Greetings,
God wants to build strong leadership teams. Strong leadership teams are covenant teams. They are not teams that are joined by mere contracts for mutual benefits, but teams that are joined together in covenant for God’s kingdom purpose. I have spent time this past month presenting the ingredients of a strong team and I have also identified the things that destroy relationships within those teams. Today I want to recap the key elements for building a team.
The first thing that is needed is a commitment to God’s purpose in the team. This also means a commitment to one another in the team. The needs of each team member must be fulfilled by God and not by their role in the team. Offenses will come at times, but no team member can afford to ever take an offence. There will be miscommunications, misunderstandings, wrong interpretations of communications, and other things that will no doubt create a natural reason to take an offence. No team can afford to take an offence with any other team member. Each and every team member must be motivated for commitment to the team and that commitment must be stronger than any offensive weapon of destruction in the relationships of the team. Team members must each see that their future is with the team. There are various levels of this in various types of relationships, but these things are essential in a covenant team. The strength of a team is not in who is right or who is wrong; it is a relational commitment to one another in the team.
There has to be a continually fresh anointing of faith within the team and its members. Members must be empowered to do works of faith. This is a demonstration of their hearts towards one another and towards the purpose of the team. There can never be any fear-based decisions; therefore love must be the motivator of each member’s actions. Those acts of love will spawn works of faith. That love is first for God and then for one another. Natural perceptions, whether they are true or false, can never spawn judgments within the team. A covenant team must be spiritually minded and directed by the voice of God and not the voice of natural perceptions. Each member must be willing to give up his or her own desires and agendas for the purpose of the team. There can be no fear of death within a covenant team, therefore decisions of the team must be faith-based decisions led by the voice of God. Team members must seek to always keep their hearts alive towards one another. Each team member must demonstrate that their hearts are with and for one another and this comes by a continual empowerment of faith.
Covenant teams must see themselves as a team. They are not mere individuals who comprise a team; they are one team. There is a constant activation of response to the testimony of the team. The team knows that their footsteps are one. They are many members, but they are also one team. There is an activation of one another for the purpose of the team. Although no team can ever destroy the unique identity of each member of the team, no individual member of a team can destroy the corporate identity of the team either. They must never live for themselves, but for the corporate purpose of the team. There is no room for individual agendas that defile the corporate identity of a team.
Team members must be enlightened to the testimony of submission to one another. Each member must know that his or her connection to one another in the team is what gives the team its full authority of life. There can never be a drawing back or a death-giving confession by a team member. There must be a shield of togetherness and a spirit of submission within the team. Each member of the team knows that they need the other team members in order to be fully alive in the team.
It is important that each team member know who he or she is in the team. The purpose of the team is dependant upon the purpose of each individual member of the team. That purpose is not self-motivated, but Christ motivated according to the resurrection life of Christ within each member. This allows each team member to make a contribution to the team that is in accordance with his or her testimony of Christ in him or her. A free flowing testimony of life contribution is needed from each team member. There is no room for apathy in the life of any team member.
As a covenant team grows so does the testimony of that team. The true testimony of a covenant team is their love for one another. They are not easily distracted by personal needs. Covenant team members are drawn to love one another and freely give their lives to one another. The confession of each team member’s life is a confession that portrays love for each member of the team. Carnal logic and reasoning can never bind a team member’s love for others in the team.
There must be a sense of destiny in a covenant team. Team members must be impassioned to dedicate themselves to God’s kingdom purpose for the team. There must even be an awe of one another in the team. Honor for one another is essential as each member of the team realizes that the purpose of the team is for things that even beyond the life of the team. Something of kingdom greatness is destined to release a spiritual inheritance to those who follow. There can never be a loss of destiny in the team.
These are the attributes of a covenant leadership team. I believe that God wants these elements in the life of the church and its families, but without these elements in the lives of leaders we cannot expect to see the testimony of this kind of life in the church. May God empower us by His grace to see these things increase in the body of Christ!
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
