Team Building & Why Jesus needed the Disciples

Team Building Exercise

What’s the one gift/talent that you possess that you most hope to share this year with others?

What is the wool doing for us physically? How are we symbolically held together by the things we shared as we threw the ball of wool around the circle? What holds a team together?

What happens to the group when someone drops their wool? What do you think happens to a group (like yourselves) when someone doesn’t play her part?

Just as it took everyone’s participation to create that beautiful web-like pattern, it also takes everyone to hold a team together. And, we need one more ‘player’ to help us hold our leadership team together.

Why did Jesus need the disciples?

If we are born again through Jesus alone, why did he invest so much love, time and energy in his disciples? Jesus came to carry out God’s mission. He stated that: ‘The Son of Man came … to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10: 45).

He accomplished his mission on earth when he died, was buried, and was raised on the third day. So, what were the disciples about? Why couldn’t Jesus have just come, lived and taught, died and been raised, gone back to heaven, and waited for people to trust in him?

Jesus’ ministry on earth is a striking example of an important leadership principle: Mission continues when we are captured by it, equipped to do it, and ‘teamed’ to carry it on. When Jesus turned his motley crew of disciples into a team with a mission, he ensured that his work would continue long after he was gone.

If only we could truly grasp what this truly means. God intended all along for people to participate with the Creator in the eternal mission to bring people into the kingdom.

Jesus modeled God’s intention for people like you and me so that we could be connected to his mission.

Jesus seldom did ministry by himself. He ministered with his disciples nearby. He usually had at least three disciples with him wherever he went. By constantly having his closest followers near him, he showed how the best lessons came from the classroom of experience. In the sense that Jesus was all-powerful and could do whatever he wanted, he did not need a ministry team, but he built one so that his mission could continue when he returned to the One who sent him.

Mark 6: 7 is a description of how Jesus built a ministry team: ‘Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits’.

‘Servant leaders multiply their leadership by empowering others to lead’.

Mark 6: 7 provides the elements for this principle: ‘Calling the Twelve’ – Jesus called the disciples to carry out his mission to reach the lost and establish his kingdom on earth. Servant leadership begins with a call to be servant to the mission of God. ‘To Him’ – This phrase describes Jesus’ role as a Leader. Leaders invite others to join them on mission.

‘He sent them out two by two’ – This tells us that Jesus was willing to multiply his leadership in others. Teams of at least two followers were part of the strategy for this. Jesus demonstrated that implementing a mission is not an individual effort. Teams are the best vehicle by which to do God’s work. ‘Gave them authority over evil spirits’ – Jesus empowered those he called.

Team Building Exercise

Why did you choose to trade or keep? How did it feel to trade for a junky prize? What was it like to make a decision as a team? Would you have chosen differently if you were the only one making the choice? Why or why not? Which do you prefer: making decisions with a group of people or making decisions by yourself? Why? What are some real-life places where you make decisions with a group of people? What was it like?

It is our unity and attitudes that encourage each other and spur one another on. These areas seem to show up in effective student leadership teams.

Why Team?

A team is a group of people bound together by a commitment to reach a shared goal. A team can be a group of school students playing netball or football. It can be a group of researchers seeking to cure a disease. A group of Sunday school teachers working with children can be a team, too. A team can put a space probe on Mars or feed the poor.

The Harvard business schools says that a team is: ‘A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performing goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable’.

A committee is not a team!

Be sure that we understand one crucial distinction: Committees and teams are different. Committees belong to an institutional structure and mind-set. They protect and guide the institution. Committees are groups of people who meet and make decisions for others. Agendas and meetings are very important to committees.

‘Committees control. But teams empower’.

Teams, on the other hand, fit inside the structure and mind-set of mission; they live not for an institution but for the purpose of reaching that mission goal. Teams don’t make decisions for everyone else. Their decisions are for themselves only and are related directly to the task at hand. To a team, mission-related goals are everything. Committees control. But teams empower.