Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
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Browns Update
Browns Update
Please, join us in welcoming Nori Mae Brown! We are all doing well in sunny... well, actually it has been super rainy... Florida. We are so excited to have this precious baby girl as a new addition to our family. We wanted to sincerely thank each and every one of you for praying for and with us, for encouraging us, and for being so generous in offering up financial support throughout this process. Please, continue to pray for good health and a safe return trip back home in the coming weeks. I want to leave you all with brief passage out of Matthew that speaks to what you all have done in partnering with us in this journey. Although adoption is never specifically mentioned, I believe the concept fully applies and is so, so encouraging.
37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
With love,
The Browns
Introduction
Introduction
In 1986, a man was forced out of Apple and he bought a small computer manufacturer
In 2000, the company was moved to an old canning factory with three buildings
One was for the computer scientists, one for animation, and one for executives
He immediately scrapped that plan, and made a single building with a huge atrium in the center - WHY?
Many people thought it was a waste of space - an atrium!
It was inconvenient, inefficient, and flagrant!
But here’s why he did it...
Company President Ed Catmull said this: “The philosophy behind this design is that it’s good to put the most important function at the heart of the building. Well, what’s our most important function? It’s the interaction of our employees. That’s why "he” put a big empty space there. He wanted to create an open area for people to always be talking to each other.”
Jobs put the mailboxes, meeting rooms, a coffee bar, the cafeteria and a gift shop in there
All to create opportunities for people to interact with each other
He didn’t want the executives here, the scientists there and the animators way off...
He wanted them all talking!
That’s what the church should be doing too!
We all have different gifts, different ministries, even different service times!
But we’re not meant to be isolated!
We’re supposed to be connected!
That’s why we’re studying EVERYONE’S Spiritual gifts together!
BTW.. that company the bought is one you may have heard of...
It’s called PIXAR
And the man was Steve Jobs!
Creators of Toy Story, the Incredibles and Monsters Inc.
Let’s take a look at our gifts from this week
YouVersion: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
We’re in 1 Corinthians 12:28
28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
We’ve seen miraculous gifts: tongues, interpretations, healing, miracles
Enabling gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, discernment, craftsmanship, artistry and celibacy
Now we’re splitting team gifts
This week are the ones from 1 Cor 12
Prophecy (also mentioned in v. 10), teaching, serving (helping), administration and apostleship
Next week is evangelism, exhortation, shepherding, mercy, giving and hospitality
For each one we’re looking at 3 things:
Definition, example and ministries...
Prophecy
Prophecy
We usually picture someone like a psychic or Nostra Damas
While prophesy does often speak about the future...
…It is more than just predicting the future
Definition
Definition
Def: Both the FORETELLING and the FORTH-TELLING of God’s message
FORETELLING is the future
FORTH-TELLING is sharing what has already been sent
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
That means this is done is different ways...
In the OT, we had PROPHETS
These were God’s messengers like Samuel, Jonah, Isaiah, Elijah, John the Apostle, John the Baptist
God gave them special messages for people
Usually an instruction that applied to the future
EX: A warning like “Stop worshipping idols or you will be taken captive.”
Or good news, like “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
Biblical prophets brought Scripture level messages from God
Modern prophecy has changed — why?
The same reason we saw a change in tongues, miracles, etc.
OT prophets had to bring God’s message to people
NT prophets had to bring God’s message to people
Today, we have a completed message from God
The last prophecies in Scripture are the end times
There’s nothing new we need to hear before then
God has given us what we need already
If you feel the need to bring up new prophecy...
You’re essentially saying Scripture isn’t enough
That’s a bold position to take
That doesn’t mean I don’t think prophecy exists today...
…It just means it’s different!
3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
NT prophecy is about building up the church
God put this Scripture on my heart - I wanted to share it with you
Example
Example
Tasha struggling with being a terrible mom for 6 months
Nothing was enough - own insecurities
Holly called at 8:00am - left a message
Sent text
“Hey Tash, I had something I wanted to talk to you about. Call me back.”
I’ll call her later
Holly goes to church and tells my mom to call Tash - she didn’t go to our church (lived 30 mins away)
Tash goes to the church and she’s writing a note
Holly says, “Tash, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you, I had a really heavy feeling that God really want me to tell you that you are such a wonderful mom. You are such an incredible example and a wonderful inspiration of what a Godly mother should be.”
She kept goin on and just started crying
Tasha said, “You don’t know this, but I’ve been really struggling with this for months!”
If she ever writes a book, it will be called, “The Mom I’m Not.”
But God used someone who would have NO IDEA of her struggle to encourage her
That’s what the gift of prophecy looks like today
It’s not something that is going to be on a Scriptural level
As in we’re adding to the Bible...
The major events God wants us to worry about are already talked about
Ministries
Ministries
Pastoral support
Life Groups
Deacons/Elders
Everyday relationships
Teaching
Teaching
Definition
Definition
Def: the task of effectively communicating what the Bible says, what it means, and how we as followers of Jesus Christ are to apply it to our lives here and now.
This is a very heavy responsibility in the church
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
This gift works like the gift of faith from last week
To some degree, we should all be teaching!
Parents should teach children, mentors should teach disciples, evangelists should teach new believers...
But people with the gift of teaching have a bigger responsibility
That’s why the guys who are on staff are the teachers
When your gift is teacher you have a hunger for the word
You spend hours reading and reflecting on Scripture
You want to know what God has revealed about Himself and what He requires of us
You’re constantly thinking about how to make others understand and apply God’s truth
Example
Example
You’re looking at it!
Every Sunday for almost 2,000 years
Thousands of churches gather to study God’s Word!
