Team: Small Group

On a Professional football team, you have many different personnel. You have the coaches, players on down to the water boy... er…person. So let me ask you a question, who’s the most important on the team? Better yet, if you had to give a percentage on who actually wins the game, how would you rate it?

Is the Coach more important? How about the Quarterback, he does call the plays and hand off/throw the ball….isn’t he more important? How about the guy that drives the bus and gets the team to the game, he’s pretty important to, right? I mean without him, they’d never get to the game to win or lose.

The answer is they are all important members of the Team, every single one of them. Most of you already knew this but the point I bring to you today is, Small Groups within our Church work much the same way. To have a successful small group, it must be a “Small Group Team”. Everyone with that group is like a football team…they are all important to the win.

Many Christians today prefer not to be a part of the team. They say, “I’m just not a team player.” Too often we prefer to be lone rangers in order to avoid differing opinions and conflict, to avoid people who want to be self-important and prideful, to not have to deal with people who seem to know it all and are insensitive toward others on the team. We may feel ignored or unappreciated.

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Spurring on others in love is a team effort, everybody must work to win! Spurring is stirring up the love and passion within our brothers and sisters in Christ. How do we stir each other up to radical acts of love? That can only happen in the context of small group teams. God brings about radical acts of love by stirring each other up. We need passionate people to stir up passion in others. This is called, Team work!

It will only happen as we gather in small group teams. That is why God is calling us to these teams…togetherness. You cannot and will not overcome the deceitfulness and the attractiveness of sin in your life alone. You cannot and will not thrive spiritually alone. You are not thriving if you are not in some kind of small group team.

Imagine what kind of love and good deeds God could stir up if we took this seriously. Imagine what hidden sins, bondage, struggles, habits, hang ups, hardships God could deliver us from if we took this call to teamwork seriously. Imagine what God could do if we were in a small group team that loved us, cared for us, carried our burdens, pastored us, and committed to care for us.

How can we pray for one another if we are not on a team?

Some of us see these teams and relationships negatively because we do not see ourselves as soldiers in war. We see ourselves as vacationers just sightseeing. We do not have the appetite for spiritual passion as the norm because we settle for what we see instead of expecting, wanting, desiring more.

God is calling us to be supportive. This is where love comes in. It means having a heart to lighten people loads as we get to know them.

So I ask you again, are you on a Small Group Team?

If you aren’t, how’s the self-sufficiency thing working for you?