Teamwork Blessings

Teamwork is a big deal – image what happens to a car if one wheel comes off. Few burdens are really heavy when everybody lifts. A few years ago, the Valley Fellowship Guatemala mission team experienced the power of teamwork as we carried the welded-metal structure that would serve as the rafters for a new house at the Casa Angelina Orphanage. One person just wasn’t enough to get the job done.

“We live in an individualistic culture, but we are called to be people in relationship . . . we are not called to be the persons of God, but the people of God.” (Kenneth Boa, The Perfect Leader, p. 158) As the people of God, we are to work at keeping the unity of the Spirit. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3 NIV84) Have you ever noticed we aren’t told to CREATE unity? We are told to keep it – to preserve unity.

“You must give up something in the immediate present, comfort, ease, recognition, quick rewards to attract something even better in the future: a full heart and sense that you did something which counted. Without that sacrifice, you’ll never know your team’s potential, or your own.”  (Coach Pat Riley, The Winner Within)

Good Reasons for Teams (compiled from Gene Wilkes’ Jesus on Leadership and Elaine Biech’s Successful Team Building Tools):

1. Teams provide increased input that helps the group develop better ideas and make better decisions.
2. Teams provide higher quality output.
3. Teams involve everyone in the process.
4. Teams encourage a sense of community by sharing credit for both victories and defeats.
5. Teams are more likely to implement plans because leader and group members consider themselves accountable to each other.
6. Teams demonstrate the synergism principal whereby two can do more than twice what one can do.
7. Teams are how Jesus did ministry.
8. Teams increase opportunities to draw on an individual’s strengths and to compensate for his weaknesses.
9. Teams develop a sense of togetherness, a feeling of belonging, so it is easier for members to build strong personal relationships.

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT