Mark 10.42-45
“You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
As we said last week, it isn’t a secret that collaboration is much more effective than individuals acting alone. There is no shortage of books and seminars that teach teamwork; these resources have been abundantly available for years. Nevertheless, true and effective teamwork is hard to find, even within the church.
What amplifies the problem is that people will comply with what the group, company, or team is doing, and yet not fully commit. In fact, poor teamwork is often the result of passive resistance, not open rebellion. When you hear people gossiping about others in the group or complaining about decisions that leaders have made; or when you see people failing to give maximum effort or hesitating to solve problems or avoiding difficult but necessary conversations, those are clear indicators that passive resistance is at work.
The Lord calls us to engage fully with each other in the fellowship of the church; to invest in each other’s growth and development; to encourage and support each other; to work together to minister to the communities where we live.
I think of the message in Galatians where Paul encourages us to love and serve each other, not fight with each other.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” (Galatians 5:13-15).
We are in great need of unity and collaboration in the church in our time. As we confront the significant challenges that face us and our nation, we will need unity of mind, spirit, and action. We will also need great courage, and Paul tells us in the Philippians passage that courage is one of the key benefits of Christian unity. He admonishes us to “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.”
The point he is making is that there is a relationship between courage and unity of spirit.
The Lord is calling.
