We’re just a few weeks away from the start of something that I really like! Despite the winter weather that has barraged places like the Northeast US and the Great Lakes, when the calendar starts to inch it’s way towards March, my mind turns to baseball and my finally decent again, Pittsburgh Pirates. That decency, success even, is due to them playing well as a team, not as a display of superstars. The Pirates don’t have enough resources to go after that kind of talent and frankly, they shouldn’t. They’re playing well because of a partnership amongst themselves.
Last week I had the chance to sit in and observe a organization wide leadership forum. Men and women who serve with NTM in leadership roles around the world got together and both, caught all of us up on the changing face of how NTM is currently teaching and planting churches in places like East and West Africa and Papua New Guinea, as well as presented some new and very different from our historical paradigm, opportunities.
We were all challenged to examine whether our organization wide vision for how God might use NTM to play a part in fulfilling the Great Commission may have become narrower than it should. It’s pretty significant when your boss, the CEO of NTM asks you that! And it was pure “little kid excitement” to see presentations on some possible new places where NTM can lend it’s experience in serving the Church!
But, this changing landscape that we, the Potters, find ourselves serving in the middle of reminded me quickly of how important it will be to continue to play on a strong team. It’s normal human behavior to face need and try to work all the harder to meet it out of your own strength. But all the more it’s going take a team ’cause none of us are capable for this task, on our own.
Not as an afterthought, we have to recognize the incredible role so many of you, who are reading this, play on this team! We’ve been serving via your backing and support for over 15 years! That’s a way better run than even the Yankee’s can match! (Have to keep the baseball metaphors going here 🙂
A lot of what I’ve been doing lately is based on this too. I had the chance to travel to Missouri two weeks ago to meet with the team that teaches Partnership Team Building (how missionaries can build their financial, emotional and prayer support teams) to soon to be new NTM missionaries at the Missionary Training Center. Our communications team provides tools for NTM missionaries to use that communicate the big and little pictures about what those missionaries do, so that other believers can catch a vision for what they could do in partnership with those missionaries. To check out what their families are doing as a part of our team, visit their blogs: David Pierce & Jerry Lehman
Before that, two members of NTM Canada’s Public Relations team came down here to Florida to meet with our team to “get in sync” as we both work together and hopefully from the same pages, to tell the stories of how God is saving lives and glorifying Himself!
All the more it’s going take a team ’cause none of us are capable for this task, on our own.
And of course I’m going to finish this post with one more team oriented paragraph! My BIGGEST hope when it comes to my ministry this year is to see the Communications Team I serve with draw closer to two other key teams that are also directly serving and interacting with believers and churches across the USA. In order for all three of our teams to meet the goals and priorities leadership is asking us to step up to, it will take concerted teamwork across all three of our teams. That means humility, intentionality, creativity and a tenacious commitment to not neglect each other.
And with Christ’s strength and life “coursing through us,” we should be able to finish way better than the Pittsburgh Pirates!