Day 3

Love one another as if your lives depended on it… 1 Peter 1 (The Message)

Consecration and Team

It would be easy to get so caught up with making your ministry prosper, your church flourish and your services shine that you forget about loving your team and your colleagues.

What a travesty that would be. Healthy teams have a heartbeat of consecration because it is only in consecration that we discover humility and it is only in humility that we can see each other properly. Consecration stops us from becoming competitors and enables us to be collaborators.

Our teams can be places where we face the most tension and stress. They can be the places where we can show our frustration and worry. But they should also be the place where we can love one another. Where we find support, encouragement and help. Being part of a team is a responsibility. It demands that we make commitments to one another and that we honour those commitments. One of those commitments is to pray for each other. Another is to see the best in one another and release the best in each other. When our egos are too big, they are easily bruised, but consecration keeps our egos in check and enables us to big others up without needing to big ourselves up. We can get caught up with ‘delivering’ at the expense of ‘being’. Yet the ‘delivering’ and the ‘being’ have to be two sides of the same coin. Imagine a family where everyone outside the family thinks the dad is great, but those in it are terrified of him! There is something very wrong when what others say about us is unrecognisable by those in our own teams.

Teams are the best place to be, the safest place to be, and the most demanding and challenging places to be – but we are transformed through them as we learn to love one another, weep together, laugh together, celebrate together and serve and worship together. We serve best when we kneel together.

And remember that God, by His Spirit, is part of your team – He is the most important part. Give Him some space today, you might just be surprised by what He does.

For further thought –

Think about one way in which you can show appreciation and support to your team mates and your colleagues today – then do it! Pray for the folk who do not have the luxury of being part of a team – for those who are having to work alone and without physical or emotional support. Also pray for the people in your own team and ask God to enable you to find time and space to enjoy one another’s company. Whatever role you play in the team you are part of (and if you are ‘solo’ then you are still part of Team Elim), consecrate yourself to God again today and ask Him to show you ways of blessing, celebrating and releasing others. Who could you reach out to today to encourage and support? Do it.