 Here we go. So let's just want to look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, the exhortation based on the gifts of all the gifts, use of the gifts with Paul says first you love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Just wanted to one of us to dwell on that first part. I know we have actually seen that second part over and over again and emphasized that in the right way by desiring spiritual gifts. So first part, pursue love, pursuing love, pursuing love when when the other person is not really or whoever with whom we need to express our love is not really it's not really convenient is in our minds. We kind of come to the conclusion that this person is not is not deserving of our love does not deserve it does not. It's not in any way probably this person deserves quite the opposite of love right but here we see the exhortation pursue love. We know that pursuing this God kind of love with Paul talks about this love in 1 Corinthians 13 the God kind of love. And so so obviously he's talking about agape he's saying pursue agape pursue the God kind of love and desire spiritual gifts. So may this be seen in in our lives right so so the thing is of course just wanted to lay that the foundation that love is not pleasing everybody and at all times love is not withholding from speaking the truth. Love is love is not bringing not bringing correction all that so we know it's the right expression of love love does correct love does love is firm love speaks the truth and so on so with all that what we see this kind of love that is embodied in the person of our Lord Jesus. So that's the kind of love that we are exalted to pursue pursue this God kind of love. And so so for all of us again a reminder today to pursue that love you know in our pursuit of gifts in our pursuit of excellence in our pursuit of in our pursuit of well let's say ministry sharing the gospel building a co laboring with Christ to build the church. You know in a pursuit of all that says pursue love especially with the members in our own family where there's a lot of familiarity where we you know there's every opportunity to take things for granted. Right where our guards are down there are no masks right so even with at close quarters to pursue love right so with that reminder let's get started so let's let's pray. Father we we thank you Lord for this exhortation that you want us to pursue love go after make sure that this is this God kind of love is expressed in and through our lives with everyone and the way you express that love and Lord we thank you that we have you as a role model we have you as our example. And Father God we pray that this God kind of love that you already poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. As we read in Romans five God we pray that this love is something that we will pursue and express and demonstrate Lord in and through our lives Father God we thank you that that this is available for us. This is our portion because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so Lord we we position ourselves to to demonstrate the love that you already poured out into our hearts by your Holy Spirit. We thank you Father God we thank you that you counted as worthy to be recipients Lord of such a great virtue that just flows from you. Scripture says God is love and so God something that is of you you have put in us. Oh God we thank you for that and maybe Lord demonstrate this that you put in our hearts God something that is yours to everyone around. We thank you for the possibility of being able to do that and we give you all the praise and glory at this time in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. Morning Lebega. Yeah. Okay so let's let's let's just continue from where we stopped last class class class we stopped. We just started with teamwork and we looked at some of the advantages of working in teams and definitely we see the, you know, all the efforts growing exponentially. When we work as a team and we looked at some of those things increase strength and increased accountability and something that benefits the leader where the leaders potential is greatly enhanced and the weaknesses of the leader are balanced out by the strength of the team and so on right. So, so we were looking at some of the reasons as to why people still avoid working in teams because that needs to that's, you know, that's a, it's going to be a very intentional deliberate work right so like you can choose not to do it. Right so you can choose to just be a solo artist and do that it's because you feel that, especially if you're a person who is who skill talented in, you know, in multi, you know, faceted in different areas. And you want to finish it finish things do things. Sorry, timely. And you just think that, okay, maybe I'll just do it myself. Okay, so here are some reasons we were looking at some of the reasons one was pride. And, and then we saw that another one was, yeah, let me just share that insecurity. Right, you said, first one is pride, unwilling to admit that I can't do it myself. I can't do everything myself. unwilling to admit that there is someone who can actually do a better job at this than me. Right, so it could be pride, it could be insecurity as well, because teamwork requires recognizing the ability, recognizing skill in others. And also a sense of empowering, you know, with comes with delegation with comes with the authority that you share with the others to say okay, you can do this. And so on. So we see that if there is an unwillingness on our part, then or a kind of an insecurity, you know, what if they, you know, what if if I empower them, what if they do better than me? Right, so what if they do better than me? Or what if they replace me? You know, that's another, that's another fear. So I'd rather hold my cards close. I'd rather do certain things myself, maybe not really empower them, which will, which will benefit the team. Right, not really get them to do things that will things that they are capable of or even, you know, better than me. So I'd rather not do that, because what if I get replaced, right, there's a fear. Or it could be even, you know, being very naive, thinking that the complexity and the difficulty of achieving certain tasks, you know, being naive and thinking that okay, I can actually do it. I can actually do it. There's only so much that, you know, we can carry. There are only so many, so much of baggage or luggage that we can carry. There's only so much weight that as an individual can carry. While it could be, it could be a lot compared to others. If you're, if you're able capable person, but there's, there is still a limit. And even if there are two people and you're able to share the load or carry, then you're able to do much more. Maybe it's a little more than what you were able to do on your own. So having this, not having this understanding and being very naive, thinking that well, I can do it on my own. Now it could be that or it could be the, it could be a case of temperament or personality. Maybe a person is very reserved, not very outgoing, you know, temperamentally, doesn't want to participate with others, doesn't really interact much with other people. So, you know, so that if that is a difficulty, right, if, if that is a challenge, just interacting, getting people to be part of something, if that is a challenge, then yes, people do hold back from working in teams or you know, another reason could be that maybe there was a bad experience, right, maybe a bad experience of working in teams and it did not work out where people for various reasons, you know, people did not really work together, it was a disaster, maybe. And so with that in mind, if it's still fresh, you know, every time you think about working in