Introduction
On the
12th July 1998, France played Brazil in the final of the World Cup. France, the
hosts who have never won the trophy, against the four-times winners and
defending champions.
The
French are a team of good players, but only one great player; Zinedine Zidane.
They even have some quite average players; Franck Leboeuf and Stéphane
Guivarc’h for example.
On the
Brazilian side, there is the best player in the world, Ronaldo. There is
Rivaldo; goal scorer supreme who plays for great Barcelona. There is Bebeto; fast as
lightning and deadly in the box. There is Roberto Carlos, the man with the most powerful
shot on earth, who can strike and bend a ball from 35 yards into the net before
the goalkeeper even moves. Brazil are the dream team, an eleven-man carnival of
footballing magic.
But France win the game with a decisive 3-0 margin of victory. Why? Because even though they are not as gifted technically (except Zidane) as the Brazilians, even though they have fewer stars, they work brilliantly as a team.
But France win the game with a decisive 3-0 margin of victory. Why? Because even though they are not as gifted technically (except Zidane) as the Brazilians, even though they have fewer stars, they work brilliantly as a team.
Aimé
Jacquet, their coach, said after the game, “We won this trophy because our
desire was greater than theirs. It is the fruit of great team work.”
Nehemiah
chapter 3 is, for many people, a rather uninspiring list of names and tasks.
Even those of us who consider this to be inspired by God (and I am unashamedly one of them)
Nehemiah 3 is not exactly a page turner, let’s be honest. It’s long and contains
many unpronounceable names. We only read about a third of the chapter to show mercy
to this morning’s reader.
I want to
outline four principles on teamwork that are applicable to the church, the work
place, the world of sport, everything. We’re going to look at those four points
in turn.
1) Good
Teams Are Led by Example
Firstly, in
good teams the leader shows the way. Verse 1; “Eliashib the high priest and his
fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the sheep gate.” Verse 2; “The men from
Jericho built the adjoining section.” Eliashib is the Bishop. He’s the High Priest. Spiritually nobody is
in authority over him except God himself. It would have been easy enough for
him to say, “Listen, I’ve got important business to attend to. It wouldn’t be
right to mix the sacred with the profane.” Everybody would have said, “Fair enough.”
But no!
The Big Cheese from the temple leaves his robes in the vestry, puts on some old
jeans and is the first to get stuck in. This is the first High Priest who makes
cement with holy water! There he is doing masonry and woodwork right next to
some nobodies from Jericho. Nobody knows their names; they are just a bunch of
blokes from somewhere else. But this top leader is not above getting involved
with them.
When Justin
Welby came here last December, he jumped out of his car just outside the church
and picked up the traffic cones and carried them into the narthex. And one of
the wardens said to him, “No Bishop, not you! You’ve got so many other
important things to do.” This was the man nominated to be the Primate of all
England, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of 80
million Anglicans. But he absolutely insisted on it. “Why not?” he asked.
Leaders win
respect and build team morale if they are not above ordinary tasks.
2) Good
Teams are Well Organised
The
second thing here is that the work is really well organised. Like bees. Did you
know that bees organise themselves differently in cold weather that they do in
warm weather? When it’s a hot, sunny summer’s day, half the bees go off looking
for nectar and pollen. The rest stay in the hive and flap their wings, creating
drafts to lower the temperature by about 10 degrees. So the bees that stay to
ventilate the hive one day leave to look for nectar the next and vice-versa.
Nehemiah’s
teams are well organised. Starting to the north at the Sheep Gate, the
construction of the wall goes anticlockwise all the way round the city until
the circle is joined up.
At each
gate there is a dedicated team working on it. Each team has a leader. Everyone
knows what to do; men women, nobles and nobodies, young and old alike. People
just seem to get on with it without fuss.
28 times
in this chapter it says something like, “Next to them, so and so and his family
rebuilt the next section, X carved the stone, Y crafted the gateposts and Z
fitted the gates.
You see,
the organisation of church life is simple. It’s the vicar’s job to lead the
services, welcome newcomers, arrange the flowers, play the organ, preach all
the sermons, visit the sick, take the youth group skiing, count the offering,
lead the children’s ministry, make the coffee, serve it and do the washing up
afterwards.
The two
slight drawbacks of that model are that firstly, the vicar burns out after
about a fortnight and secondly, the church becomes frustrated because it’s
impossible to get involved because the vicar’s in the way.
Back to
the World Cup final; 22 men desperately in need of a breather watched by 80,000
men desperately in need of a bit of exercise.
What is
your role at All Saints’? You might say “Well, I only do the cleaning or take
part in the welcome team or serve the coffee.” But that’s great! The thing is,
are you committed to your role? Can people count on you? You leaders, do all
your team members know what is expected of them? Is your communication clear?
Could it run more smoothly, for the glory of God, with a bit more attention to
detail or a bit more personal contact?
3) Good
Teams Embrace and Grow from Outside Input
The third
characteristic of good teamwork embracing input from outside. In Nehemiah 3
several teams of workers come in from outlying villages. From Jericho (v2),
from Tekoa (v5), from Gibeon (v7), from Mitzpah (15) to name just 4. These
towns had nothing at all to do with
Jerusalem, but note their solidarity, working together and becoming greater
than the sum of their parts. These guys from the other towns didn’t say, “Look
I’ve got my own city walls to keep up, I can’t be sorting yours out as well.
Your wall is your problem.”
Actually,
it is true that some of the nobles from Tekoa in v5 refused to help. But look
what happens. Other workers from that town came and got stuck in, it says so at
the beginning of v5. And they must have completed their section early, because
they reappear in v27 to lend a hand in another section of the wall which wasn’t
going so smoothly. I love people who look out for the needs of others and say
“How can I help you?”
There’s
nothing that damages team spirit and team morale as much as people saying, “That’s
not my job.” Have you ever worked
with people like that? Aren’t they a pain? Aren’t they just the least popular
people in the office?
On the
other hand, have you worked with people who do their job well, and who
discreetly get on with other things not strictly on their job description? I
bet those people have a high level of job satisfaction and are well appreciated
by everyone else. What a testimony it would be if every Christian worked like
that at work.
4) Good
Teams Have Motivated People
The last
component in good teamwork is motivation. Good teams make sure their people are
fired up. This is crucial in any team; the people doing the work have got to
find what they do is interesting and significant. It makes a difference in
people’s lives. It’s worth doing. Four times in this chapter (v10, v23, v28 and
v30) it is recorded that certain people repaired a section of the wall that was
adjacent to their homes. In other words, they had a personal interest in the
stability and aesthetic quality of their work. They had a personal stake in
doing their job well.
When
people come to me and say, “I really want to serve the Lord in the church, but
I don’t know what I am called to do,” I usually ask, “What are the passions
that God has placed in you?” Even I know that it’s pointless asking people to
invest time and effort in things they will find draining and wearisome.
Ending
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 23rd June 2013
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