This next series of teaching builds on the Discipleship and Ministry previously given. It makes the assumption that you are growing in the basic disciplines and discovering and exercising your ministry. If you don’t have the material, a set of notes can be provided. If needed, an explanation of the notes can also be given.
We move from Discipleship and Ministry to Teamwork.
Jesus never looked for a successor, He looked for a team.
He recognised the potential, the raw material in the men He called to follow Him.
He then went about teaching and shaping them into a cohesive group.
A group that would be able to carry on the work after He had left them.
No one person had it all except Jesus. It would require everyone working together to get the job done.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit work together.
Each member of the Trinity gives gifts.
Gifts of the Father Rom 12:4-8.
Gifts of the Son Eph. 4:11&12.
Gifts of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12:4-11.
We all have a gift mix but none of us has all the gifts. That’s why we need each other. A good cohesive team with complimentary gifts can get much more done than one person alone.
Teams have the ability to produce multiplication not just addition.
One person can reach a finite number of people. But if one person trains a team and each of those team members trains a team and so on the impact is much larger and wider.
Just having a team is not enough. It also needs to be healthy and fully functioning.
We don’t have to be perfect. We are all works in progress. But we do need certain qualities to be good team members. We also need to have developed those qualities, so they become who we are not just what we say or do outwardly. Because, if we become team leaders, we will produce after our own kind. If we are dysfunctional, we will affect the team we are in and if we become a team leader, we will produce a dysfunctional team.
You may wonder how this can happen. But I have seen many promising people and many teams of people fall apart because of a lack of understanding of these principles or an unwillingness to address personal issues.
To have a strong Church, we need strong and healthy people and strong and healthy teams.
Until we do, we will have limited impact.
Next time we will look at ADAPTABILITY.