Adam is one of my wonderful Missouri Area teammates.
I've been thinking about teams recently. I grew up with very little appreciation for the value of teamwork. Team sports were not really part of the picture. I wasn't blessed with much athletic ability and what little I had was channeled toward more individualistic ventures like ballet and tennis. I dreaded group projects in elementary school and I developed the reputation of taking on the bulk of the work because I simply couldn't imagine that anyone else would get it done right. The early signs of trust and control issues? Check.
Old habits die hard. Looking back I can see that there was some growth in my understanding of teamwork throughout high school and college, but I had (and still have) a long way to go. My intern year with InterVarsity was extremely rough in terms of team dynamics. I left that year with some battle wounds and the understanding that being on a team is hard work. Each of us bring a pile of sin and selfishness to the proverbial table that is enough to make us incompatible with every other human being we come in contact with. Bleak outlook? Perhaps, but I think there is a lot of truth in there. Put two or more of us in a room and there is bound to be conflict at some point!
The good/hard news is that we are called to minister in teams. I just love it when I am reminded that most of the New Testament was written with a group audience in mind, a "you all" rather than "you" as an individual. Teams are the context in which our gifts are best utilized and where we experience the potential for exponential impact as our individual gifts come together. A healthy team is also the context through which we are challenged to grow as our sin and selfishness are exposed and dealt with, hopefully with generous helpings of grace and humility.
I am learning to love the joy and the pain that come with being a part of a team. When my former supervisor told me that he thought I was a great person to have on a team I immediately recalled my past and my gut-level response was, "That cannot possibly be true."
I may have been wrong.
Old habits die hard. Looking back I can see that there was some growth in my understanding of teamwork throughout high school and college, but I had (and still have) a long way to go. My intern year with InterVarsity was extremely rough in terms of team dynamics. I left that year with some battle wounds and the understanding that being on a team is hard work. Each of us bring a pile of sin and selfishness to the proverbial table that is enough to make us incompatible with every other human being we come in contact with. Bleak outlook? Perhaps, but I think there is a lot of truth in there. Put two or more of us in a room and there is bound to be conflict at some point!
The good/hard news is that we are called to minister in teams. I just love it when I am reminded that most of the New Testament was written with a group audience in mind, a "you all" rather than "you" as an individual. Teams are the context in which our gifts are best utilized and where we experience the potential for exponential impact as our individual gifts come together. A healthy team is also the context through which we are challenged to grow as our sin and selfishness are exposed and dealt with, hopefully with generous helpings of grace and humility.
I am learning to love the joy and the pain that come with being a part of a team. When my former supervisor told me that he thought I was a great person to have on a team I immediately recalled my past and my gut-level response was, "That cannot possibly be true."
I may have been wrong.
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