Are
Teams Biblical?
By
Paul Marks
Purpose
The
purpose of this presentation is to work through Biblical passages as they
pertain to teamwork and come to an understanding of the Biblical nature of
teams and their relevancy to our work in the church today.
Presentation
Teams
are an essential part of our everyday life.
There are times when we realize the teams that we are on and other times
when the collections of individuals may not realize that they are or need to be
working as a team. Laurie Beth Jones
notes in her book Teaching Your Team to Fish “Today, as never before in
history, organizational leaders are realizing that to maximize performance
people need to be organized in teams” (Jones, p. 13). It is this understanding that leads us to the
need and desire to understand the concept of teamwork. I believe that there is no better place to go
for this understanding than to the Scriptures which give us numerous examples
of teamwork in action. These examples
give us great insight into God’s desire for the team to be formed, work
together and ultimately glorify Him through the work of the team. An underlying condition to understanding
Biblical models for teamwork must be that God is the head of all teams and that
to succeed; He must be a part of all team activity.
In this presentation, I will focus on three portions
of Scripture which substantiate the points above and which show without a doubt
that teamwork is Biblical and desired by God.
These passages come to us from the 3rd and 4th
chapters of Exodus, the 12th chapter of I Corinthians and the 11th
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. As
these passages are explored it is essential to keep in mind the elements of
teamwork that are essential for success.
J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen write,
“Organizational success requires communication at the individual as well as
group level” (Black and Gregersen, p. 110). Cooperation is also essential to successful
teamwork as is leadership. Doug Fields
writes in Purpose Driven Youth Ministry “Leaders can make or break a
ministry. A ministry without adequate
leadership can never be healthy, but one with an abundance of quality leaders
will always have the potential for health.
Proverbs
In Exodus Chapters 3 and 4, Moses is
called by God in a very dramatic way to do His work. Moses must make a decision about his
abilities and his willingness to serve the Lord in the way that God asks of
him. Moses’ doubt
overwhelm him as he asks the Lord, “what if they do not believe me or
listen to me?” (Exodus 4:1) “Moses
relates in this chapter how hesitatingly he obeyed God, not from stubbornness,
but from timidity, for he does not shake off the yoke, as unruly beasts do, but
shrinks away from it, that it may not be placed upon him” (Bingham, p.
84). Despite Moses’ doubt, God never
wavers in His desire to have Moses as His servant. In fact, God raises
up a teammate for Moses who will help to ease his fears and give him the
courage to accomplish the task set before him.
“What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well.” (Exodus 4:14) By raising up Aaron
to help Moses with this task, God pairs two people with differing abilities to
accomplish the task that He want done.
This teamwork is reminiscent of
Paul’s words to the Corinthians when he says “The body is a unit, though it is
made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.”
(I Corinthians 12:12) God understands
that we have not all been given every gift.
If this were the case then where would our individuality be? Instead God has given some the ability to
speak and others the ability to teach.
Others He has given skills of craftsmanship while others are good at
administrative tasks. It is for this
very reason that we must work together to accomplish the goals that are set
before us. No one person can accomplish
all things and in the same way there are none whose talents are useless to a
team, especially one that is about the Lord’s work. Paul’s words also speak to the need to accept
all people’s gifts as they are all essential in the body of Christ. Just as in the body, all parts work together,
so also in a team, all members work together for the good of the team and to
accomplish the work that God has set before us.
The though of being yoked to one
another or to God is at first thought one that does not sound appealing. As individuals we often want to be able to be
free of all hindrances and do the things that we want to do without the
restraints that a yoke woul seem to put on us. But in fact the Biblical concept of being
yoked to Christ is one that lessens our load
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) It is the understanding of God walking by our
side and carrying our burden that gives us strength to do the things that he
asks of us because we know that we have His assistance. In the same way, we also can help to lessen
one another’s loads. By working as a
team, we take the entire weight of the task and spread it out over the entire
group, thus lessening the load for each individual. Each person can carry the portion that they
have been gifted in and therefore feel a diminished pressure to do those things
for which they have not been called or gifted.
The Biblical basis for teamwork goes
far beyond the three passages briefly explored above, but it is certain that
God desires for His people to work together for His glory in all that they do
and wants our load to be as light as possible.
For certain, being yoked to Christ takes an enormous burden off of our
shoulders, but God also uses His people to lighten the load of one another.
Presentation Style
It
is natural for me to lead presentations that give the hearers the opportunity
to not only listen, but also to participate.
I believe this to be essential, especially in a Bible study type of
format. The way in which I would present
this material would be to read the passages, make my assertions regarding their
implications for teamwork and open up the opportunity for discussion among the
participants. In this way, stories could
be shared, view could be heard and all in attendance could feel a part of the
presentation as opposed to simple a hearer of it.
Bibliography
Bingham, C. W. ed. (2003). Calvin’s Commentaries Volume II.
Black, J.S. & Gregerson,
H. B. (2002). Leading Strategic
Change: Breaking Through the Brain Barrier. Upper saddle
River, NJ; Prentice Hall.
Fields,
D. (1998). Purpose Driven Youth Ministry.
Hoerber, R. G. ed. (1986). Concordia Self-Study Bible.
Jones, L. B. (2002). Teach Your Team to Fish.