Teamwork

Bishop Melvin Lawson
Area Presbyter of Western/Centeral MI

Steadfast On Our Journey

Several years ago we would occasionally hear an exhortation to, “Keep on keeping on!”   I think that meant that we should keep going on our Christian journey and not let anything hinder our walk with the Lord.   James wrote to some weary saints, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure” (James 5:11a, NKJV).  The happy Christian is the one who focuses on the road ahead and keeps going.

 When our children were in their early teens, my wife took them to visit their grandparents – a 450 mile road trip.  One of the ladies at church exclaimed, “I could never do that!”  She was sure she could not drive such a distance.  The thought came to me - anyone who can navigate across town, or any one-mile journey, can go anywhere he or she chooses.  One mile at a time will get you to your destination.

Life is that way; it doesn’t all happen in one moment, one day, or one year.  It is a moment by moment process of learning, and then applying what we learn to our lives.  A sermon on Sunday (maybe two), a Sunday school lesson, a Bible study, a Scripture read, a lesson studied, a passage discussed:  all these contribute to our understanding of God and how we are to relate to Him and to each other.  It is a life of perseverance, of endurance.  Last week’s sermon or lesson is over and another is waiting to be consumed and digested. 

Some of life’s lessons are difficult, but the accumulation of all we have learned and experienced helps us over the next bump in the road, especially as we relate to one another on our team.  It wasn’t just the lesson we learned today that got us through the rough place.  It was the lesson we learned yesterday or ten years ago.  A prominent minister, when asked how long it took him to prepare a sermon, replied, “Thirty years and thirty minutes.”   His lifetime of learning gave him what he needed for the moment.  One step at a time will get you where you want to go.

TEAMwork

Bishop Melvin Lawson
Area Presbyter of Western/Centeral MI

Robert R. Brown made this observation, “Man is always inclined to be intolerant toward the thing, or person, he hasn’t taken time adequately to understand, and consequently, you get quiet inconceivable things cast into your teeth from people who don’t understand.”*

We have all had what we considered to be a solid project, program, or promotion that melted away and soaked into oblivion.  “But that was just what we needed,” or “That is what the Lord is directing our church to do,” we lament.  So, what happened?  Many factors could have played a part - someone  misunderstood; had a question he didn’t ask; had an idea she didn’t express; wasn’t listening; had incorrect information; didn’t know how to explain the need – the list goes on.  Teamwork then becomes tiring work and we say, “Just forget it.”  

Working together to accomplish a goal requires that our hearts and minds be focused.  It is necessary for us to listen with spiritual ears to what a brother or sister adds to the discussion.  We may not (probably will not) fully agree on every detail, but if our hearts are right, and if we ask for wisdom, the Spirit will draw us together and our collective choice will conform to His will.  “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13, NIV).  Let’s face it, we are not always wise, understanding, and humble.  James, however, informs us that if we don’t have wisdom, all we have to do is ask and it will be given to us (see James 1:5). 

When we come together as a team it would help if we remember the Apostle Paul’s words to the saints at Philippi, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Phil. 2:3, KNJV).  What a TEAM!   

* Mead, Frank S., 12,000 Religious Quotations, Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book House, 1989, 5th printing 1998, page 458

Unity

Bishop Melvin Lawson
Area Presbyter of Western/Centeral MI

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome,

“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another”
(Rom. 12:5, NKJV).

This body, of which we are a part, has a head, Jesus Christ (see Col. 1:18).  He is our leader; we follow Him.  He speaks; we listen and obey.  At least that is the way it is supposed to work. 

A few years ago a friend was involved in a truck accident and was hospitalized for several weeks.  He thought he was doing well and decided - against his doctors orders - to get out of bed and trim his beard.   That wasn’t a good idea.  When he tried to raise the scissors to his face, his hand went in the opposite direction, striking the mirror.  His head told the hand to do one thing, but there was a break in communication.  A part of the body malfunctioned and could have injured the rest of his body.

In his book, Building Up One Another, professor and author Gene Getz wrote, “[There are] twelve significant actions Christians are to take toward ‘one another’ to help build up the body of Christ” (Getz, pg 5).  These one another statements are found some forty times in Paul’s writings.  Our attitudes and actions toward one another determine the growth and health of the church, over which Christ is the head.  Getz emphasizes that, “Paul was teaching that Christians should work hard at creating unity in the body of Christ” (Pg. 11).  I agree.

A healthy hand, which listens to the head, can trim a beard and make the whole body look good.  In the same way, members of Christ’s body minister to one another and exalt the head of the church, Jesus Christ. 

Getz, Gene, Building Up One Another. Wheaton, IL, Victor Books, 1976, tenth printing 1980.