Everyone Is Needed - Teambuilding #2
Pastor Glenn Newton 8-27-2000
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
EPH 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:11-16
This morning were going to continue to Build a Team, not just any team, we are building a Team that is going to make a difference. Team New Hope - Making A Difference For Jesus. That’s the slogan that I am going to get made up, and you will be able to get that put on any of your shirts if you ever decide that’s something you want to do.
Team New Hope - Making A Difference For Jesus. I’ve said this before and I will say it again because I believe it, I don’t want to just make a good impression, I want to make a difference for Christ! I know that’s your prayer, that’s your desire, so were going to make a visible reminder for ourselves, and for others who will see it and ask us about it, we then can tell them about Team New Hope, and Invite them to come and join our cause.
This morning I want to say something so simple that you just might miss it. Don’t miss what God wants to teach us this morning, God can use my inadequate words to teach His invaluable lessons, so let’s let him speak to our hearts this morning.
This morning I want you to know and understand when you leave here today that you are a valuable part of what God wants to do in this church. This morning if your new to our church, I want you to know that I don’t believe that your here by accident, I believe God has brought you here for a reason and according to his plan. Some of you have been coming for a while, but you may not feel like you have a part in our church ministry, I want to tell you, We not only Want you to be a part of our church ministry, We Need You to become a part of Team New Hope, Help us accomplish God’s will for our church.
This morning, many of you have been faithful members, faithful workers, faithful tithers, faithful board members, you name it, and you’ve done it at some point. You have been here when pastor’s have arrived and when they departed, you have witnessed and lived through the ups and down’s that have made up the history of this church. I want you to know, This Team Needs You. You offer something we would not have without you with this team, and that’s experience, that’s spiritual maturity that comes from growing in the Lord for many years, and you offer your great example of what it means to be dedicated to the cause. For those of you who fall into this category, and that’s many of you, you offer much more than I just described, and we Need You.
Let me give you a couple of examples. We have people in the church who do things on a regular basis, nobody really see’s it, but we all benefit from it. This week for example, Jack Heil and Jim Yantis mowed our church property. I didn’t know it was done until it was done, but the fact is that is one way they use their gift to benefit the rest of us who are apart of this Team.
What kind of witness would it be for us to just let our property to grow and look unkept, and uncared for? It wouldn’t look good for us, but we do have some men who do care, and I appreciate it, as I know you do, even if you don’t drive by it everyday.
Our Sunday School Teachers, everyweek give time and energy preparing lessons, hoping that those in their class will come ready to learn more about God’s Word and how it applies to their life, to their marriage, to their jobs. Teachers I appreciate your faithfulness to give. Folks, I would encourage you to attend Sunday School, it’s part of building this team, we need to learn together, we need to Worship Together, that’s what Teams do.
I could go on and on and tell you different jobs that are done everyweek that take time and effort, sometimes extra money, but always a great commitment to the Team. I say all that to tell you that We Really Do Need Each Other, this church would not be the same without your contributions, without your caring and commitement. My goal is to build on what we have, and get more people committed to this cause.
Look at our first couple of verses this morning...... 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
God has called each one of us to ministry. You may not be called to be a preacher, or an evangelist or even a teacher, but you are called to minister. Where are you called to minister? In your local church.
My job description can be found in verse 12. “..to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach untiy in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
So as we look at this through the eyes of a Team, my job is to prepare the Team, (God’s people) to play the game, (to do works of service). What are these works? The Church is called to Go. Go do what? Go and Make Disciples baptizing them and Teaching Them the Word of God, and helping them to grow as Christians. These are the things I’m supposed to be preparing you to do. Let me be honest. In some of these areas I haven’t done the job very well. Instead of training you to do these things, I’ve been trying to do them all myself.
How many of you can remember trying to teach you son or daughter to tie their shoes? I believe it’s more of a test for the parent who has to watch that process of learning. Maybe it’s just my personality, but I can’t hardly watch something like that, I just want to jump in and say, Let me just do this and get this over with........
Now we know we can’t do that with our kids, or they will have to buy Velcro sealing shoes the rest of their life. We have to teach them, we must let them go through the process of learning, which means failing. I would guess we don’t learn anything unless we fail at it first do we?
Many times in ministry when we seem so pressed for time, pressed for resources, pressed for willing hearts to do ministry, many times the pastors, the coaches neglect the training and just do it themselves thinking it will be less painful. The problem is the players will never fulfill their calling unless they get into this game called ministry.
We need Each Other. Many times we think we have to have Star Status, or special Training to accomplish great things for God, and the fact is, God most of the time in scripture, avoided those type of people and relied on common men who would Trust God to do Great things through their lives. Are you Trusting God to do uncommon things through your life? Or are you limiting what God can do through you because you don’t make yourself totally available to Him?
