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Team Ministry
Team Ministry In The New Testament
I see the five fold ministry (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher) not in competition or ranked on a scale, but as co-equal, fellow-elders in ministry, but with different roles. This is where the strength of Team Ministry comes from.
Look at Titus 1:5,7,9, and you will see three terms that are synonymous:
In the N. T. there was more than one elder in the local church. There was a plurality of leadership. This is several individuals with certain powers and duties engaged in a common pursuit. It was team ministry where there was joint action by a group of elders. All worked in unity for the common good.
God desires a team of spiritual elders to labor among and rule over the body (1 Thes. 5:12-13). And it is His will that a variety of elders with differing gifts and roles comprise that team, so that the many needs of the local gathering can be met (Eph. 4:11-12).
Typically individuals and bodies have more than one need at a time. That is why God desires a team of leaders so that the many different types of needs can be met. To illustrate, picture an airplane flight. There are multiple travelers on this plane. One of these is a woman who has just won 5 million dollars. She is also having great marriage problems. She needs help spiritually and she is in the throws of labor. She needs a team. She needs the pilot to keep the plane in the air, a Dr. and a nurse to help with the baby. She needs a marriage counselor, a financial advisor and a believer to minister to her spiritual needs. What are the chances of a single individual being equipped to minister to all of those needs? That is why God likes to bring teams together, so that there are a variety of skills and gifts .. enabling the team to address many diverse needs.
Do we need one? YES!!!
He is a vital part of the team. Every group needs a leader, chairperson, father figure who is the head. He is the first among equals. He keeps everything running smoothly and steadily.
He does not dominate the team.
Business magazine carried an article entitled Ten Fatal Flaws of Business Executives. I will list them here though we could deal with them later and they will come up under other points.
Relationships are key to effective team work/ministry.
He is like a player - coach. He leads by being an example. He moderates, coordinates, encourages, evaluates, alerts, motivates as well as moving in his specific spiritual gift to edify the body as a whole. No team can run smoothly without this position.
James the brother of Jesus seems to have been the senior elder in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13). John was probably a senior elder (2 John 1).
They worked together as a unified body........ Acts 15:23. When the final draft of the letter commending the new Gentile converts was written, it came from the apostle and elders and brethren in general, as a unified body. Most New Testament scholars believe that James merely verbalized what the entire group had decided.
Several things appear in this passage
It would have been extremely easy for the Apostles to call all the shots here when this dispute arose. Instead they transferred the entire project back to the hands of those who faced the problem on the front lines. A ministry team was formed to solve the problem.
The Apostles themselves are a ministry team and now a second ministry team had been created.
A church founded by laymen on the run, and led by a lay leader (Barnabas). This group decided on their own to send an offering for famine relief in Judea. It seems the entire congregation had become a ministry team after watching Barnabas and Saul work together as their leaders.
The church at Antioch function as one large ministry team. Notice the plural pronoun in the early verses. In this case they give birth to a smaller ministry team. They pick the candidates, discuss the attributes, trust God for the selection and send them off.
The early church prospered and spread rapidly and eventually turned the whole Roman world upside down with this team system.
This is not a new fad. It is not God's will for the pastor to be a one man show or a jack of all trades. A ship moving through the seas of life with oars needs many hands, not just someone calling out orders.
Let's take a look at just one example of team work/ministry from Mark 2:1-12. This is the story of the four friends bringing their friend on a stretcher to Jesus, but the entrance is blocked so they tear the roof off to get him in. Perhaps the sick man had heard reports but knows that by himself he could never get over there.
These four make a team. They have a goal, they care. They will not be stopped by obstacles.
See the look on their faces when they come around the corner. They probably looked just like sports fans trying buy play-off tickets for your local team.
When you are working on a team, you need to expect difficulties. Each difficulty affords you with some choices:
Team members have to take risks.
Look at the risks this team took:
There is no room on an effective team for competition or jealousy.
John 21:20-23:
Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" (RSV)
Here we have the problem of rivalry and competition in the church. The Gospels clearly indicate that Jesus eliminated competition as a motivation for Christian activity. But it is rare to find that in practice today. The church has followed the world in this regard, competing and struggling within itself, thereby diminishing its message, and often destroying its effectiveness. Jesus says we do not have to worry about what others are doing, but to be faithful to what God has given us to do; he will put it all together.
In a symphony orchestra a violinist will not go around checking what a trombonist is playing, nor will a flutist worry about whether a trumpeter will come in on time. That is the business of the conductor. These people play their parts and the conductor puts it all together.
This is how the church should operate. We are to fulfill the gifts God has given us. He will put it together. We are not in competition with anybody; we do not have to struggle for position. We each have been given a ministry, not only leaders, preachers and teachers, but to everyone has been given the gifts of the Spirit, and they define our ministry.
Again I refer to the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians which beautifully indicates there are two things we must never say:
But how many times we hear that in the church: "We have no need of you. We can get along fine." I have heard churches boast that they had no need of any other church because they had adequate resources of their own. But that is not in accord with the mind of the Lord.