Previous posts in this series have been incorporated into Part 2 of my online article, “A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Men.”
We have seen in the last two posts that God’s good works do not just happen. Nor are they just random nice things that we think up and do. Rather, God’s good works require that we first be saved and reconciled to God and that our hearts are filled with the love of Christ.
In this post, I discuss the importance of using teams to accomplish God’s good works.
God does not intend for us to do his good works alone
Most of the good works God has for us to do are not doable by ourselves. Here is a prime example of an amazing good work that God called me to do. But there was no way I could do it on my own.
When I was a student at UCLA, I commuted from home along with a friend I had known since high school. His name was Leslie and he was Jewish.
As the semester progressed, I began praying for an opportunity to witness to Leslie and sure enough, one day Leslie said to me, “Herb, I’m the president of my youth group at my synagogue and our meetings are quite boring. I’m wondering if you could introduce me to some of your Christian friends and if you and your friends could come and talk about Christianity in our youth group.“
At the time, I was driving on I-5 and I was so shocked by what Leslie said, I felt like I was going to fall through the floorboard of the car and onto the interstate.
I told Leslie I would be happy to come speak to his youth group. Since I was attending a Bible study off-campus from UCLA, I invited Leslie to go to the Bible study with me. I had someone I wanted him to meet.
How Hal Lindsey wound up on my “team” at a synagogue youth group
The Bible study I was attending was no ordinary Bible study. It was led by Hal Lindsey, the the author of the book on biblical prophecy entitled “The Late Great Planet Earth,” one of the best selling books of the 1970s. Hal held his Bible study at a former fraternity house a couple of blocks off of UCLA’s campus. Hal’s organization had bought the old frat house and converted it into a Christian student learning center. They named it The JC Light and Power House.
In preparation for their public bible study every Wednesday evening, the resident students at The JC Light and Power House removed all the furniture from the dining room and living room to make space for the 100 or so students who attended from UCLA. There were so many, we just sat on the floor, jammed together, shoulder to shoulder. A friend of mine by the name of Bill lead the singing at the beginning of the Bible study. He was the one I wanted to introduce Leslie to.
I took Leslie to The JC Light and Power House and we sat through Hal Lindsey’s Bible study. Afterwards, I introduced Leslie to Bill and Leslie invited him to come to his youth group at his synagogue and talk about Christianity. When Bill heard what Leslie wanted him to do, his eyes lit up and he said, “Come with me, I have someone I want you to meet. “
Then he took Leslie and me across the room to meet Hal Lindsey. After Bill introduced Leslie to Hal, Leslie invited him to come with us to his synagogue as well. To my pleasant surprise, Hal said that he would love to do that.
I was thrilled, of course. I couldn’t believe that I had one of America’s leading scholars on biblical prophecy coming with me to a Jewish synagogue to talk to my friend’s youth group about Christianity.
There in the synagogue was its rabbi…and my Hebrew professor from UCLA
On the night of the meeting, I picked up Bill, along with Hal and a third man who was a resident student at The JC Light and Power House. The four of us crammed into my Datsun 411 and I drove them over to Leslie’s synagogue. When we arrived I was greeted with a huge surprise.
As I walked into the room where the meeting was to be held, there was the synagogue’s rabbi and my Hebrew professor from UCLA!
I had been taking conversational Hebrew in school in preparation for Hebrew studies at Dallas seminary. The last person I expected to see at the synagogue was my professor. And I’m guessing that the last person she expected to see was me, because, when she and I saw each other, we were both stunned. After we regained our composure, my professor turned to her rabbi and said excitedly, “Oh, this is one of my students from UCLA!”
The rabbi was impressed and began speaking to me in Hebrew.
“Ma shimcha?” (“What is your name?”) He asked me.
My normal response should have been, “Shmi Herb.” (“My name is Herb.”) But suddenly, with the shock of everything that was happening, my mind went completely blank. I just stared at the Rabbi, lock-jawed and paralyzed with fear. My professor got this disgusted look on her face and blurted out, “Oh Herb, don’t embarrass me!” Which succeeded in cementing my transient Hebrew amnesia.
I didn’t think my humiliation could get any worse, but it did
My utter humiliation continued its downward spiral when Leslie sat me and my three friends in chairs in the middle of the room. The rabbi and my professor had gone and, surprisingly, left me and my three friends alone with Leslie’s youth group, which numbered around 25 high school and college students. With the four of us sitting in the middle of the room, Leslie and his group sat in chairs, surrounding us along the rooms four walls. It felt very much like Indians surrounding settlers in their wagons.
From the expressions on the faces of the students, it was clear that they were not happy at all that Leslie had invited us Gentile Christians into their synagogue. This impression became explicit when Lesley asked one of his fellow students to open the meeting with prayer.
We bowed hour heads and Leslie‘s friend prayed, loud and fast, “Dear God, help this meeting to be short! Amen.” I opened my eyes and the entire room of students was smirking.
“This is not going to be good.” I thought to myself.
Then Leslie briefly introduced me and my friends and handed the room over to me.
I don’t remember what I said, but I do remember how I felt. I was so tense, my words felt like bricks falling out of my mouth and onto the floor in front of me.
If I hadn’t had a team with me, I would have done more harm than good
After I stumbled along for one or two excruciating minutes, I paused and looked helplessly at Hal Lindsey. Sensing my desperation, he took the floor.
Hal began to talk about God‘s plan for Israel and how it was expressed in biblical prophecy. He quoted prophecy after prophecy from the Hebrew scriptures and showed how they were partially fulfilled in world history, how they were being fulfilled now with the founding of Israel, and how they would eventually be completely fulfilled in the future.
