluorescent green helmet.

And he returned to the ground safely.

This type of experience builds something inside one’s mind. That’s why Pounders was among 30 other Unity Church ministers from across the nation to take part in a program that reaches beyond the church walls to teach its leaders new things about group behavior.

Teamwork is a value Pounders will take back to Texas and share with his congregation. Complacency and factions among church members are challenges his church faces - issues he’s now ready to attack.

“Up until now I never thought of things like this to build trust,” Pounders said of the physical challenges. “We need to do stuff together to gain trust as opposed to just say things together.”

This week the group focused on pushing the limits of not just the spirit, but also of the mind, body and essence of team in a training program sponsored by SportsMind, a national management and leadership company, with offices in Coeur d’Alene and California.

“These guys are the CEOs of their own companies,” said Stephanie White, CEO of SportsMind, as the church leaders took turns climbing up the tree and jumping onto a trapeze. “There’s no hesitating with these guys. It’s incredible.”

SportsMind, a group that normally trains men and women in large corporations like Microsoft and AT&T, has worked with the Association of Unity Churches for the past two years.

Last year, when the Rev. Marilyn Muehlbach attended the workshop, she found the experience to be “transformative.” Soon after, additional members from her Coeur d’Alene church, the Unity Church of North Idaho, attended another group-building workshop.

“It was such an empowering type of thing because people break the barriers that hold them back,” Muehlbach said. “We surely have the responsibility and the ability to be all we can be.”

And that’s a part of the Unity Church’s philosophy. Ten years ago, Barbara O’Hearne, director of the Unity Ministers Executive Institute, wanted to begin a program for church leaders. Ideas from the Unity churches and SportsMind are similar, she said, such as focusing on the group itself and not hierarchy.

Now with a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, and a discount from SportsMind, the group participates in ongoing programs to learn the “business” aspect of running a church, O’Hearne said.

There are more than 1,000 Unity Churches and 700 ministers worldwide, O’Hearne said. These training programs are essential because it’s not easy to be a leader to hundreds of church members.

“Doing something like this is a stretch, especially for clergy,” O’Hearne said. “I’m really proud of them getting into it.”

Exercises such as climbing the pole or participating in a trust fall are the sorts of risks everyone, including ordained ministers, should take, White said.

Ministers will learn that in every group, everyone has a voice and needs to be involved, said the Rev. Richard Mantei, chairman of the association and minister in San Rafael, Calif.

This week has definitely taught Pounders about group cohesion, he said. The oldest member of the group, Pounders has been the minister of his 500-member church for 22 years.

“I think the primary thing is that when you have a team you trust, there is no fear,” he said, just minutes after his pole climb. “Everybody’s church needs to work on that.”

Group-building and pushing the limit of one’s trust factor is a way for ministers to learn how to incorporate business-like mentalities into their churches, White said.

White, also a member of the Unity Church has offered a discount. She said the four-day program would normally cost a corporation $100,000. On the other end, SportsMind attempts to bring a spirit of business ethics into the corporate world.

“It isn’t enough to offer salary and stock options anymore,” White said.

Last fall, SportsMind provided a similar group-building program, free of cost, for more than 100 city employees from Coeur d’Alene.