Based on Luke 19: 1-10
I love reading biographies and auto biographies and have quite an extensive collection of books, audio books and digital books. Perhaps I’m just nosy, but I want to know what drives people, how they become successful, how they overcome hurdles and even survive against all the odds. I particularly like to read about people’s adventures, not always famous people, but ordinary folk who have done extra ordinary things. One of the most influential books I have read in recent years was Sir Alex Fergusson’s book “leading” and how he managed to lead Manchester United to become the most successful football team in the world. Sir Alex appears to share the opinion of a mentor who influenced my life many years ago “surround yourself with good people, and you’ll not go far wrong” I was taught. I often quote Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, one of the wealthiest men in the world, who created more millionaire employees than most, surrounding himself, by the best computer brains that money could buy.
Looking at the Gospel story, the first thing that Jesus does, when he embarks on his work that would change the face of the world for two thousand years, was to select the team that would work with him. Remarkably, he didn’t select, the most intellectual folk of his day, the wealthiest, the most influential, or the most powerful. He picked a motley bunch of twelve fishermen, tax collectors, and ordinary folk, and over a period of three years, he taught them, led by example, and prepared them to establish the foundations of a Church that would influence the world for over two thousand years. We always assume that there were just twelve disciples during the lifetime of Jesus, but he appears to keep on adding more and more to that number building the team, bigger and bigger, Zacchaeus, a tax collector and a thief is added to the number in the bible story above.
In my present role as minister of seven churches, and with responsibility for a further fifteen, I confess that I would sink if it were not for being surrounded by some of the most gifted, most generous people I could ever want to meet. We have just lived through a pandemic, which none of us were ever trained to deal with, and somehow we have negotiated our way through, and I believe are still emerging stronger because of the whole experience. We have only achieved this because we have worked together, each with our own set of skills and passions and I am thankful for the team of people I work with, most of whom are far better at doing what they do, than I ever would be.
I challenge you to think for a moment.
- Who are the people who form the team around you? Who gives you support when you need it? Who is a listening ear? Who lends a helping hand?
- Who are the people you support? What expertise, experience, or help can you offer? Do you? How good ate you at listening?
My belief is that our greatest strength comes from working together, sharing a vision, listening to each other, and accepting that others might know better than we do. I believe that we are a part of the team Jesus began way back on the shores of the sea of Galilee and we can still do great things TOGETHER!