Teams
Teams
One can chase a thousand, two can put to flight ten thousand. (based on Deut. 32:20)
The simple idea of this article is that without good teams, important endeavors go unaccomplished. Without good teams, there will be God-inspired missions that will “never get off the ground.”
The looming challenge is that the value our culture places on individualism puts us all at a disadvantage when it comes to team participation. For most of us to become effective team players, a deep-seated heart adjustment needs to take place where we switch off casual independence and switch on humble interdependence.
As you consider the following thoughts, ask yourself, “Who is on my team?”
Team Essentials
What makes a great team?
It begins with a common mission. The mission may be starting a school, or serving the poor in your city. Look for those who share your vision for what could be.
Obviously, take time with others to carefully discern God’s leading. David would often pray before a venture, “Shall I pursue?” (1 Sam. 30:8, 2 Sam. 5:23). If the Lord is not in it, we’ll labor in vain (Ps. 127:1). Many history-changing endeavors grew out of prayer meetings.
Diversity of gifting. In football, you have quarterbacks, receivers, tackles, and guards. Diversity is an absolute necessity, not something you have to put up with. Great teams have some who are more administrative, and others who are more creative. The administrative folks will be tempted to try to make the creatives more like them, and vice versa. Good teams learn how to appreciate and affirm the differences.
Humility. Teams don’t work without humility. Good team players know not only what they’re good at, they know what they’re not good at. They don’t pretend they can do it all.
Many churches and ministries begin by deeply valuing humility and interdependence, but as success comes, the temptation to claim responsibility for success also comes, usually to the primary leader. It’s an ancient temptation: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth’” (Deut. 8:17). Team failures begin when we move away from humility.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Phil. 2:3)
Committed, not casual. In constituting a team, we will at some point realize that commitment is essential. A team is not a casual collection of talented individuals; it’s a bonded entity where the good of the team supersedes individual welfare.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:4)
At the end of his career, legendary football coach, Nick Saban, observed that rule changes in college football, particularly the easing of transferring away from a team, made it more difficult to maintain the commitment necessary for team building. He saw a predominating attitude of “what’s in it for me?” weakening the ability to build teams.
The New Testament word for fellowship, koinonia, means sharing in common. Or you could say, “We’re in this together; we’re partners. The rise or fall of one affects the rise or fall of the group.” It seems we much prefer to “circle but not land” - to hang around but remain aloof. O Lord, root out these tendencies.
Leadership that affirms. Teams need leaders. Great quarterbacks are there on the sidelines encouraging their teammates as they come off the field. But great leaders know that their leadership is only a part, not the whole. Good leaders stimulate participation and the development of gifting in others. Jesus taught that kingdom leaders do not dominate those who are led. Domination is another word for “lording it over” others.
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. (Mt. 20:25-26)
With these five ingredients, teams become like colonies of ants coordinated by a mysterious, unseen power. A basketball team, for instance, may be five players on the court, but they act as though they have one mind. And the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!
Examples
What’s the first example that comes to your mind of a great team?
In sports, I think of the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in the early ‘90s, and the Los Angeles Lakers before them with Shaq and Kobe.
In TV in the ’80, there was The A Team with Hannibal Smith and B. A. Baracus. Amusing diversity! And then, in the movies, we met one of the greatest teams ever in The Fellowship of the Ring, where we saw how an elf, a dwarf, a wizard, a couple of humans, and some hobbits became an effective team and did damage to a very dark realm.
I experienced the team phenomenon in high school playing in a jazz band, the Sixth Street Seven. There were memorable moments when, as individual players, we seemed to move into a zone where we effortlessly outdid ourselves, way beyond our individual talents. It was transcendent!
Years later, I had a similar experience in business as part of the original Creative Team of a start-up called Integrity Music. There were five of us with very different skills and abilities. Because none of us had any music business experience, we had to walk humbly. We respectfully made room for one another’s contributions. We needed each other. Creative strategies and products flowed easily. Incredible growth and worldwide impact resulted.
Team Clapham
One of the most effective teams ever was the group of friends that surrounded William Wilberforce in England in the last part of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th. They were drawn together to abolish the slave trade and reform England’s manners. This team of reformers became known, somewhat facetiously, as the Clapham Sect, named after the village of Clapham southwest of London.
Among them were Henry Thornton, Henry Venn, Hannah More, Charles Middleton, James Stephen, Zachary Macaulay, Thomas Gisborne, and Charles Grant. Two of them were writers, three were members of Parliament, one was a retired Admiral, two were clergymen, one was a patron who financed many of the efforts, and one was a lawyer.
Along with similar faith and conviction, each person in the Clapham Sect brought their own abilities, skills, and gifts to the projects and goals they shared. Yet they also resisted the natural temptation to turn unity into uniformity. Rather, they relished and cultivated the gifts of each member assigning roles based on each one's gifts and situation to achieve the greater vision. 1
As J. Douglas Holladay said, “They operated like a meeting which never adjourned.” In less than 50 years, their team accomplishments were many and broad.
They sought prison reforms, labor reforms, and legal reforms on behalf of the poor. They supported the opening of Sunday Schools to teach the poor basic skills, particularly reading. They helped establish England’s first animal welfare laws, including the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They founded and promoted mission societies and helped resettle former enslaved people from America in Sierra Leone. They began the journal Christian Observer, a publication that engaged the culture broadly and winsomely. They supported (and founded) countless philanthropic societies, prompting Wilberforce, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, to describe his friends’ generosity as a “concert of benevolence.” In fact, the Clapham Sect is credited with cultivating a benevolence and compassion for all of society that had not before existed on such a scale. One scholar says that “in proportion to numbers,” their influence on Britain’s political and social policies, particularly those that affected the poorest classes “achieved perhaps more than any other group in English history.” 2
Today, most of us think of a team formed to accomplish a single goal, like planting a church or starting a business. The Clapham Sect is instructive to us in how they coordinated a network of goals related to a broad vision.
A Team of Teams
One final team story: In 2004, the US was losing the war against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Our highly disciplined, top-down hierarchy with its massive advantage in numbers, equipment, and training was no match for the enemy’s decentralized network that could “move quickly, strike ruthlessly, then seemingly vanish.” The US Task Force, under the direction of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, had to learn how to empower smaller teams and give them decentralized decision-making authority.
In his fascinating book, Team of Teams, McChrystal describes how they had to discard “a century of conventional wisdom” to learn how to coordinate a centralized command with a decentralized network of smaller units. Smaller teams became fundamental to winning the war in Iraq against Al Qaeda.
The book is a parable of sorts for how we, as the people of God, need to rethink our structures. Maybe we need to become more of a network of coordinated smaller units. Maybe we need to become a Team of Teams!
So two concluding questions:
Is there a mission in front of you that has your name on it? and
Who will be those who will help you accomplish it?
Prior, Karen Swallow, from the Foreword of William Wilberforce - a Man Who Changed His Times from The Trinity Forum. (Available at rtf.org)
Ibid.
*************************************
Click here to Comment • Click here to view as pdf • Please feel free to share with others
Click here to receive Bits & Pieces • Come visit us