The Biggest Threat to Your Team Is Its Own Ego

Most people think the biggest risk to a church safety team is the threat that walks through the door. After fourteen years, I will tell you the bigger risk is usually already on the team. It is ego.

Think about who we recruit. People with a protective instinct. A lot of former and current military and law enforcement. Folks who train hard, who carry, who have run toward things other people run away from. Those are exactly the people you want when something goes wrong. They are also exactly the people most prone to thinking a little too highly of themselves.

I include myself in that. We go through more vetting than anyone else who serves. We get more training. Some of us are armed. Sit with that combination long enough and pride creeps in. You start to feel like the sheepdog among sheep. You start to look at the congregation as people to be managed instead of people to be served. And the moment that happens, you have become a problem to the very church you are there to protect.

Here is what ego looks like in the wild on a safety team:

• Treating guests like suspects instead of guests.
• Throwing your weight around with other ministries because you think safety outranks them.
• Refusing correction, because surely the person with all the training does not need it.
• Making the ministry about your readiness instead of the church's mission.

The fix is not lowering your standards or your edge. You still train hard. You still take the work seriously. The fix is remembering what you are. We are not the most important ministry in the building. We are a servant function that exists so the people doing the front-line ministry can do it without fear. The greatest among you will be your servant (Matthew 23:11). That is not a nice sentiment for a wall decoration or a bumper sticker. It is the job description.

I tell my team this directly, and I tell them to watch me for it too. Because I am a broken, fallen human being like anyone else, and pride does not spare the leader. I trust my team enough to hand them that responsibility, to call me on it when they see it creeping in, and I try to be the kind of leader they can actually do that with.

The best defense against ego is not the leader policing everyone from the top.

And it has to run every direction. The best defense against ego is not the leader policing everyone from the top. It is a team humble enough to check each other, honestly and in love, and a culture where being called out lands as a gift instead of an insult. If your people cannot look at each other and say, "hey, you are getting a little sharp with folks today," then pride has nowhere to go but up. Build the culture where they can, and model it by being the first one willing to hear it.

The day our safety team starts carrying itself like it is better than the people it protects is the day we have lost the plot, no matter how sharp our tactics are.

Your skills are not the problem, your pride is.

To sum up: your skills are not the problem, your pride is. Recruit hard chargers, train them hard, and then guard their hearts just as hard. A humble team that serves is nearly impossible to resent. An arrogant team is a problem the whole church has to manage. Stay sharp, stay humble, and remember whose house you are standing in.