Several years ago, Newsweek magazine interviewed Stacy King( a former Oklahoma Sooner basketball star) on a special night in the history of the Chicago Bulls Basketball team. King commented, “It is a night I will always remember as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to make 70 points.” What Stacy King did not mention is that Michael Jordan scored 69 of those points --- King scored only one! Yet, as Stacy King thought back on that night, he remembered that he actually assisted in the points Jordan scored. He remembered what they had done together.
The church, we can learn from this story of Stacy King. You don’t have to be a superstar in order to make a contribution. Stacy King couldn’t jump as high or hang in the air as long as Jordan. He never led the league in scoring or won a Most Valuable Player award. However, he was a productive member of the team.
The apostle Paul understood this principle in his discussion with the Corinthians about spiritual gifts. “the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you;” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; ...’
Everyone of you has a spiritual gift, God has given it to you for you to use in the ministry of the church, to build up the Team, to help the Team to work better, run smoother and so on. Many of you have taken a spiritual gifts test that we gave a couple of months ago. I still have the results, and over the next four weeks, I’m going to be making appointments with each of you and discussing how your gift can be used to benefit and uplift the team.
If you haven’t taken the test, don’t worry, we still have some left over, and even without the test, we can determine where your gift is and how it can be used in our Team Ministry.
As we determine to use our gifts together, we will begin to bond together, and if you understand anything about Team, you know that a Team must bond to be effective. The Apostle Paul describes this bonding process in Ephesians 4:16 “6 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Who is the source of this growing and bonding? It says from Him, from God. How is the church built up? The word of God says, In Love. And that Love builds and we bond as each part, (person) does it’s work.
Let me ask you something, how many of you have worked on an assembly line before? What happens when you have one person in that line who stands at the line, but doesn’t do anything? Is that person building unity within the line?
A Team works together, and one of the keys to Team Unity is that Everyone puts out their very best effort.
Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make a winning team. Lombardi’s answer is told in the book Iacocca:
“There are alot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: If your going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for each other. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: “If I don’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his.” The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys have for each other.”
Love for each other. It seems like that principle can be found in scripture, building the Team up in Love so that each part can do it’s job. You see these biblical principles can be used in so many areas of life, how much more should we be using them in the church.!!!!
We Need Each Other. We are building a Team Here. If we want a winning Team we are going to have to realize that every person is valuable, Every person has a gift, and a responsibility to use that Gift to uplift the Team by using it. And as a Team, we need to Love each other, doing things not out of selfish reasons, or personal gain, but we give for the Team so we and be effective, so we can make a difference, not just an impression.
I’m going to ask you to do something for me, more importantly for our Team. Make a Six Month Commitment to Team New Hope. For the next six months, make a decision and commitment to be here for Sunday School and Morning Worship. For the next six months make a decision to be here for Sunday Night Wisdom of the Word, where you will get into God’s Word and be challenged to grow. If you will let me, for the next six months I will find a place for you to serve where you can help our church, our Team to grow and become more effective, but I need you to tell me that this is what you want to do. Make a six month commitment to tithe and support the cause if your not already doing so. If you really believe in what were doing here, Trust God by giving your tithe to the church and watch how God will bless and meet your needs, He promises in his Word to do so.
Six Months of Uncommon Commitment. You know they say today that people are unwilling to commit to anything anymore. I started believing that for a while. But I changed my mind. Because I believe people are just looking for something that’s worthy of their commitment, and there’s not to many things out there anymore that generates that kind of commitment.
So what I’m asking you this morning is this. Is this Church, Is This Team worth committing Too? Do you believe that God can do something supernatural through us? I do.
Before I ask you to make your commitment, I want to make my commitment to you.
I commit to this Team, and my Savior Jesus Christ - 100% effort, everyday, all the time.
I commit to you, Team New Hope that I will in the next six months train you more effectively than I have in the past three and 1/2 years to carry out the works of service described in Eph. 4.
I commit to Team New Hope, that I will be here everytime the doors are open, that I will give beyond my tithe, that I will sacrifice whatever God asks me to move this Team forward.
I commit to you, I will do whatever it takes in the next six months to win lost people to Jesus Christ and share our New Hope message with all that I can.
I commit myself to you, My Team, His Team, Our Team.
This morning I’m not questioning your commitment in the past, what I want to know, is will you step forward and make a commitment for the next six months to Team New Hope and commit to these things that I have mentioned. This morning I ask you to stand with me, and if you would like to say yes to this commitment, to this Church, this ministry, and to your Savior, for the next six months of uncommon commitment, I want you to come to the front and stand, and I want to pray for you, and really pray for us as we commit ourselves to each other and the Lord. How about you this morning? Will you join the team, or will you just watch?
