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.
Paul’s
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 Paul’s 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 God’s 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
Solomon’s 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
leader’s 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?
To Close Pray For The
World's Most Unreached Peoples By Name
Taken from the
Joshua
Project Unreached Peoples List these people have no
churchand 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
|
|