TEAM

What kind of team are you building to influence your campus? What ministry giftings are you needing to develop a staff team or a student leadership team to accomplish this goal? Below are some ideas to get you thinking about developing a team model God gives us in the scriptures. I've used some "business terms" along with the biblical terminology to introduce each concept with some key actions of each.

Entrepreneur (APOSTLE) - Pioneer, Strategist, Innovator, Visionary- Groundbreaker who initiates an organization's mission

Questioner (PROPHET) - Disturber, Agitator- Upsets the status quo, challenging an organization to move in new directions

Recruiter (EVANGELIST) - Passionate communicator of organizational message- Recruits to the cause

Humanizer (PASTOR) - Care agent, Social cement- Provides organization glue by caring for the individuals in it

Systematizer (TEACHER) - Philosopher, Translator- Organizes the various parts into a working unit and articulates that structure to the other members.

(Those of you who have read The Shaping of Things to Come will immediately recognize that I copied these from the book.)

Where do you go from here? Pray. Asking God to give you insight in whether this is a team approach you could use to influence your campus. Pray for your own understanding of your role on the team and what this means for gathering others to your team. Pray for courage and humility to do what you need to do to participate on this team.

Practically, if you have students write these "team player words" on an individual sheet and start listing names of potential student leaders in each category. If you are unable to write a student's name, ask God how he might want you to address this issue as a group. Perhaps someone or a group of people will have to step up to work outside of their gifting until God brings some person(s) to fulfill this role.

As an example, think of small groups/life groups/house church/etc. Who is the entrepreneur (apostle) to give vision to the small group strategy and keeps the group experience alive? Who is the agitator (prophet) in the small group who is not letting us settle for the status quo and minister beyond ourselves? Who is the pastor (caregiver) of the group who makes sure human needs aren't neglected and people are encouraged to connect? Who is the recruiter in the small group making sure we extend ourselves to look for the people Jesus misses the most and helps people find meaningful places of service? Finally, who is the systemizer or teacher to lead the group in the discussion of the biblical material?

Leading a team and participating on a team is hard work but it is a required work! I pray God gives you a great team to accomplish his work on the campus. James Sanders has done a lot of work on TEAMS and I know he would be happy to dialogue with you about what he has learned (make sure you call him DR. Sanders!).