Teamwork makes the dream work, but a dysfunctional team is a nightmare!
God never meant for His people to serve alone. The church is a body, and a body works only when every part works together. Yet there are enemies of cohesiveness that quietly pull a team apart. Some come from outside, but most grow up from within our own hearts.
Here are seven of them. Each one is worth recognizing, and each one is worth avoiding.
1. Being Overwhelmed
Every team carries a load. When the work piles up and the problems multiply, it is easy to feel buried. An overwhelmed person grows short with others, withdraws, or simply gives up, and the whole team feels it.
David knew that feeling. His answer was not to try harder in his own strength, but to cry out to Someone stronger:
"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." (Psalm 61:2)
Peter gives the same invitation:
"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:7)
Our being overwhelmed shows us on whom we are depending. When the weight feels like too much, it may be because we are carrying what God asked us to hand to Him.
2. Being a Drama Queen or King
We all know someone who turns every small matter into a crisis. Drama draws attention, stirs up feelings, and keeps a team from getting anything done. The root of it is usually simple: someone has made themselves the center of the story.
Paul points us to a different mind:
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:5)
He also tells us what to fill our thoughts with, so there is no room left for drama:
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
And he reminds us who the real star is:
"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." (Colossians 1:18)
Our life is full of drama when our lives are the star of the show. When Christ has the preeminence, the drama fades.
3. Faking Kindness (Hypocrisy)
A smile on the outside and resentment on the inside will not hold a team together for long. People can sense when kindness is only a performance, and trust wears thin.
God calls us to put on real kindness, the kind that comes from a changed heart:
"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering." (Colossians 3:12)
"Let all your things be done with charity." (1 Corinthians 16:14)
"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." (Romans 12:9)
James describes the wisdom that comes from God, and notice how it ends:
"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." (James 3:17)
We can only fake on the outside what we lack on the inside. The cure for false kindness is not better acting. It is a heart filled with God's love.
4. Being a Lone Ranger
Some folks would rather do it all themselves. It feels faster, and there is no one to disagree with. But a Lone Ranger leaves others on the sidelines and misses the strength that comes from serving side by side.
Scripture is clear that none of us lives for ourselves alone:
"For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." (Romans 14:7)
Instead, we are to look out for one another and build each other up:
"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." (Hebrews 10:24)
"Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
God has called us to a life of community in Christ, not a life of isolation. And remember: a world that revolves around us is a mighty small world.
5. Embracing the Status Quo
"We've always done it this way" can be one of the most dangerous sentences in any church. A team that settles for what is comfortable stops growing, and a body that stops growing begins to weaken.
Paul pictures a church where every member contributes, and the whole body grows as a result:
"From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:16)
He also shows us his own attitude: never content to stand still, always pressing forward.
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13–14)
Mediocrity is the enemy of excellence. God deserves our best, not merely our usual.
6. Hiding Out
Some believers are faithful but invisible. They slip in and slip out, never letting others see their faith at work. A team cannot count on someone it cannot find.
God has not called us to hide. He has called us to be seen, so that others see Him through us:
"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." (Philippians 4:5)
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." (1 Peter 2:9)
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12)
If we are not visible, we are not viable. To be viable means to be "capable of doing what it is intended to do." A light under a basket cannot do what a light is meant to do.
7. Lack of Followship
We talk a great deal about leadership, but little about "followship." Every good team needs people who are willing to follow, support, and trust those God has placed over them. Without that, even the best plans fall apart.
Paul was bold enough to say "follow me," because he himself was following Christ:
"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1)
"Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." (Philippians 3:17)
And to the leaders of the church at Ephesus, he gave this charge:
"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." (Acts 20:28)
One can only lead who has first learned to follow.
Pulling Together
Look back over the list and a pattern appears. Almost every enemy of cohesiveness begins when we put ourselves at the center: our burdens, our story, our image, our way, our comfort, our privacy, our independence.
The remedy is the same each time. Put Christ at the center, and put one another ahead of ourselves. When that happens, a team stops being a nightmare and starts living the dream God had for it all along.
I removed the divider lines and turned the headings into bold text so everything is the same size. The wording is unchanged. If you paste this into Word or Google Docs, the quote bars may carry over, so I can make a clean Word doc with a single font size if you would like.
