WISE, INTENTIONAL

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

TITUS EMAIL

Volume 3, Number 6 – June, 2009

Welcome. I truly hope discussing the concept of TEAM will be encouraging for you. It is a vital principle found in the Bible for Kingdom work. Enjoy. Mike

THINK TEAM

Think of your favorite sports team. What differentiates great teams from good teams? Why is it so true that the team with the greatest and most talent does not always win the championship?

What makes a team a team? There is more than just assembling a group of people together to accomplish a certain goal. That is true at any age and whatever you are accomplishing. When my children were very young and playing on a soccer team, which ever team had a player who had a strong leg to kick the ball and could run as fast as anyone on the field (while other players stood watching the action), chances were that team was going to win. As my kids got older and continued playing on sports teams, the team needed more than one player to “do it all”. The concept of team became more apparent as you needed everyone else on the team to contribute.

In the Bible, team concept is very important. If the understanding of God and the Gospel would continue from generation to generation, it took at team effort. Not one person could do that alone nor simply writing it down would assure the continuation of spreading the Word of God.

One of the saddest and most ominous portions of Scripture is found in Judges 2:6-10, as the Israelites took possession of the promised land and Joshua died. Verse 10 states, “After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.” A lack of working together between generations caused this to happen.

Contrast that with Jesus who selected 12 individuals to be His team to see first hand and learn how to carry on the Gospel when Jesus left. Paul did the same thing as he involved numerous disciples with him in carrying out the spreading the gospel throughout his known world.

As leaders of ministries, we have the choice to include people or do it on our own. We can be like the sports teams of young children that only need one player to carry the team or we can choose to develop teams that involve everyone on the team because each person brings certain skills and abilities to the team.

It is so easy to develop the mindset that I will do the task myself. I do not have to involve anyone, train anyone or watch as I allow someone else to do the work who will not do it the same way as I would. It takes work to bring someone along, showing the person how to do something, offering the tools and resources to accomplish the task and then letting the person take that responsibility and make it their own.

It is easier to simply say I will do it my way and my way IS the best. It is easier to keep my pride and ego in the way and block others from developing their skills and abilities, to keep the praises to myself (and then to blame the failures on others because they did not cooperate with you). Trust me, no matter the task, the great majority of time it is easier to do it by yourself and your way!

That is not team and that leads to failure like in Judges 2:10. The responsibility of the gospel is bigger than you or I. We are one small part of the whole picture of the Kingdom. If Jesus determined the best way to develop the Body of Christ was to involve a team, who are we that we are bold enough to say that what I am doing on earth for the Kingdom of God, I will do it alone. That is pride and has no place in developing the Kingdom.

YOUTHFULNESS OF TIMOTHY

Don’t you just love it when someone says, “When you get to be old enough, you can do this or that.” Good thing that does not hold true for everything in life. Timothy was a young person when we are introduced to him. He was raised in a family where mom, Eunice and grandma, Lois, had a great influence on his life. Timothy had a very good reputation and was well thought of by Christians in his hometown of Lystra and surrounding communities.

Paul had a great deal of influence on young Timothy also. It is likely that Paul helped Timothy become a Christian. Paul saw the potential in Timothy and had him join Paul’s missionary journey team. Timothy was known as Paul’s son in the faith (1 Timothy 1:2). Through Paul’s diligent mentoring, Timothy became a strong disciple that Paul could use and be utilized in churches throughout the Mediterranean Sea region (Philippians 2:19-23). Timothy thought and studied the Scriptures like Paul.

As a young man Timothy helped settle problems in Corinth and led the church in Ephesus. Paul listed Timothy as co-author in six books (2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Philemon).

Paul was well aware of Timothy’s age when he wrote to him in 1 Timothy. Timothy was commanded to not let anyone look down on him because of his age but rather set and be the example to both young and old Christians in areas of speech, loving others, living a godly and holy life and keeping himself pure sexually (1 Timothy 4:12). In other words, set the pace, make everyone look at you and say, “There is something different in the way he/she lives his/her life. That young person lives like Jesus would”. Age has nothing to do with living your life in such a way that you draw people to Jesus.

Dare to live your life in such a way that it impacts others for Jesus…and do not wait until you are old enough. Be the example now of what it means to live for Jesus. Keep yourselves from situations where you have opportunity to compromise standards of keeping yourselves pure whether sexually or morally.

Be a student of the Bible. Start with small chunks of time and build up the time you read and study the Bible. Go ask a more mature Christian to disciple/mentor you. Read and watch T.V., movies and computer sites that are wholesome and build people up. Work at not only saying words that are not derogatory but will help encourage people.

Set the example for the rest of us!

GROWING STRONG IN THE SEASONS OF LIFE

TEAM ILLUSTRATION

Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer, all the animals took all the subjects. The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, he was better then his instructor was! However, he made only passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running. This caused his webbed feet to be badly worn so he became only average in swimming. But “average” was quite acceptable, therefore nobody worried about it – except the duck. The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming. The squirrel was excellent tin climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the ground up inst4ead of from the treetop down. He developed leg cramps from overexertion, so he only got a “C” in climbing and a “D” in running. The eagle was a problem child and was severely disciplined for being a non-conformist. In climbing classes, he beat all the others to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting there!

-Chuck Swindoll

The moral of this story: Everybody is a “10” somewhere!

TEAM

Few people are successful unless a lot of other people want them to be.

–Charlie Brower

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. -James E. Hunton

Anyone who has ever been in a combat zone knows that the soldiers are never motivated to fight out of pure patriotism. …When you must actually do battle, you have only two motives: you hope to stay alive and you want to help your buddies. Psychologists have called the second ‘the affiliative motive.’ That is, most of us will pay a large price to be a part of some group of people where we depend on each other – where we know that others will cover for us, stand up for us, and bail us out if we’re in trouble. If you can create such an association, people will flock to join you, work harder than they’ve ever worked, and often stick with you even if the financial benefits would be greater in some other place. -Alan Loy McGinnis

The whole idea of a team flows from the very nature of God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all work together in harmony. - Bill Perkins

Most difficult thing for many people to do as part of a team. Give up personal comfort, ease, recognition and reward to make the team better and stronger.

One of the most powerful leadership lessons Jesus exemplified was the creation of a team envt. Where failure was routine. Excellence and failure are partners, not enemies. Only way to achieve excellence is through repeated failures. Where there is love there is a freedom to fail, you have a setting where new and better ways of doing things will strive. Accountability is spelled L-O-V-E - Bill Perkins