It’s important to realize that no matter where you serve at church, you are serving on a team. You will only fulfill the mission of your team, when everyone is growing together, working together, and the team is expanding.
God Loves Teams
From beginning to end, the Christian life is a group experience. Many of God’s commands to Christians involve others: love one another, serve one another, be generous to one another. You must realize that you are part of a team, and that is a wonderful blessing. We can accomplish more together than on our own.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 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.
No area of the church can be run by one person. And the operational responsibilities of a church are huge. This is why we need teams. We need each other to accomplish our tasks.
Enjoy the fact that you are on a team. Get to know your team members. Learn about them and their pursuit of God.
Encourage Those Around You
In your interactions with members of your team, take on the role of the encourager. The encourager is the one who sees the best in people. The encourager believes in people and lets them know it. The encourager is constantly telling people what a great job they are doing serving others.
You don’t have to be the team leader in order to be an encourager. Actually, everyone is commanded to take on this role.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
When serving gets hard (and it will get hard), it is tempting to complain and criticize others. But God calls us to be encouragers instead. We are to build each others up.
This role of encouragement extends to the last point of this principle. Encourage new people to join the team.
Invite Others to Join the Team
Ministry is more fun when you do it with your friends. Encourage your friends to join your team. Take responsibility to recruit new people to your ministry teams. Remember, every person has a place on the team. In fact, the best recruiters at church are those who are already serving on the team.
1 Corinthians 12:27 Each of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
If you read all of 1 Corinthians 12, you learn that the church will not be healthy until everyone in the church is serving. So, give people this opportunity. Invite them to serve with you.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- What is the most fun team that you have ever been part of? What made the team so fun?
- What are some benefits to serving with a team versus serving by yourself?
- Read 1 Thessalonians 5:11. How can you be an encourager to people on your team?
- When it comes to recruiting, do you think people are more likely to respond to an announcement or a personal invitation? Why?
- How did you decide to join this team?
- Who do you know that you can invite to serve with you on this team?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
