TEAM

How many of you have ever been part of a team? Now, how many of you have ever been on a team that was great … a team that performed really well? Okay … now how many of you have ever been on a team that really stunk. I mean, it just reeked … you couldn’t win unless the other team just didn’t show up.You know … the same kinds of things can happen right here at the church. We are a team. And unless every single person pulls his or her weight, the team suffers. So, as we keep moving toward the Finish Line, we need to learn about the importance of Being Part of a Good Team.

Friends, relationships are vitally important in the life of the church. In fact, the church was created to be a community of interdependent people. Romans 12:5 tells us … 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
And many of us are familiar with Proverbs 27:17… 17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

In the summer of 2002, nine miners were trapped for three days in a water-filled mine shaft in Quecreek, Pennsylvania. After their amazing rescue, the miners said that they “decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group.” The 55 degree water threatened to kill them slowly by hypothermia. According to a news report, they came up with a plan: “When one would get cold, the other eight would huddle around the person and warm that person, and when another person got cold, the favor was returned.” “Everybody had strong moments,” miner Harry B. Mayhugh told reporters after being released from the hospital. “But any certain time maybe one guy got down, and then the rest pulled together. And then that guy would get back up, and maybe someone else would feel a little weaker, but it was a team effort. That’s the only way it could have been.” In a special worship service that took place a couple days later, ten helmets were placed on the altar at a church, representing the nine miners and God. They faced incredibly hostile conditions together—and they all came out alive together. (Adapted from “Teamwork Helped Miners Survive Underground,” CNN.com (7-28-02) and www.preachingtoday.com).

What a great illustration of the body of Christ! God created you to be in fellowship with one another. God has called us to, and expects us to, work together as a team. How are you doing on your part? Are you faithful in giving? Do you have a ministry? Do you reach out to the people around you, or are you still too caught up in your self? Let me challenge you today, get in the race! We need every single member of this team to be active, faithful, and effective.