During Jesus’ earthly ministry He gave us a model on how to do ministry work. Jesus approach to ministry was to select a team of people to work closely together to achieve a common goal. Though Jesus was God in human form, though He had all wisdom, knowledge and understanding, He didn’t go solo. He wasn’t a one man band or a lone ranger. He selected a team to be with Him, learn from Him, empower and then send out to do certain kingdom assignments (Matthew 10:1-16). At various points in Jesus’ ministry we see that His attitude to ministry or ministry style was that you can’t do it all by yourself, you can’t do it alone, you need people.
Many times when He went to minister to people, whether it was to teach the word, pray for someone, deliver someone that was sick or oppressed, He didn’t go alone, He went with His disciples (Mark 5:35-43, John 11:1-16). The day He prophetically rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He wasn’t the one that got the donkey, cleaned it and put it in shape. He gave that assignment to His disciples (Matthew 21:1-7). When He had the last supper with His disciples, He wasn’t the one that prepared and served the meal. The disciples were given the assignment of preparing the supper (Matthew 26:17-24). When He was to be crucified and His heart was deeply sorrowful, He didn’t go alone to pray, He went with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray (Matthew 26:37).
So one of Jesus’ key messages which He modelled, passed across and imbibed in His disciples during their three years of intensive discipleship training was that you need people. No matter how anointed and gifted you are, you can’t do it all by yourself, all alone.
But in the church today, you find that a lot of people have come to the conclusion that it’s better to do things by yourself. It is when you involve people that there’s a problem. There are three arguments for this:
ARGUEMENT #1: You can do things faster or get things done faster when it’s just you; other people have a way of slowing you down. Let me give us a practical example of this. A member has just had a baby or is sick in the hospital and the Pastor assigns you and two other people to go and visit and pray with the church member. For the purpose of that visit, you have been constituted into a team. You all agree on a day and time you will go and visit the member say Saturday at 10am. Your agreement and arrangement with these other two brethren is that they are to meet at your place for 9.45a.m latest 10am so you can set out by 10am and come back by 12noon as you have a very important appointment for 12.30p.m. Saturday comes, its quarter to 10 and no one has shown up. 10 o’clock comes and still no one has shown up. You start to call them and for the next couple of minutes you are frantically calling and they keep saying I’m on my way, I will soon be there. Eventually, the first person shows up at 11am. The second at 11.20am. Since you had promised the church member that you would see her that day, you still all set out to visit the person. But because you left later than planned, coupled with traffic on the road, you don’t get back till 1pm. So all your arrangements and plans for that day are disturbed. The 12.30 important appointment you had, you are late for and can’t meet up with again. Let’s be very sincere with ourselves, the next time the Pastor tells you to go with these same brethren to visit someone, are you likely to want to go with them?
A popular African proverb says “if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”. Because of situations such as the example just given, most people have concluded that I rather do things on my own or by myself. By the time I involve other people, they just end up slowing me down. The question to ask is which is more important, which is more profitable, to go fast or to go far? Which one will pay off in the long run getting things done fast or going far? There’s this common saying which I believe we are all familiar with that says “it’s not how fast but how well”. It’s not about how fast you get there, how quick you are to accomplish things but are you able to remain there when you get there. The fact that you were the first to get married amongst all your friends or the first to start your business doesn’t necessarily mean your marriage will be the best or your business the best. If you are the first to start a business and you don’t have good relationship with people can that business really go far?
Let’s go back to the visit which you weren’t pleased about because other people made you set out late. You may have been going through a trying time in your marriage or business. In actual fact, you have been so confused about what next to do. Then out of the blues, without your mentioning to anyone what you are going through, one of the sisters you went with starts to share a personal experience she had which is similar to what you are going through. By the time she finishes, it’s like a heavy load has been removed from your shoulder. Through her own personal story, God ministers to you, God gives you clear direction as to the next step to take. Something you would have never gotten if it was just you alone in the car going to visit the member.
So yes, going with people can slow you down at times but you gain more ground when you do ministry work with a team of people. The most you can do praying on your own is to chase away 1000 demons. But when you pray with another believer about that situation, both of you can wreck serious havoc on the kingdom of darkness. You are able to chase and rout out ten thousand enemies of the gospel, enemies of progress (Leviticus 26:7-8, Deuteronomy 32:30). We see from these two passages that teamwork results in increase and enlargement. The growth, the results you have are much greater with two or more people than when it’s just you.
The difference between 1000 and 10,000 is not a small, insignificant difference. It’s a major difference, it’s a big difference. If you bought a bucket of rice in January for 1000 and by April it is being sold for 1100 or 1200, because the difference isn’t that remarkable, you may agree to buy. But if the increase is from 1000 to 10,000, the difference is too significant for you to ignore or brush aside. The difference you get from doing things on your own and doing things with a team is too much for you to ignore, brush aside, or do without. To make a big difference, to make major impact in what you do for God, to experience increase and enlargement, don’t go solo, don’t be a lone ranger, work with a team.
ARGUEMENT #2: The second reason why people prefer individual work over teamwork is that doing things with people can bring about a lot of unnecessary friction which they would rather avoid. When any two people come together whether it’s husband and wife or a group in the office or department in the church, because we are different, come from different backgrounds, have different personalities, have had different experiences in life, our approach to situations will be different. The result is that there will be disagreements which in some cases can turn into some very serious quarrels. So some people have concluded that to avoid all these frictions and quarrels, let me just be on my own, let me just do things by myself.
