Back to school: working on teamwork

About fifteen years ago I observed that "we talk about teamwork but we can't get teams to work."

I have since learned that staunch individualism combined with the firm convictions and drive needed to do church planting often result in poor teamwork wherever American missionaries are found.

But rather than rejoice in the fact that we may be averagely bad, GBIM Europe decided to tackle the problem. So Tom Barlow led 17 of us "back to school" to work on teamwork.


Tom first had us interact with Philippians 1 noticing that the personal pronoun "you" is systematically plural.

And Paul says to the Philippian church, “But whatever happens, you must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heaven." Here's how: "standing side by side, fighting together for the Good News," literally "in one spirit, one soul, side by side."

Then, Tom used Roger Peugh's doctoral thesis, "God and Teamwork: Implications of the Unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for Christian Ministry Teams,” to guide us along the path of healthy teamwork practices, practices found among the members of the Trinity:

love
trust
submission
honor
respect
fellowship
communication
mutual support
faithfulness
loyalty
clarity regarding personal identity

I found these principles insightful and practical; they allowed my teammates from Paris and me to work out some bugs in our communication.

I echo the words of one participant who said:

"I very much appreciated the training that Tom provided, defining God's priorities for the functioning of a team. I now see that I have some real work ahead of me to be up to these standards."

Workshop on teamwork
Château of St. Albain / November 18-19, 2008