Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Teamwork

The rage in the sports world this week and next is the Super Bowl.  Analysts and fans alike are dissecting the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks as the teams prepare for the biggest game of the NFL season.  I heard one analyst talking about that the team wins will not do so because it has the biggest stars or the greatest players.  The team that wins will do so because it is the better team.

Teamwork.  It's the missing ingredient in many organizations including churches.  Too many pastors think that leadership is about them having to call all the shots and insisting that everyone follows them.  While everything rises and falls on leadership, I think that the leader who fails to build his team fails.  Patrick Lencioni writes, "Not finance.  Not strategy.  Not technology.  It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.  If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time." (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, page vii). 

There are many tools available to help us in the endeavor of team building.  Tools aren't the issue.  The issue is doing it.  What stops us from developing strong teams?  Is it pride or self-sufficiency?  Is it insecurity?  Let me encourage you to lay aside the thing that stops you and build a team!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Thoughts on following Jesus

"The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after one's bread; on the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing.  People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christian."

These words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer are a call to discipleship.  His message in these two sentences is quite simple.  One who claims to be a Christian must realize that following Jesus is an all or nothing venture.  A man cannot serve two masters.  Discipleship (following) is serious business.  Do we understand that?  Has Western culture caused an erosion in our thinking that anything goes?  What cost are we really paying to follow Jesus?