How To Build A Winning Team. Serving God Together. Matts-Ola Ishoel
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to Timothy:
“I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you…”
When you can think of your co-workers with the same passion as Paul, you can become a great leader.
Continuous leadership training
It is my prayer, that God will open our eyes even more to see the great need for new generations of leaders. Some will be ministry gifts, some will be deacons and home group leaders, some will work in the church while others will be volunteers, but they will all have in common that they will share in the responsibility for the church and be willing to lead others.
Team building and leadership training go hand in hand. In our church in Moscow, we have a Bible School, many different leadership courses, and a seminary for the education of pastors. All this is necessary, but for leaders to grow, there must also be places where people can start to minister under the supervision of another leader.
WHEN A LEADER TAKES TIME TO TRAIN, ENCOURAGE, AND CORRECT HIS CO-WORKERS, THERE CAN BE A CONTINUOUS GROWTH OF NEW LEADERS.
In a well-functioning leadership team, individuals can serve and grow at the same time. When a leader takes time to train, encourage, and correct his co-workers, there can be a continuous growth of new leaders. This should be our aim! I believe that with a thoughtful and purposeful strategy for leadership training, this can happen in every church and in every branch inside the local congregation.
An example to follow
We should consider how Jesus started His earthly ministry. He found some simple men, often with very little confidence in what they could do, and called them to join Him. Why did He do so? Because he understood that preaching, healing and delivering people were not sufficient for His ministry. He needed to raise up leaders. Only if there were well-trained workers who could remain standing in all kinds of circumstances, would His mission be completed.
Think in the same way! Whatever leadership task you have in the church, you can also simultaneously train other leaders. When we who are pastors make this our main cause, I believe we are on the right track. The number and quality of the leaders you leave behind determine the result of your ministry.
THE NUMBER AND QUALITY OF THE LEADERS YOU LEAVE BEHIND DETERMINE THE RESULT OF YOUR MINISTRY.
During my first years of ministry in Norway, I got calls to preach in some very interesting places, but The Holy Spirit did not allow me to go. I was once invited to go to the USA on a very exciting trip, and for a newly graduated Bible School student, this was more than great news! I remember that when I got the invitation, I ran around the house in sheer excitement. But when I asked The Lord about it, He quietly told me to stay at home. He made me understand that I should stay in my hometown, and care for the youth group that I was responsible for.
I was puzzled at this, wondering why He would not send me out into the big world. But later it started to dawn on me why He was leading me in this way. Your greatest moments are not always when a lot of people see you and listen to you. If you want to be like Jesus, think about how He spent His time. By patiently ministering to a handful of men, he turned ordinary fishermen and tax collectors into mighty leaders in the church. And what can be greater than that!
The quest for leaders
Tasks to work with
1) What priority does leadership training have in the ministry you are involved in?
Think about how many workers and leaders this ministry has produced during the last few years.
2) Speak with your team about how is it possible to serve and train someone at the same time.
3) Speak also about the place that Jesus gave leadership training in His ministry, and why this was such a priority for Him.
2
Why a team?
About the benefits of working together
All Christian ministry is teamwork.
When Jesus taught us about the church He would build, He made it clear that teamwork, unity and brotherhood would be the core principles. God’s kingdom is not the place for him who does not want to submit to leaders or work with others. There is no place for a solo carrier in the church. Selfish ambitions must be left outside the door when you enter God’s house. Here, you need to dress in humility and companionship.
A team is a group of people who not only know each other, but also strive together to reach a common goal. The word “team” is often used in sports or businesses, but nowhere does it have a deeper meaning than when we speak about the church. Nobody can bring people closer to each other than The Holy Spirit. He can deliver us from our own arrogance, and melt us together for the purposes of God.
NOBODY CAN BRING PEOPLE CLOSER TO EACH OTHER THAN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
From the Old to the New Testament
“Teamwork” can sound like a contemporary expression, but it represents the same truths that the church was founded on from the very beginning.
In the Old Testament we often see that men and women of God served individually in their callings. Men like Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Elijah and Jeremiah seem more like elected individuals who carried out important missions from God, than people who served in community with others.
This picture changes however when we come to the New Testament. Jesus made it clear from the beginning that the disciples needed to continue the work together in unity with each other. He said:
“…but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.”
He emphasized humility, submission and cooperation. During three and a half years, He turned His disciples into a strong group of ministers, and this was the concept that was supposed to continue in the church.
As the story continues in the book of Acts, this is the very pattern we see. Among the first Christians, we do not read about any inclination amongst the apostles to dominate the others. What we read is about believers who lived in a unity and fellowship that astonished the world.
“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul… And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.”
The apostles appear in the book of Acts as a group of leaders, and even though Peter was the one in charge among them, they served together as a team. When difficult questions needed to be decided, as in Acts 15, they came together, listened to each other, respected the senior leaders and came out with a common answer. Their unity and mutual respect became the strength of the church. No more do we see the lonely prophet who walks and serves by himself.
When the gospel started to spread in the Roman Empire, it was through mission teams travelling together. The first example is Paul, Barnabas and John Mark, followed by larger teams. Luke, who travelled with Paul on some of his journeys and wrote the book of Acts, simply says “we” when he tells his story. “…we sought to go to Macedonia”, “…we were staying in that city for some days”, “…as we went to prayer.” (Acts 16:10, 12,16)
Paul was the leader of the team, but Luke did not use expressions like “Paul and the rest of us”. No, he said “we” because this is how they thought.
Gifts are divided among us
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