These three words can carry so much meaning when you pair them with ministering together. When you think of what it means to be on a team, this is where the rubber meets the road. It's been said that "if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." If we intend to do all God has called us to, we cannot do it alone. We must work together. Then what does it mean to belong, grow and serve together in a team?
Belonging is commitment and connectedness. It's easy for us to adopt an isolationist view of ministry. After all, it was God who called us, so what else do we need? We need one another. No one person is an island, and ministry needs to include belonging. People matter. They are valuable. When you commit to belonging and including others, you will see that your connectivity as a team will increase. Our most valuable asset in ministry is the relationships we make along the way. Our natural inclination might be to close off and stay away, but our love for God compels us to connect and belong to others. Ministry shouldn't be an "association" that you pay dues to; it should be a family that you commit to.
Growth brings change and sacrifice. We'll all raise our hands at the idea of kingdom advancement and harvest, but growth always brings change. You can never stay where you are – God always has something next for you. God is always calling us to lay down what is for what He has for us next. Sacrifice is giving up something you love for something you love even more. When you belong to a ministry team, you will be required to change and sacrifice in order for growth to occur. Sitting back and staying where you are is never an option. Healthy teams are growing teams. Growth will challenge us to let go of what got us here so we can go to our next.
Serving lowers our egos and places us in complementary roles. We've all read the passages about the greatest being the servant of all, but it's a challenging thing when we're not the center of attention. Serving means that I lower my ego in order to serve the greater good. There's a lot less vying for greatness when you serve on a team. You tend to exalt others as you serve others because that is what serving does. Considering one another better than yourself and looking to the interests of others will cause us to complement one another in the gift mix of a ministry team and assume varying roles that contribute to the bigger picture rather than our own myopic view of what ministry should look like.
So what does it look like to belong, grow, and serve together in your ministry team? What about the broader ministry team of the ABNWT PAOC? What would you need to lay down? What would you need to pick up?
We will be discussing this in a family forum style at our District Conference on May 10 at North Pointe Community Church in Edmonton, AB. Join us by registering here.
Jeremiah works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a passionate and creative leader who believes that the church is the hope of the world. He uses collaboration, innovation, and inspiration to challenge churches and their leadership to engage in the only mission Jesus ever sent his church on: making disciples.