When Paul in his letters teaches about ministry, he develops the doctrine that Jesus had established. Maybe more than any other place this is seen in 1 Corinthians 12, when he uses the human body to illustrate how the church must function. I am sure you have read these verses many times, but read them again, thinking about a leadership team in a church:
“For as the body is one and has many members… so also is Christ.”
“If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
“And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’”; nor again the head to the feet,
“I have no need of you.”
1 Corinthians 12:12, 17 and 21
Paul’s aim is very clear: We need to work together! When we join our gifts and talents, we will complete each other and together have the needed capacity for ministry. This is of course seen in a general sense when we think about the whole church, but it also has a more specific meaning when we speak about branches and ministers inside the local church.
WHEN WE JOIN OUR GIFTS AND TALENTS, WE WILL COMPLETE EACH OTHER AND TOGETHER HAVE THE NEEDED CAPACITY FOR MINISTRY.
Think for example of a worship team consisting of different musicians with different skills. Everybody has a different ability, but together they become a beautiful symphony. The same is true regarding a pastoral team, or among youth leaders, children’s workers, ushers and so on. The more people with different abilities and personalities can respect each other and operate together, the more effective they will become.
Paul also makes the point that this is pleasing to The Lord (v.17). God wanted it to be this way! When He distributes His gifts and talents, he does not give one person all that he needs to fulfill his calling. He makes us depend on each other.
Nobody has all that is needed. We only possess a part of what is necessary – the other parts are given to other people. God wanted us to work together and depend on each other in humility; therefore nobody has all the grace needed to complete a ministry. Our destiny is to serve God in close cooperation with a lot of other people!
Paul says, “…the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’”. In other words, the eye needs the hand to do what it is supposed to. This may be humiliating to the eye, which cannot say, “I manage alone”. But this kind of humiliation is divine, and is God’s will for us. When we discover how limited we are in what we are able to do, then we can open ourselves for God’s Spirit and the body of Christ. Then we can, in thankfulness, realize that The Holy Spirit has put people around us who cover our shortcomings. And then building unity and good working relationships with these people becomes a main aim for us. In this way God wanted the church to grow and function.
I remember a story I heard many years ago when I attended a cross-denominational Charismatic conference in Sweden. The main speaker was a well-known pastor from the USA. He was leading a big church, and in one of the meetings he shared about his grandmother. She was a real prayer-warrior, and she had devoted herself to pray for her grandson and his pastoral work one hour every day.
But after some years, the grandmother passed away. And the following Sunday the pastor was supposed to preach as usual. But this time, he felt completely empty. He had no word from God, no sermon, nothing to say to the congregation. So when the time came for the sermon during the meeting, he could only tell the church that he had no message to share with them. He said that he now realized that it was his grandmother’s prayers that had carried him all these years, and when she was gone, he felt entirely helpless.
For him this became a revelation about how little he could do by himself. He had thought of himself as a good pastor and a clever speaker, but without the prayer support of this old lady, he was nothing. And that is how it is for all of us. The church does not consist of superstars and their followers, but of members of the same body who together become the world changing force that the church is called to be.
The story however did not end with him sobbing behind the pulpit. After he had made his confession, although he was a white man, a solid built African-American lady stood up in the meeting and shouted: “Don’t worry pastor, I’ll be your new grandmother!” And from that day she began to pray for him an hour every day, his strength came back, and his ministry continued forward!
I wish we could all make the same discovery. The praying grandmother was neither seen nor heard in the church, but she was nevertheless a necessary part of the body. In the same way, there will always be a lot of people around you who have other strengths than what you have. But they have been put there by The Holy Spirit to create a sound balance regarding gifts and abilities. And the more you love and respect them, the more you will be able to work together with them. The better you function together, the more fruitful the church will be.
To be a part of a team is a great adventure. It is truly a great joy and satisfaction to discover talents that The Holy Spirit has given to other people, and how well they correspond with what you are able to do.
As a leader in a church or a ministry, it is your responsibility to turn the group of people you work with into an effective team. Unity and a good spirit of cooperation do not come by themselves; it must be nurtured and brought forth by the leader. A leader who is only occupied with the work itself, and does not pay attention to relationships inside the team, will never reach the full potential of his calling.
UNITY AND A GOOD SPIRIT OF COOPERATION DO NOT COME BY THEMSELVES; IT MUST BE NURTURED AND BROUGHT FORTH BY THE LEADER.
Teambuilding in a church can function on many levels. The principles I share in this book can be adapted everywhere where Christians work together. When I use the term “team”, I do not of course think of an exclusive group who separates themselves from other ministries in the local church. I am thinking about people who are already serving together in a certain area, but could benefit a lot if they structured their cooperation better. The same person can be a part of several “teams”, depending on how we use the word. If you are singing in the choir and leading a home group, both these ministries can be strengthened by applying the principles I write about.
The right kind of teamwork does not weaken the general unity of the church. It will only strengthen it, by creating committed church members. Think of it in terms of team building as a tool to make the existing branches stronger and more effective.
There are endless examples of what kind of teams there can be in a church. First of all we can think of the senior pastor and his closest co-workers as a team. Then each of these co-workers can have their own leadership groups that they work with. And then this can be followed by other levels of leaders, depending on the activity and size of the church.
In Word of Life Moscow there are teams of leaders serving together on a number of levels. I basically lead two teams in the church: the church board consisting of 10 members, and the pastoral team that I work with on a daily basis, consisting of more than 30 ministers. But every one of these leaders must also build and train a team together with their closest co-workers. In our working instruction for a pastor it is written:
“Every pastor must create a team consisting of his closest co-workers, and gather this team either once a week or every two weeks. The pastor must coordinate the common work, inspire and individually train these leaders.”
This way of working has proven to be very effective for us. Every pastor or senior leader is both a part of a team, and leads one himself. The district pastors gather their zone leaders, the children’s pastor the children’s leaders, the media director his co-workers in the media department and so on it goes. Then, many of these team members are also in charge of their own teams. The zone leaders for example continually meet and train the home group leaders that they are responsible for.
In this way we end up with literally dozens of leadership teams that meet weekly to plan their common work and grow together. I will later share more about how this is organized, but just to discover this way of working is a great revelation.
As we can see, creating leadership teams has numerous advantages. But we cannot only look at this from a sheer ministry point of view. Creating good, spiritual working relationships, is also valuable from a doctrinal side.
Every pastor knows the words from Psalm 133:1
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
This is pleasant not only in the eyes of man, but much more in the eyes of God. When we can bury our pride and selfish ambitions, and serve Him together in deep respect for each other, that brings joy to heaven.
WHEN WE CAN BURY OUR PRIDE AND SELFISH AMBITIONS, AND SERVE HIM TOGETHER IN DEEP RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER, THAT BRINGS JOY TO HEAVEN.
The Bible does not hide how God grieves over divisions among His children. This does not only go for denominations that wrangle with each other over doctrinal questions, but also when people in the same church cannot work together. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes
“I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.”
Philippians 4:2
This is about two women in one church, who for some reason could not function together. But that was enough of a reason for the apostle to address the matter and plead them to have the same mind. He even asked the other leaders to help them to restore the relationship. So even if it is only two Christians who live in disagreement, it is a matter that The Lord cares about.
I am sure that many times we cause grief onto God’s heart more than we are aware of when we avoid each other, and are unwilling to deepen our relationships. The apostle Peter said, “Love the brotherhood” (1 Pet 2:17). This is something more than loving your neighbor. “The brotherhood” is the people God has placed around you, those with whom you are called to serve God. Loving and honoring them will glorify God and open up for His grace in the ministry.
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