Despite today’s cool and slightly wet weather, I was able to enjoy watching my son’s high school baseball team play a doubleheader. His team is fairly young, made up several underclassmen. Several of these have never played together before. On top of that, the team is led by a new coach. The team has already played in two tournaments. They lost the first game in a single elimination tournament, and they were runners-up in the second.
They have won two or three games by the ten-run rule, and they have lost a couple by the same margin. One thing I have already noticed: the games they won they seemed to be loose and have fun. Now, I know that it is more fun to win, but this was more than that. They just seemed to enjoy playing the game. They were not focused on the score or result. They were just having fun with each other. It may not always be the case, but I believe this team will play more like a team and win more games when they relax and have fun playing.
I have served as a staff member of five churches and served as a volunteer leader in three other churches. I have also worked with pastors, staff, and Sunday School directors and leaders from hundreds of churches. Over the last 25+ years, I have seen lots of Sunday School groups. I wish I could say that all were teams.
Unfortunately, I have seen many sets of leaders who were independent operators. They do their jobs, but they work on nothing together. They don’t prepare, plan, or train together. They are not working toward any common goals. Besides the obvious fact that this means that they will likely be less successful as a group than they could be, this situation also has other repercussions.
When a group of Sunday School leaders (Sunday School directors, teachers, pastor, staff, and other workers) are not a team, it means they miss team wins. There is just something about pursuing wins together and realizing success. These moments add energy and excitement as they deepen relationships. These moments point out the great Coach (God) they have.
When they are not a team, they also miss team fun. They miss laughing together. They miss celebrating together. They miss sharing stories, moments, and lives. And fun and laughter are contagious. Classes and churches know when their leaders enjoy working together (and when they don’t).
This begins one relationship at a time. Life is too short and ministry is too important to miss out on enjoying serving together as a team! Have fun. Be a team. Be revolutionary!
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