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Team Ministry
Teams And Leadership of Teams
In Num. 27:16-17, Moses, a shepherd-leader, prayed that the Lord would set a man over the congregation that would go out before them and go in before them, that the congregation be not as sheep without a shepherd. There must be a set man, whether he be apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher, and whether he be called senior minister, or whatever. There must be a helmsman at the helm of the ship or shipwreck will result. You have to have a bus driver and a pilot. We will talk more about his.
This is the mentality of "one man rule" in a church setting:
Pastor is the supreme ruler. It is the Boss mentality. He alone sets the goals and makes the decisions. He is the source of enthusiasm, new ideas and programs.Jesus in Mark 10:42-44: You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
This is a weak form of government. It is not scriptural. Rom. 12:3-5 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
THE DANGERS OF ONE MAN RULE:
Jim Jones
Waco Texas... David Korash
As the leader goes so goes the church. Pride, failure, self importance become problems in the body, as they are learned from the pastor.
EXAMPLES OF FAILURES:
The book, "Gods Generals" by Roberts Liardon, shows why many of Gods great leaders succeeded and failed. One fault you can almost always find is the "I don't need any advice from anyone by God" attitude.
He did not take advantage of divine relationships with others that could have helped. He denounced Maria Woodworth-Etter after meeting her in Calif. He did not approve of her style. He built the city of Zion. This became the focus. He began to believe he was Elijah. He was not open to correction and counsel. The enemy destroyed his worldwide influence, killed a member of his family, destroyed his marriage and hit him with many diseases. Even the most anointed men and women of God can fall if they try to stand alone. We need one another.. God designed us this way.
Horses in the coal mines were accustomed to obeying commands that involved yelling and cursing. Now they needed retraining because they couldn't recognize their owners redeemed language.
Prior to the revival, Wales was in a frenzy over their favorite sport, soccer. With the revival, the stadiums stood empty. No one preached against soccer, the players and fans had simply become so captivated with the Lord that they were no longer interested in the game. (Rick Joyner, The World Aflame)
A revival without a plan. Dedicated to following the spirit. No advertisements or advance announcements of speakers. They scorned organization. They hated the presumption that the Spirit would automatically go with them and bless their own plans.
Sometimes Evan Roberts, the most well known leader, would sit on the front seat and say nothing for three hours. Then get up and preach and pray for 15 minutes and sit down. Or he might preach the whole time or pray the whole time. No matter what, the people would carry on under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
They understood that apart from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit they would accomplish nothing!!!
Evan Roberts came from a humble background. He was from a coal mining family and worked there since the age of 9, but had a burning desire to preach. In his teens while seeking a more intimate relationship with the Lord, a message one night at church got to him. Thomas was not with them when Jesus came. Ever since then he set his heart on not missing God. A deacon told him never to miss the prayer meetings in case the Holy Spirit would come. So, he faithfully attended 5 nights a week and classes on the weekends for thirteen months and prayed for a visitation of the Holy Spirit.
PRAYER WAS A MAJOR FOCUS!!
This revival was initiated and carried by a devotion to prayer and intercession. At times congregations would simultaneously intercede for hours. There cry was for the lost. Prayer became their first nature. Prayer meetings were not boring meetings.
Whole towns were gathering to march around neighborhoods and claim them for Christ. On several occasions whole towns would march to a neighboring town to pray for it and revival would be ignited there.
No classes were given on how to win souls. Every Christian erupted with a burning agony for the lost. The joy of salvation simply could not be contained.
Evan Roberts could have been rejected as the messenger of revival because they all knew him and he had no education.
His vision of seeing 100,000 converted in Wales was fulfilled in less than 2 years. People were converted just reading about the revival in the newspapers.
Rick Joyner says, "The Welsh Revival is one of the classic examples of how a people heard the Lord when He knocked on their door, how they opened to Him, and were able to experience His presence for a period of time. Many revivals have begun only to be quickly short-circuited by ambitious men who tried to use them for their own purposes. Many others never got started because men, overreacting to the selfish ambition, rejected the messengers the Lord sent to them." (World Aflame, p. 43-44)
What happened??? The revival was over in two years.
Roberts would not receive the counsel of mature leaders and cut himself off from family, friends. Once when his father came to see him, he refused. The reason given was that he had been set apart for a highly spiritual task and had thus been obliged to forget ties of blood. He became a forgotten man. Spent the last years of his life writing dark and depressing poetry and keeping a journal. In his 60s he wondered if there was any purpose left in his life. He felt loneliness and failure. He died in 1951 at the age of 72
One man can't carry the weight of revival or ministry alone. He can lead a move of God or church but the people all have a part to play.
A word about top-down leadership...
Hans Finzel in his book "The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make", says that this can become like a chain reaction. The boss barks orders to the employee. The employee goes home and barks orders to his spouse. The spouse barks orders at the children. The children kick the dog, and the dog chases the neighborhood cat...
Why do a lot of people fall into this trap of top-down leadership attitude? Here are four reasons that he suggest:
This attitude would be characterized by the person who believes that everyone should serve them, as opposed to them serving the others on the team. It is the opposite of what Jesus was. He was a servant!! John 13:15-17. (1 Peter 5:1-7 is also a good scripture on this.)
It is this kind of attitude and leadership style that isolates people and brings many problems.
Kind of unlimited democracy. The people vote to paint the building and hire and fire preachers. The minister has no ruling power at all.
Israel wanted this. When they left Egypt they were at odds with the men of God chosen to lead them. 1 Sam. 8:7-9: And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.........
This usually results in great damage to ministers and their families. I have been there and done that.
The deacon board has control. They hire and fire. They are usually elected by the people. They make the major decisions for the church while the pastor is usually confined to perform religious rites and to preach on Sundays.
The church is controlled by local or national headquarters. They can come in and move the pastor when they decide. They usually own the property. When there are problems they come in and take care of it.
This is good if the pastor is a flake. Some pastors need to be removed.
Here several ministers (spiritual elders) work in overseeing the local church. Together as a team they minister to the people. We could call this Team Ministry.
All teams need leaders, but not all forms of leadership are conducive to the effective operation of a team. If a leader truly desires to build a team, that leader must not use the "one man rule" leadership style.. it is, by its very nature, counterproductive to the concept of team. If you want to build a team, you must allow the team players to have a say. One the other hand, all teams need leaders, and the leader should not abdicate leadership to rule by committee either. There needs to be an effective balance between responsible God appointed leadership and sharing ministry (and ministry decisions) with the other members of the team.