Teamwork

 

I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent—the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand— and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.

—Exodus 31:6-11

You’ve probably heard this definition of a camel: “A camel is a horse built by a committee!” In some sense, that can aptly describe the way some churches function. However, from the beginning, God had plans to use many people—with different personalities, different skill sets, different talents and abilities, different perspectives, and different passions—to do His work within His Church. We all have intensely different roles, even as we retain our individuality.

In reading the account of the 1936 American Olympic crew team, I came across this quote:¹

Even as rowers must subsume their often fierce sense of independence and self-reliance, at the same time they must hold true to their individuality, their unique capabilities as oarsmen or oarswomen or, for that matter, as human beings.

Just as His chosen people, whom God called together to use their gifts for the building of the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle) in the wilderness, He has called us and our fellow church members to work together for the building up of His Kingdom. He must have realized how difficult we would find that intention. The more individual our gifts, the harder time we have in setting aside our selfish impulses and obediently offering those gifts up to Him for the benefit of all.

The Olympic crew learned this as they practiced and rowed together.²

But the demands of rowing are such that every man or woman in a racing shell depends on his or her crewmates to perform almost flawlessly with each and every pull of the oar. The movements of each rower are so intimately intertwined, so precisely synchronized with the movements of all the others, that any one rower’s mistake or subpar performance can throw off the tempo of the stroke, the balance of the boat, and ultimately the success of the whole crew.

In rowing, as well as in giving our service to the church, we soon learn that pride, jealousy, selfishness, self-righteousness, and a host of other negative qualities simply must have no place. To have the success that our Captain desires, we must put aside our selfishness for the greater good—the good of showing forth the glory of God in our teamwork.

This concept in the New Testament uses the illustrations of a building “fit together” and of a body with various functions working together. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, the Apostle Paul writes about this, as follows:

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of languages, and to still another the interpretation of languages. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

We see here that God hasn’t gifted us for our own benefit. He gave gifts to us for the good and benefit of the whole church.

Soon, the impact on our lives of this COVID-19 Pandemic will undoubtedly end. We must ask ourselves these questions:

• Have we prepared ourselves to go back to serve God in our churches with others who might have strong opinions different from ours, with immature believers who have outrageous ideas, and with possibilities galore of misunderstandings and slights?
  
  
• Have we given ourselves so completely to God that we can obediently give our gifts to Him for His disposal?
  
  
• Are we willing, if God so desires, to have Him put us on a shelf for a time, where we will not be able to exercise our best gifts?

Let us prepare ourselves in prayer and in sincere humility solely for the purposes God has planned for us. And, let us open our eyes to see new ways He wishes to use the unique gifts He has given us.

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1 Brown, Daniel James. The Boys in the Boat. New York: Penguin Books, 2013. p. 179.

2 Ibid. p. 89.