As Hal spoke, something remarkable happened: the expressions on the faces of the students began to change from anger and scorn to genuine inquisitiveness. Eventually Leslie and his friends began asking questions. By the end of the meeting, which was supposed to last an hour, but wound up lasting two, the students were sitting on the edge of their seats.
It was getting late and we had to close. Leslie asked the same student who opened in prayer to close in prayer.
“Dear God,” he prayed, this time slowly and respectfully, “I’ve really learned a lot tonight. And I’d like to learn a lot more. Amen.”
Driving home that night, the four of us rejoiced at how privileged we felt to be able to speak to that Jewish youth group about the Lord and his plan for Israel.
Looking back, if I had gone into that situation alone–young, inexperienced, and ill-prepared as I was–I would have done more harm than good. God had made it clear that there was something special he wanted me to do, but I needed help. I needed a team. And he definitely provided one for me.
If we try to do God’s good works alone, we will grow discouraged and fail
The work that God has for each believer to do are something special, we are told in Ephesians 2:10. They are preordained and designed just for us. Or rather, we are designed just for them. As such, they are way beyond our simple ability for us to do. Take Moses, for example.
We are not told if Moses stammered or stuttered, or both, but we do know that Moses had a speech problem and he was acutely aware of it. Yet, there he was, being asked by God to go and speak to Pharaoh, the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world.
When Moses continually objected to God’s call on his life, God provided him with a solution: a teammate, Aaron.
It can be easy to feel completely overwhelmed by God’s call on our lives to do the good works he has for us. They are, after all, God’s good works, not ours. Therefore, there is a natural tendency to get discouraged.
The prophet Elijah definitely had that problem. Queen Jezebel had sworn an oath to kill him and Elijah fled for his life to a cave, where he spendt the night. In the morning, God woke him up with a question:
“And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Have you ever asked yourself that question as you pursued God’s good works? “What am I doing here?” I sure did that night I was at the synagogue with Leslie and his friends. “What in the world am I doing here?” I wondered.
Notice in Elijah’s answer how his crushed dreams had led him into a loneliness and hopelessness that culminated in toxic despair.
He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 1 Kings 19:13, 14
Elijah felt completely isolated and also foolish for being so zealous for the Lord.
So how did God respond?
“Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18
“No, you are not alone,” God told Elijah. “In fact, there are 7,000 people who still follow me.”
Then what did God do? God provided Elijah with a teammate: Elisha the son of Shaphat.
“So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him….Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.” 1 Kings 19:19, 21
Why doing God’s good works in the context of a team is essential
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Teams provide mutual encouragement
The essence of Christianity is relationship. And teams provide relationship. The Bible teaches that we are to do our good works in relationship with other believers. “Let us consider how to encourage one another to love and good works,” the writer to the Hebrews exhorts. By working in teams we can mutually encourage each other during times of discouragement, which will surely come.
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Teams transmit institutional knowledge
One of the reasons why New Commandment Men’s Ministries promotes using teams of men to serve widows, single moms and their fatherless children is because team members can and will change through the years. Team members may move away, be called to another ministry, or even die. But as individual team members share their knowledge of their care receiver with each other, they create an “institutional knowledge reserve” that transmits to newer team members as other team members leave the team.
The Apostle Paul refers to this process of team members transmitting knowledge to newer team members when he writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
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Teams make long term, consistent ministry possible
Churches do reasonably well in addressing the one-time project needs of people. But when it comes to providing for long-term pressing needs, churches fail miserably. But working together with other believers on teams to address these types of needs makes long term ministry possible. Teams also make addressing these types of pressing needs much more consistent.
“Let our people learn to engage in good works, to meet pressing needs, that they may not be unfruitful.” Titus 3:14
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Teams foster relationships
The love of Christ flourishes when Christian men meet together to do good works. When we become other-centered instead of self-centered, we automatically grow together in oneness. The joy of working together to accomplish God’s good works is one of the most fulfilling experiences any Christian man can have.
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:1-4
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Teams compensate for individual weaknesses
The Bible teaches that all believers have spiritual gifts. But not all believers are gifted in the same way. We are part of a body, the body of Christ, that has different members with different functions. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” Romans 12:4-6
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Teams lighten the load
The old adage, “Many hands make like work.” certainly applies to teams. When we work together on a team to meet pressing needs, we “bear one another’s burdens” and in the process “fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2
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Teams naturally hold their members accountable
Teams make accountability natural, lighthearted, and effective. “Hey, we missed you last week.” “Oh, my son had a soccer game.” That is accountability in action, but without being burdensome and overly strict.
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Teams are always goal oriented
All men relate to the concept of a team because men tend to be goal oriented. “What are we here for?” is the question every man asks of a men’s meeting. Being on a team with other men implies action towards accomplishing a goal. In our case, the goal is doing God’s good works to meet the pressing needs of widows, single moms, fatherless children, and anyone else with a long term need.
The New Testament is full of examples of God using teams to accomplish his good works
Of course, the most famous example of a “team” in the New Testament is Jesus and his twelve disciples. And when Jesus sent out seventy-two of his disciples, he didn’t send them out alone, but in teams of two. “After this the Lord chose another seventy-two men and sent them out two by two, to go ahead of him to every town and place where he himself was about to go” (Luke 10:1).
When the apostles ran into trouble administering their widows, they formed a team of seven to oversee the ministry (Acts 6:1-6).
When the apostle Paul set out on his mission trips, he was almost always, except in Athens, accompanied by a team. And when he took up the collection for the saints in Jerusalem, the funds were transported by a team.
To put it in military terms, teams are a “force multiplier” for good. We do well when we do good by using teams.
This post first appeared in New Commandment.org.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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