Working As A Team
”For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes thing grow.” -1 Corinthians 3
We like to put our dreams and hopes in a person. We elect a president or governor and believe the government will change for the better or worse. So often we place our confidence in a particular leader, a teacher, a boss at work, or even our parents. In churches we sometimes place our hopes and dreams in a person we call pastor. We can even think that one person can make all the difference in the life of our church. The Corinthian church had great pastors: Apollos, Paul, and Peter. People got naturally attached to each of them. They placed their dreams and hopes in Paul who began the church, but he moved on and Peter came to preach to them. Then when Peter left, an exciting young pastor named Apollos came. They were great men, but Paul says, they were only men. And the church was a lot more than any of them. It was a team of people all working to build a ministry for God, and a church that let God build through them.
We have a great team as well. We have great pastors, CLM’s, volunteers, and a supportive staff that work together to build our church, but change is coming. Our long term pastor, Jean, is leaving at the end of the month to serve another church. When change happens, it causes doubts, fears, and concerns. We begin to look for a person to fix things and make them stable again. We can sometimes confuse who our savior is and get distracted from God. Our salvation comes from God and our strength comes from each other. Each person does their part; one plants, another waters, and God can make it grow. And we are stronger when we work as a team. Something called synergy comes about when our work together is greater than what it would be separately. So we wish Pastor Jean great blessings where she is going, and we will pray for her. She is one of those special people we will treasure in our hearts like the Corinthian church treasured their pastors. And we will keep our focus on God who gives us growth, and we will keep our love for each other, so we can continue to see great ministry happen working as God’s team together.
Pastor Tom