I was always taught that everything in a Sunday service points to the message
It’s all about the gospel as shown in the Word of God
Ministries
Ministries
Pastor/Elder
Life Group leader
Professor/Bible teacher
Social media
Serving
Serving
This is a very WIDE ranging gift!
Definition
Definition
Def: To aid in genuine love for the edification of the community.
These are the people that often serve behind the scenes
When they see a gap, they jump in and get it done
People that do this energize the church and free up others to use their gifts to the fullest
People with this gift actually have a title mentioned in the Bible!
2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
The Apostles wanted to keep using their gift of TEACHING!
So they found people with the gift of SERVING!
These 7 men they picked were called “diakonos”
Literally meaning “table servants”
The word in English is DEACON
Deacons are people who lead by serving in ways that free up other giftings...
We technically only have one deaconess: Candi Hallam
But it’s a title we could (and eventually will) give to many more!
We have TONS of these people with this gift at our church!
I think of Marcy Nohl, Brenda Koehl, Lou Randall, Brandon Palmer, Jack and Sue Ford...
That list goes on and on and on!
Example
Example
When I first came, i knew I wanted Tim to be full-time
He serves here as a PASTOR
We combined the roles of youth pastor, secretary and janitor
Just like Paul said, “It is not desirable for Tim...” to be answering phones, cleaning toilets, vacuuming floors...
Not that it’s not important, but I want him doing PASTORAL things!
I told him, “If you can ensure that those tasks are getting done, then you can spend more time on youth, teaching, discipleship, etc...”
My mom has stepped in to answer phones and reduce the secretarial duties
Judi has stepped in to take on a lot of the cleaning duties
And lots of people fill in when Tim needs extra time - Damon and Ana Davis, Dalton Ault, etc...
When people with the gift of serving step in, that creates a solid backbone for the church to thrive
Glenn visited a church and chewed out the congregation
Their pastor cleaned the church, cut the grass, led the Bible studies, sang the songs and taught on Sunday morning
Uh uh! No way! Church is not a place where you come to pickup your Spiritual groceries!
The pastors here are not God’s customer service representatives!
It’s a body made up of all these gifts that work together!
Without servants, the church just doesn’t work!
Ministries
Ministries
Deacons
CrossPoint Cares
CrossPoint Kids
Mowing team and Flower Power
Anywhere you see that work needs to be done!
Administration
Administration
You may picture someone spending time working on excel spreadsheets, printing off a dozen copies while sending emails and faxing...
The problem with that idea, is that none of those things existed when Paul was alive!
Definition
Definition
Def: The ability to organize, direct, and implement plans to lead others in the various ministries of the Church.
A lot like LEADERSHIP, but is TASK-ORIENTED
These people can distribute communication, draft-up a plan and organize systems
This is important because a lot of visionary leaders struggle in this area!
Example
Example
As an example, that is the EXACT reason Josh hired Pastor Mark!
Josh needed an administrative guy to help him out
Mark left his Senior Pastor ministry because he likes the more administrative tasks
That’s why when you get emails talking about RSVP this or bring a dish that, it’s almost always from Pastor Mark!
You can tell if it’s from me
You’ll get one email with instructions… then a follow up email correcting everything I said because Mark got my first email and saw everything I missed!
There’s a joke with the staff
Our electronic calendars are nice...
But Mark has his planner pad with EVERYTHING in it!
At the end of every year he has a little funeral for the old one...
I am grateful for his work, because it both frees me up and keeps me on track!
Ministries
Ministries
Fundraising
Secretary
CrossPoint Kids
Event coordination
Apostleship
Apostleship
This one can be confusing!
In fact, there was some confusion in our Life Group last week!
Do Apostles still exist today?
Well, no. Not really.
Some people call themselves that, but it can be confusing.
There is a difference between the OFFICE of Apostles and the GIFTING of apostleship
Definition
Definition
Def: Original OFFICE of Apostles had the authority to write Scripture
No one has that authority today...
Def: The gift of apostleship today is used to establish the church by influence over new ministries, churches and leaders
These are ministers of ministers and leaders of leaders
Example
Example
People with the gift of apostleship are very entrepreneurial
They like starting things from scratch, or rebuilding what has fallen apart
One guy that comes to mind is a friend named Matt Smith (Pastor in NC)
He studied church planting, then found church revitalization
Took a job at a distressed church
Pastor had affair, appointed his son who changed everything and left
Numbers shrank a lot!
Matt came in and said, “I don’t look at what this church is now. I look at what it can be 5 years from now.”
The church is thriving now!
He loves coming in and building...
Fixing what was broken...
Shannon L. Alder: “If you were born with the ability to change someone’s perspective or emotions, never waste that gift. It is one of the most powerful gifts God can give—the ability to influence.”
Ministries
Ministries
Church planter
Missions
Church health/revitalization
Ministry leaders
Conclusion
Conclusion
Now that we’ve looked at these gifts, I want to remind us of something
We’re not just studying the gifts independently...
We’re also looking at what it means for the church
Last week I mentioned the two ways we look at each gift
If you have, you learn how to use it in the church
If you don’t you learn how to appreciate it in others
It’s not just about the gift itself!
Google did a study to find out what makes teams work
They studied 180 different teams in their company
They wanted to figure out how to make the best teams
They looked at different skills, different backgrounds, different personalities…
Know what the secret to the best teams were?
It wasn’t having the right balance of type-A personalities...
It wasn’t having the best education...
It wasn’t about having the most all-stars...
It all came down to appreciating each other
Google calls it “psychological safety”
People perform at their best when they:
1. feel they have the opportunity to communicate equally and
2. respect each others emotions
The end result is that it has less to do with WHO is in a team, but how the member INTERACT with each other
That means the way you love people in the church is more important than your job in the church
Don’t forget, this church is what Jesus DIED for!
If He thought is was that important, we should too!
Pray
Pray