When I work with a team I am most effective.
None of us play all the positions, but we are all an important part. Let me use baseball to illustrate. Imagine with me, baseball without shortstops. Without a shortstop, we have a lot of hits up the middle of the infield, a lot fewer double plays and no back flips from Ozzie Smith. Now, you might say that we could do without a shortstop, but the team is diminished from its maximum effectiveness as its design has enabled it to function. When I don’t act with wholeness I am like a missing shortstop from the baseball team. When I let fear rule my decisions, when I don’t interact with those around me, and when I don’t use the gifts God has given me, then I am living a diminished life devoid of maximum effectiveness as I have been designed to function.
So, what raises my effectiveness to a level where I am able to function maximally?
Easily put, it’s my team. Without one of the players, there is potential for failure. That sets the idea of complexity squarely in the center of team sports. When a complex task must be performed, a team is better designed to accomplish it.
What’s an example of a complex ministry task?
One of my friends created the Four Streams Bible Reading Plan, a daily Bible reading plan. The actual plan started as an Excel spreadsheet to be passed around with friends. When I saw what was put together, I felt it would be a great tool to work in Youversion, an application to bring the Bible to the web or your mobile devices.
I asked the guys if they had thought about putting the plan on Youversion, and it had never come to their minds. So, I took the opportunity to investigate a little bit and emailed the team that puts together the app. I got the instructions, reformatted Tom’s Excel sheet of the plan and eventually sent it in to Youversion.
What are the results so far?
In February, the plan went live online and on the app. Now, just about 6 months later, over 2,500 people have signed up to use the plan. This is not meant to toot my own horn, but to tout the effectiveness of the team. I was a small part, but an important part of the team that helped the Four Streams Reading Plan reach maximum effectiveness as its potential design had enabled it to function.
Is everything perfect about the plan or the team?
No, of course it isn’t, but the effectiveness of the team is only slightly diminished until a correction is made. The same thing happens in baseball. Someone that might have the biggest blooper of the night on SportsCenter one night might have the highlight next week. That’s the beauty of the Gospel woven into the fabric of sports. Jesus offers redemption of our mistakes and oversights and says that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His own power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20).
How does the Bible explain the concept of team?
Ephesians 3:6 says that, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” A Youversion user that goes by the name of mrdrewjames puts it beautifully in his note on the passage.
“It’s amazing to me that God would not only create us each so differently, and gift us with such diversity of skills and talents, passions, callings and provide us with spiritual gifts to such a point that together we can be the whole Body of Christ here on earth. We are not capable of having it all ourselves, which means that we need what each other have, and conversely have what others need”
I am most effective when I am work with a team. I’m an important part even though I don’t have all the pieces.
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** This article was written by my friend, Steve Hopper.