By Derrick Hurst, Pastor and
Meranda Gfroerer, Church Success Coord.

As a pastor of a church, Derrick Hurst knows that when leading staff, volunteers, ministries, and committees – communication can make or break your ministry. 

Meranda has years of experience coaching our church teams through our Strategic Growth Process as our Church Success Coordinator. And she’ll tell you, it’s not usually the preaching, programs, or even the budget that slow things down. It’s that someone thought the meeting was at 6:00… someone else thought it was at 7:00… and someone else thought the meeting was an email. 

The good news? Communication struggles don’t have to derail your ministry. 

In this post, Derrick and Meranda share a few tools, insights, and intentional shifts that will bring clarity, reduce frustration, and create the kind of communication that gets the work done and keeps your team healthy.

1. Spot the Signs Early

“Confusion about ‘who to go to for what’ is one of the biggest early warning signs. If people don’t know where decisions are made or where information lives, communication cracks will widen quickly.” – Meranda

Derrick knows, communication issues rarely announce themselves with flashing lights. Instead, they whisper through little frustrations:

• A hallway full of “Oh, I didn’t know that was happening…”
  
• Team members heading to the pastor for room reservations (Wrong person, wrong process, often a red flag).
  
• Leaders repeating the same details again and again, only to have people say, “Wait, I didn’t catch that.”
• A team that looks busy but is pulling in different directions.
  
• A meeting where only three people talk, and everyone else leaves more confused than when they walked in.

If you notice these signs, don’t panic. They’re signals your team’s telling you something is off.

2. Get to the Root Cause

Most breakdowns aren’t about laziness. They’re about unclear expectations. Oftentimes this results in team members talking about problems to each other instead of bringing them to leadership. And that creates frustration without resolution.

Ask yourself:

• Does everyone know who owns what? (If your first thought is “Um, maybe?”, keep reading. We’ve got a great tool to help with this.)
  
• Does everyone know where updates live?
  
• Does everyone feel safe asking questions without judgment? (Does the answer to this question make you uneasy? We’ve got a starting point for you in this article about building trust through team meetings.

Derrick emphasizes using this moment as a leader to listen more than lecture. Try:
“What would make this easier for you?”
“Where do you feel left out?”

Sometimes, the answers will surprise you.

3. Set the Tone as a Leader

Like it or not, you set the communication thermostat. If you:

• Send vague, late-night emails ⇨ expect vague, late responses.
  
• Talk over people in meetings ⇨ expect silence in return.
  
• Admit mistakes and clarify quickly ⇨ you’ll model humility and clarity your team can emulate.

Meranda reminds leaders that sometimes you have to spell out the culture you expect: “Communicate with humility, grace, and prayer”. Your words and actions set the tone.

4. Build Simple Rhythms and Channels

Healthy teams don’t communicate by accident. They build systems.

• Weekly project-based check-ins (shorter is better).
  
• Shared calendars or timelines that actually get used.
  
• A recurring opportunity for your entire team to gather together. See our previous post: How To Run A Great Team Meeting[LINK]
  
• Create clear channels of communication.
  
  Decide what’s email-worthy, text-worthy, or Slack-worthy. And stick to it. Our FiveTwo team has a “Communication Guidelines” document we share during onboarding that explains when we use each channel for what:
  • Slack (or any messenger app): This is our first line of communication. We do our best to reply to team members’ Slack messages ASAP, but the expectation is at least within 24 hours or next business day.
  • Zoom: How we have our meetings. We try to conduct all meetings with our videos on. This helps foster connection between team members and allows us to read crucial facial expressions and body language.
  • Email: This is our “You should see this” channel. If we want a team member to do something, we do not send to-dos in an email. We use email predominantly for external communication, not internal. 
  • Text: Quickest response. Think: “The world isn’t exploding, and this doesn’t need to be solved RIGHT NOW, but an answer is needed within 10 mins.”
  • Phone call: For an immediate need, or an answer is needed right now to move your project along. Or, something’s wrong and we need to fix it ASAP. 

Meranda works with teams of all kinds. Some have a culture of using high-end tech tools while others may not. By meeting teams where they are – using a project management tool like Asana versus an Excel spreadsheet – she helps teams find a rhythm and stick to it. Because in many cases, it’s less about the method and more about the consistency in which you’re communicating. 

5. Use Simple Tools for Accountability

Even with consistent rhythms and tools in place for communication, if your people are unsure about who is doing what – you’ll continue to find yourself stuck or not moving as quickly on projects as you’d hoped. 

In the last year, our team implemented a RACI chart system to get clear on who is accountable and who is responsible for work – because guess what? There’s a difference. 

