10 Timely Tips for Team Players
As the servants of Christ we are in the family of God and we have been commissioned of our Lord to be His ambassadors in the harvest fields of this earth.
“This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.”—I Tim. 1:18.
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”—II Tim. 2:3, 4.
Each one of us is just one member of a larger team. The local church is that team where we labor with our brothers and sisters in Christ to carry forth the Lord’s work.
Here are ten timely tips to enable you and to help you endure the years.
1. A happy, joyful spirit!
Don’t be a grump and stop whining! Get yourself “thoroughly right with God” (R. A. Torrey) and then let it glow on your face and show in your life.
2. Give yourself to the task!
Get up, get going, go to work. Tackle the task with enthusiasm and with energy. You cannot fulfill the Lord’s will for your life with laziness.
3. Prepare yourself! (II Tim. 2:15)
The time we spend in preparation is not wasted time. It is essential if we expect to do our best and to have the most fruitful results. Study your Bible. Read good books and the Sword newspaper. Listen to preaching from solidly fundamental men. Go to Bible college, if at all possible.
4. Follow leadership!
If you are not the leader, you should follow whoever the leader is (Heb. 13:7, 17, 24; I Thess. 5:12, 13). The man who follows the Lord and is governed by Scripture is a leader you can be confident in following. No human leader is perfect, but it is the leader’s job to lead.
5. Lead your troops!
If you are placed in charge of the ushers, the choir, a bus route, a class or whatever, you should recruit helpers to help you. Once you have a troop, whether it is one person or a dozen, it is your responsibility to take charge and lead them. At the same time, you stay accountable and follow the leadership of the pastor or whoever the pastor has assigned to be your supervisor.
6. Be a fisherman! (Matt. 4:19)
A Christian who wants to serve the Lord should realize the primary duty of each one of us is to find other people and bring them to the Lord.
7. Be a team player! (I Cor. 3:6–9)
If you can’t be a team player where you are, then you may need to find another team. He or she who will not “pull together” with the team will inevitably pull the team apart.
8. Smother smoldering fires!
When critics, cracks, compromisers, etc., get among us, they invariably seek out the weak and vulnerable and try to line them up to agree with them. If such carnality is allowed to linger, the smoldering embers will ultimately burst into full flame. When the perpetrators fan those flames, the fire spreads and great danger ensues. It is incumbent upon every team player to assist in putting out these wildfires before they get rolling.
9. Give no offense and take no offense! (I Cor. 10:31–33)
If you have developed one of these hypersensitive, “snowflake” personalities so popular today, you are headed for frustration and failure. As a Christian worker you can’t afford to be beset by offenses. The rule here is “no give, no take.” Live above the fray and stay focused on being who you ought to be and doing what you are supposed to do.
10. Don’t quit before the finish!
As long as you have life and breath, you should stay available to the Lord. As you age, you are entitled to make some adjustments, but you should never permit yourself to be a quitter.
