In Your Bible Read This
Exodus 18, Romans 16
Here Is Your Memory Verse
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for
their work:
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. Though one may be
overpowered,
two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands
is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4, 9-12
Afterwards Talk About
This
Discuss how you have seen that two together accomplish
much more than two working separately.
Something To Do Before
Next Time
Organise a tug-of-war championship with contests between
churches,
schools, bars and so on. See how a team can really pull together.
Written Diploma Work
Write a page to say why Jesus sent out the apostles two by
two.
Meditate Word By Word On
This Verse
Numbers 11, 14-17
- Spend
a Minute to Change the World
- Pray For North Korea -
26,000,000 Asian peoples
- Isolated nation, near
collapse, 68% atheist, 30% Shamanism
- Once in revival, now 0.4%
believers
-
Be sure to
teach this lesson to others.
-
Always pray
and prepare well adding
-
your own verses and stories to
bring it to life.
One of the most common, yet unspoken
problems in leadership is the pain of loneliness. Some ministers
simply do not have any friends or colleagues because they were
taught in Bible School that a minister has to be separate from
everyone else. On the contrary the Bible presents us with a
strong model of men working together in team.
Pauls Apostolic
Teams
He began as just two people, but later he
had a bigger international team and a sizeable team in Rome, Acts
13.1-4; 20.4; 16, 1-10; Romans 16, 10-16.
- Apostle Or Apostolic?
- Members of apostolic teams do not have
to be apostles, but they do need to be apostolic and
called and equipped by God for apostolic strategy. For
Paul this meant travelling but for the Antioch team meant
wide ministry in the city.
-
- In Pauls teams you find a wide
variety of people from experienced ministers like
Barnabas and Silas, to young men like Timothy and John
Mark, Doctor Luke, intercessors like Epaphras, Col. 4.12,
Tychicus the messenger, Eph. 6.21, Zenas the lawyer and
Apollos the refugee preacher, Titus 3.13. Teams changed
as people found their destiny in God and took
responsibility, some were sent out while others joined.
Not everyone made it first time! Acts 15, 38; 2 Tim 4.11.
Principles Of Team
God himself is the finest example of team
because although Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have different
roles they work together in perfect harmony and unity towards a
common purpose previously agreed by all. Genesis 1.26; 3.22; 11.7;
Isaiah 6.8; Matt 3,16-17
- Jesus Formed A Team
- He chose his team after a night of
prayer consulting with his Father, then called them to
him and gave them authority and gifting, Luke 6,12-15,
Matt. 10.1.
- He knew and discipled each one by name,
and later sent them out 2 by 2, Matthew 10. 2; 5; Luke 10.1.
- When the church was formed on the day
of Pentecost the apostles naturally enough chose to work
in a team.
The Genesis Principle
You can see the benefit of teamwork in the
building of the tower of Babel that caught Gods attention,
Genesis 11, 1-9. Although in this case the people were all
working towards an ungodly goal, just notice the power of unity
and speaking the same language, which meant that nothing was
going to be impossible for them, Genesis 11.1-6; Psalm 133.
The Ecclesiastes
Principle
Solomons wisdom says that two are
better than one, and a three fold cord cannot be easily broken,
Ecc. 4,9-12. A long time ago a man noticed that if he harnessed
two horses together they could in fact pull far more weight than
two horses working as individuals. It is now well known that two
working together accomplish far more than two individuals - it's
called synergy. Two together with Jesus become that three-fold
cord that is not easily broken.
An ideal team also needs a 3-fold cord
of vision, or the prophetic, plus pastoral ministry to care
for all the people the vision is driving and an
administrative ability to handle all the organisation that
the vision demands.
Choosing Your Team
This principle came from a time when Moses
had a typical leader's problem of overwork and was heading for
exhaustion until father-in-law Jethro gave him some good advice.
- Jethro said that Moses role as the
leader was ~
-
- To represent the people before God.
- To teach the people.
- To be an example to the people. Exodus
18, 13 -20
- Moses was told to choose capable men,
men who fear God, trustworthy, honest men and work as a
team with them, delegating the workload to them. The
benefit would be that Moses would be able to stand the
strain and the people would be satisfied, Exodus 18, 21-26.
- Moses like some apostles did not
always learn quickly and some time later is still working
alone and is so exhausted that he prays to die.
Again God says form a team of men who you
know and are happy with and who will stand there with you.
Numbers 11,13-18.
Choose Loyal Men
Because God takes the spirit of the leader
and puts it on the team, so everyone must be enthusiastic for the
leaders vision and his or her way of doing it, otherwise
you will soon have di-vision, that is 2 visions. Loyal men are
there for you, not for their own reasons. Jesus had three
disciples who he knew would be specially supportive to him.
Elijah heard Elisha say, "I will not leave you," and at
Hebron David looked for loyal men and asked them three questions,
- Have you come in peace,
- Have you come to help me,
- Have you come to unite with me or to
betray me? 1 Chron. 12.17-18.
Team Development
Team life begins with everyone being
dependent on the leader and visionary. Later on they become inter-dependent
upon the leader and each other but the danger comes if pride ever
makes one member think of being independent. His premature
departure weakens the team and also his own credibility and
future.
Mother churches which are apostolic bases
that send out apostolic team ministry into the city and the
nations are the New Testament way of advancing the gospel. Can we
do any better?
Taken from the
Joshua Project Unreached Peoples List
these people have no church and as yet
no cell, church or mission has committed themselves
to prayer, adoption or church planting among this people.
Saudi Arabia
|
People Name |
Language |
Population
|
Fayfa |
Mahri, Fayfi |
20,000
|
Indonesian |
Indonesian |
37,000
|
Kabardian |
Kabardian |
17,000
|
See all of the
lessons
|