VISION OF THE POSSIBLE, CHAPTER 4
OVERVIEW
This chapter probes into more practical ways to build a team. How do we select the right persons for a team? What skills are essential and how are they best used to accomplish our church planting goals? What to do when conflict arises?
COMMENTS
Some of the eight keys to team building applied more to our team then others. Our team is unique and very different in comparison to the type of team he is discussing but I still consider us a team and many of his points are still applicable to what we are trying to accomplish. Point #3 regarding recruiting is invaluable and, I believe, done well by IMB. We all remember the burdensome process we all went through prior to appointment but I do see the intelligence behind it. There should be little doubt in our call during our pre-MLC time. Obviously, this does not mean we will not see missionaries head back to the states for various reasons(maybe a different call from God), but there is little doubt in our initial call and desire to serve God cross-culturally.
Point #4 mentioned the need to be realistic with each other or showing grace to one another in love. Everyone on our team has different personalities and ways of doing things. I think we are all driven, independent people which is a characteristic of most missionaries but we are going to accomplish team goals differently and on different timetables. With our team members working in totally different people groups, we should definitely not see a “my approach” will surely work in your people group mentality. This does not mean we should not share ideas, which has been very valuable, but we need to remember that we will all see fruit at different times. We need to pray and encourage one another and work under the leadership and vision God has given us. As Sinclair mentioned, he noticed a strong correlation between teams that pray a lot and see a lot of fruit. Some of us are doing this a little, but I would encourage all of us to begin sharing more in our team, via email, when we need prayer cover over a specific ministry situation, meeting or outreach event. Afterwards, share what God did with this prayer need.
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Good chapter. I’d only add that the team leader has a responsibility to seek out the giftings of each team member and see that those giftings are supported and applied. Too often the “sure of themselves” eclipse the gifted in various areas, and a team looses what God has provided for the task. A quite natured, humble or timid team member may never express their giftings if a team leader is not actively seeking to discover and apply them. Supporting, and helping a gifted individual to LEAD in their areas of gifting is priceless. The section on “Team Decision-Making” touches on this, but I’d like to see it emphasized more directly.
Again, I am at a disadvantage having read this chapter a few months ago but not having it with me right now. I am relying upon faint recollection… dangerous. Focusing particularly on the team building idea, remember this when you are building your local church planting teams. In a sense, all of you are part of a local team. Some of you are just your family right now, others have been able to begin to build a team of believers or story crafters who are helping. We need to remember that the “team” is not just our organization’s team but the team is also the entire body of Christ that are working in your area.
Sometimes this extended team may have different ideas of church, leadership, tradition, etc… We work through these differences to determine what level of partnership and teaming we can actually pull off. When we can work together as a team, these same principles apply even on our national or GCC team. Looking across our field (and our organization) it is more likely that these team partnerships will be with GCCs and nationals more often than with extended organizational teams.
Some would say that we should have larger organizational teams and in an ideal world our denomination would send more than 0.0003% of membership out as missionaries. If our organization sent not a tithe of 10% of membership but only 1% of our members then we would have over 150,000 missionaries. At that point, we could easily inundate the world with missionaries. As it is, our numbers still leave many thousands of groups unengaged. As it is, we do the best we can with what we have. We also look toward the Lord of the Harvest to bring forth workers from the harvest and other GCC’s.
That is all for now. I am ready to get home so that I can re-read these chapters
The chapter got me thinking about leading a national team. These principles of recruiting, team leadership, and maintaining ministry focus will be helpful as I form a national team. I think a national church planting team is needed to reach our people. This team will work on developing strategy to plant churches in various villages, utilize connections they have in these villages, lead or disciple leaders, and to help oversee new church plants. I have two guys in mind that I hope will come to Christ soon. They would be great team members.
I also underlined the comment Sinclair wrote, “I noticed a strong correlation between teams that pray a lot and teams that see a lot of fruit.”
Steve wrote
Talk to the Woods about how that has worked for them. GREAT results.
Paul’s three models of team, I believe, are a result of time and God’s growth. He went with what he had. He was called so he went with Barnabas, then after recruiting a few good men he went out with them. Finally, he sent small teams out as he continued to actively participate in shareing the gospel as well. This process took several years. I think we can take the same approach over several years. We are obeying our call. We’ll find a few good men and women and go with them, then as we grow we’ll be able to send teams out to villages that we are not able to get to on our own.