Living Out Love in Groups and Teams
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” This is the power of the Gospel. As we begin to internalize the truth that we are more loved than we could ever imagine because God Himself willingly gave up His life in order to redeem ours—despite us and our actions—it will slowly transform how we see and treat others, eventually coming to the point where we die to ourselves so that others benefit. This is no easy thing, but lived out it annihilates moral elitism, racial superiority, economic status and all the other great dividers. Found in the Good News of Jesus is the equalizer of all peoples.
And the truly amazing thing is, as we grow together in this Biblical definition of love it has a transformative effect on our Mission Teams—like into love, annoyance into patience, friends into family, tedious tasks into service, idle conversations into genuine concern and celebration, laughter into joy. This is no immediate occurrence, it takes time, intentionality and continuing growth, but I’ve seen over and over again how this really does happen and it shows the world something normal community cannot: experiencing Jesus in and through us. Here are three ways our Mission Teams can practically grow in love for each other:
Know One Another’s Stories. One of the irreducible needs of all human beings is to be known. Mission Teams have to create space to really know each other and be known. An effective way to accomplish that is simply to have people share their stories, both life stories and stories about their current experiences. It may seem very basic, but it’s hard to sacrifice your life for people you don’t know. As you begin to know one another’s stories, you’ll begin to understand them as people and that will grow into love.
Celebrate One Another’s Journeys. This is a step beyond merely storytelling and necessitates vulnerability and authentegrity. This takes honesty, which must be received with Christ-like acceptance or it will fail. But we have to get to the point where we share in our Teams our faith successes, failures, doubts, fears, etc. In other words, we have to be able to know where our teammates are at on the journey of faith so that we can celebrate growth. If we are going to ever get past the ‘Christian façade’ to see real and true spiritual growth, this has to be a part of every Team. Word of warning: This has to be cultivated over time and modeled by Christ-centered leaders if it’s going to be part of your Team culture.
Pray for One Another’s Lives. Prayer, the old Christian answer for everything. But it is the answer. Like marriages, Teams that pray together stay together. Pastor Bret is always challenging us to move beyond the “Pray for my Aunt’s cold” prayers [not that there’s anything wrong with those prayers of course] and move toward the powerful prayers we see in Scripture. Pray for one another’s needs, but dare to pray for each other’s desires as well—and help align those desires with God’s will for our lives and Teams. And pray that God will use your Mission Team to help someone far from God experience Jesus! Imagine the joy of answered prayer when that harvest comes.