RACI stands for:
Responsible: The person who does the work to complete the task. They are responsible for action and execution.

Accountable: The person who is ultimately answerable for the task’s success and has the authority to approve or sign off on work. There is only one accountable person per task.

Consulted: People who provide input, expertise, or feedback before or during the task. This is two-way communication.

Informed: People who need to be kept updated on progress or decisions but are not directly involved. This is one-way communication. 

How To Use It:
At the start of a project, the person driving the initiative (often the Accountable party) shares the RACI breakdown with the team. Each person should be explicitly informed of their role (R, A, C, or I) and what that entails, usually in a kickoff meeting. 

When to complete a RACI chart?
This will depend on you and on your team’s dynamics, history or structure. Just inherited a new team and it’s mass confusion at every turn? Think about taking the time to complete a RACI chart for each major activity in your operations (Sunday morning, worship, communications, kids ministry). For more established teams, think about kicking off any new project or major initiative with a RACI chart – especially when it involves multiple teams or individuals. 

Who has the authority to assign roles?
Typically, the person who is Accountable for the overall success of the project (often a team lead, initiative owner, or decision-maker) assigns roles. However, assignments should be made in collaboration with the team to ensure clarity and buy-in.

Implementing a RACI chart can help your team overcome the ambiguity in ownership and communication that leads to confusion and inefficiencies in project execution. If you or your team find yourselves asking, “Who’s ultimately responsible for this?”, this tool is for you.

Here’s the good news. Resistance means people care. 

6. Create Space for Every Voice

Church teams are filled with big personalities and quiet thinkers. Don’t miss the gold from quieter voices.

• Try round-table updates where everyone shares.
  
• Send questions ahead of time so introverts can prepare.
  
• Ask, “What are we celebrating?” It’s a simple prompt that gets everyone to participate.
  

Even small steps create engagement. When everyone feels heard, alignment grows.

7. Avoid Communication Overload… But Also, Over Communicate

First, Communication Overload:

Too much information is just as deadly as too little. If your team needs Google Maps and a compass just to find the latest event plan, you’ve gone too far.

Meranda puts it simply: watch people’s faces. If you see panic rising, scale back. Share what’s essential now, and drip-feed the rest later.

Practical tips:

• Use the “Who really needs to know this?” filter.
  
• End every meeting with a recap: “Who’s doing what by when?”
  
• Put information where it can’t get lost: a one-pager everyone knows where to find, in a shared folder everyone has access to, or your website or intranet tab.

When to “Over Communicate”:

As one pastor joked, he got his admin a T-shirt that said, “It’s in the bulletin.” Funny? Yes (A little passive aggressive? Maybe). But oh-so revealing. So many of the pastors we work with tell us their people don’t remember the announcements made just the Sunday before. If people can’t find what they need, no amount of “saying it louder” will fix the problem.

You have to find other ways to get your message across. While the data somewhat varies and is always changing, we can generally say it takes someone seeing or hearing something 5 to 7 times before we remember it. So don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. On stage. In your bulletin. In your newsletter. Week. After. Week. 

When it starts to feel repetitive and annoying to you, that’s when your people might actually begin to remember. While in this instance we are talking about communicating with your congregation-at-large, the same advice goes for your team. Especially during big periods of change or important events or transitions.

8. Track Progress Together

Healthy communication isn’t abstract. You can measure it:

• Are fewer things slipping through the cracks?
  
• Are leaders updating proactively instead of being chased down?
  
• Do meetings end with clarity instead of confusion?
  

Celebrate the wins. Even one fewer “I didn’t know about that” is worth cheering.

9. One Small Change = Big Impact

Often, the fix isn’t flashy. It might be as simple as:

• Ending every meeting with a 60-second recap.
  
• Agreeing on one primary communication channel.
  
• Listening carefully to frustrated team members and adjusting where information lives.

Bottom Line

Communication isn’t a one-time project. It’s the oxygen of your team. When it’s healthy, your ministry breathes easier. When it’s clogged, everyone gasps.

So, start small.
Lead by example.
Build rhythms and use tools your people can actually follow.
And remember: clarity is one of the most powerful ministry tools you have.

Communication breakdowns don’t just slow things down, they wear your people down. 

Through our Strategic Growth Process, churches uncover the root causes of miscommunication, leaving them a clear plan, shared language, and tools that help people communicate better than ever.

If your team’s communication could use a reset, contact us.

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As a nonprofit ministry, FiveTwo equips churches to move forward with clarity, unity, and purpose. Through a guided, two-year process, we help pastors and their people get aligned, energized, and activated, so ministry becomes something everyone owns, not something staff carry alone.