As believers, ministers and workers for God what is the highest level of growth you can attain in your walk with God? The highest level you can attain is not to become a prophet, pastor, big evangelist, or music director of a 20,000 worship team. The highest, simplest and best level you can get to is to be a DISCIPLE. To be a person that follows Christ closely and models Christ in everything you do and say (Philippians 2:5, 1 John 2:6, Ephesians 4:15). This is what Christianity is all about. This is God’s greatest expectation for us. There’s no spiritual growth beyond or greater than being like Christ (2 Peter 3:18, Ephesians 3:17-19). True enlargement for us as individuals and a church is to grow and increase to have the full measure of Christ living and manifesting through us (Ephesians 4:13, Galatians 4:19, Colossians 1:28).
The biggest problem of the church today is that we don’t really have disciples. You can be a great evangelist or pastor of a mega church and still not be a disciple and still not model Christ in your daily living. In John 13:35, Jesus told us that the mark or trait that one is a disciple, have attained this highest level of spiritual maturity is that you love others. Love is about having good relationship with other people irrespective of how different they are from you. Love is being able to get along well with and appreciate others despite the fact that the way you see things is totally different from how you see things. Love is not about just liking those on your team that greet you and are nice to you, love is more than that. It is about loving the unlovable and being nice to those who aren’t in anyway pleasant to you (Matthew 5:47). Love is about being able to let go of past hurts and offences and still work well with others for the sake of the gospel. The distinguishing mark that we are disciples; true followers of Christ is not that we speak in tongues and manifest other gifts of the Spirit, it’s not how many times we minister in church, it’s not how many Bible passages we know off hand, or that we have gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It is the kind of relationship we have with one another that will show and prove if we are truly disciples of Christ.
1 Corinthians 13 the popular love chapter links love with spiritual maturity. 1 Corinthians 13:11 tells us that it is a child, a baby in the Lord that thinks in certain ways such as thinking that you don’t need people or are better off doing things on your own. John went further in 1 John 3:18 to say that there’s no way we can love just in words. That verse is saying for the believer there’s nothing like I just want to be on my own, I don’t want any problem or friction with other people that’s why I just want to do things on my own or by myself. It doesn’t even arise for the believer because if you want to be a disciple you must love others with actions and you can’t love with actions if you don’t relate or work with other people. There must be actions to back up your profession of love. Actions like still being part of the choir or ushering team even though you recently had a serious argument or disagreement with other members of the team. Actions like not harbouring a grudge or bitterness in your heart because they didn’t come and visit you when you lost your dad. That is the test of true discipleship. Discipleship is about love and love is about spiritual maturity.
So teamwork raises an important question - what am I really aiming for in my walk with God? Is it a status, position or title? If it is to attain the highest level of growth which is to be a disciple of Christ, to be like Christ, if that is what I am aiming and striving for, then like Christ, I must see the need to be part of a team and not be a one man band or lone ranger (Matthew 10:1-4). I must be committed to the team I belong to whether it’s a two man team of husband and wife, a six man technical team, or a 100 man workers team (John 13:4-5). It won’t just end there, I must handle or settle disagreements with members of the team with Christian maturity (Luke 9:51-56) and manifest the love of Christ even when I’m hurt by members of the team (Mark 14:50).
ARGUEMENT #3: The third and final reason we want to look at why people have concluded that it’s better to do things on your own than work with a team is that in actual practice, even when you belong to a team, it is only one or a few people who are really doing all the work. Many are just for showcase. So the ‘annoying’ situation where others do less than you or contribute little or nothing yet get praised for the work is avoided. You are the one that gets the credit for your achievements and hard work not other people. Any reward, recommendation, recognition, promotion or payment that goes with the work goes solely to you as you do everything.
Quote: “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit”. – Ronald Regan
We must understand that in this work the glory belongs to God not you, not me. So our concern should not be praise, glory and honour coming to us but God. True service brings glory to God not man (1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 115:1, Jer. 9:23-24). All we do should be for God’s glory not for our personal praise (1 Peter 4:11). If we have this right attitude and motivation to service, it won’t bother us when others receive credit or get praised with us when in actual fact we were the ones that did most of the work.
If we don’t have this attitude in our service to God, we will open a little door for a little fox to come and spoil the vine, spoil the team (Song of Solomon 2:15).
Besides, God recognises every contribution of every member of the team no matter how small or insignificant the contribution (Matthew 10:42, Matthew 20:1-16, 1 Corinthians 12:22-24). You are the one thinking they aren’t doing anything. God on the other hand recognises and acknowledges the contributions they are making no matter how minute. Those in scripture who thought they were the only ones doing all the work or the very important work, God proved them wrong (Luke 10:40-42, 1 Kings 19:10)
Conclusion
You can’t be wiser than God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are a team (Genesis 1:26, John 10:30, 1 John 5: 7-8, 1 Peter 2:2). Their roles are different but they work together in perfect harmony. Teamwork is God’s pattern, style or model for Christian service and ministry. If you don’t support teamwork then you will have a problem relating with God as He belongs to a team. The greatest message that can prove that Jesus is real, that can draw others to the Lord, and bring about church enlargement is simply a body of believers working together in love and unity; a church that manifests and demonstrates TEAMWORK (John 17:20-23).