teams, if this is still fresh in your memory then definitely you would, all that hurt and disappointment and everything is there. So you don't want to venture into working as a team, right, so you just want to minimize that as much as possible and do everything on your own, right. So it could be for, for all these various reasons that people don't work in teams maybe, right. While we look into scripture, we see that there are many teams or team work that we see in scripture itself. While we, you know, in an earlier chapter we saw that the Lord Jesus sending out the twelve, sending out the, you know, the seventy and he sent them out two by two. He sent them out two by two to the place where he was himself was about to go. So he gave them a commission, he gave them, he sent them out two by two. So he sent them out in teams of two, right. And we see the teams becoming increasingly, well, increasing, it was not just two people but composed of many others. As we read through the episodes, as we read through the book of Acts in Paul's missionary journeys and we see different teams and ethnically different teams as well. We see that and when we read Romans 16, we read about the kind of people whom Paul partnered with, right. Now we don't know the timeline as in, you know, how long did they work as teams but we see that they were working together. And especially if you read through to the end of the chapter and this is verse 21 where Paul says, Timothy, my fellow worker and Lucius, Jason and Sosipeta, my countrymen, greet you. Okay, so they were with him, even as this episode was written, right. Timothy, Lucius, Jason, Sosipeta, so at least four guys. And then verse 22 says, I 30 years who wrote this episode, greet you the Lord. So he was the one who was a scribe, right. He was, I mean, as in, and Paul was Apostle Paul was dictating it verbally, he was the one who actually wrote it down, pinned it down. So that's 30 years. And then Gaius, the post is mentioned in verse 23, the host of the whole church. So he's there, then Erastus, the treasurer of the city, he's their quarters of brother. So you see all these kind of, so we see four plus one, five plus six, seven and eight, at least eight people. And in addition, you know, to Paul. So you see Paul, so that whole team, which is mentioned there versus 21 and 24, 23 is about nine people. Okay, so working together closely. And the goal of chapter 16 in Romans is talks about the different people, Priscilla, Killa mentioned there. C.B. is mentioned there, Epilates, Antonikus, Junior, you know, so many people are listed there. So Paul was not afraid of working with teams. And we see that it is, you know, the kind of things that he did, the kind of things that God accomplished through him. It was not without teams. That's an eye opener for us that, you know, yes, we all know that God raises up a man. He calls a person, a person, commissions, gives a vision, et cetera. But the whole thing is accomplished as a body, as a team. So we see that. And then we can also look at, we back up to Romans 12. Verse four says we have, as we have many members in one body. In one body, we have many members and not all members have the same function. So similarly, I'm sorry, similarly in a team, like we have multi-functional, multi-skilled people. And not everyone has the same level of skill. Maybe not everyone has the same kind of function, but we have this wonderful dynamic team. And they're able to accomplish it. So we have many members, as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function. Verse five, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. So that is something that we see. And Corinthians 12 verses 12 to 27, he talks about the human body and the parallel of that with that of the body of Christ. Where we cannot look down in comparing, where we cannot look down on ourselves and disqualify ourselves from being part of the team, or look down on others and disqualify them being part of the team. And the wonderful thing is we supply strength where there is lacking and we receive strength where we are lacking. So that is what we see in one Corinthians 12. So some questions to ask ourselves if we are very hesitant about working in teams. So the question is on the same lines of the reasons why people do not work in teams. Is it right? Am I unwilling to admit that I can't do anything? Am I unwilling to admit that there are others who can do a better job at this and other things than what I can do? Am I unwilling to admit that, acknowledge that and that's going to be pride or is it insecure? Am I unwilling to empower others? Empowering could be simple permission to work in a certain area. When you see that the person is capable, responsible, accountable, trustworthy and still there is hesitancy on our part. To hold back in taking that kind of risk to allow the person to work and maybe the outcome is pretty critical. The outcome of not doing that could be critical and so on. So why am I holding back? Why am I unwilling? Am I using discernment or is it really suspicion? Is it discernment or is it insecurity? And do I desire to maintain control over everything? Yeah, Adivya, you have a question. Go for it. Sorry, Pastor, that was a mistake. Okay, no problem. Okay, so any questions here? Anyone else? Okay, but these are aspects that we are looking at. These are quite real, why people do not work in teams and it's very possible that we might actually hesitate. Personally, I've had this experience of teams turning out badly, working in teams where the dynamics of the team was terrible and very difficult people. And continually while everyone was very highly skilled and temperamentally so vastly different and difficult to engage with and so on. So having had first-hand experience of that. So if one goes through that or maybe an extended period of time, it's only natural to have that kind of a mindset to be insecure and say, So we need to really face that ourselves even before we look to others or look to leading others in the team to look at that. Am I unwilling for whatever reason? Okay, then the question, another question, do I desire to maintain control? Am I unable to trust others? That's another thing. Trust is broken many times and showing the team in a bad light, it is showing you as a leader in a bad light. And so it becomes very, very crucial that, well, yeah, this needs to change, this cannot continue. So is that one of the reasons that we're unwilling to be part of the team or unwilling to work in a team? So these are some things for us to ask again for estimation, that's the thing. Estimation of time, unrealistic estimation of what a project or what a task would require. We always do that. I mean, all of us are capable of doing that. We look at something and say, okay, I can do this. I can do this in, let's say two hours and then we realize that it takes twice that amount of time. We underestimated the magnitude of the task or the kind of complexity of the project of the task. And I think we sometimes do that with distance, reaching a particular place. And we show up late because we underestimated a lot of things, the distance maybe and the traffic. And so we underestimated. So it was a wrong estimation. And then we realize that, oh, there's so many things, there's so much of traffic, so many things to, before we reach. So a poor estimation is also something. So we need to ask us, am I estimating the task realistically? And why am I not involving a team? And temperamentally, temperamentally, this is a very real thing because not everyone feels comfortable working with others. And this is something that if temperamentally we are kind of reserved, we may not be, being introverted or reserved is not a negative thing. It's actually, many people look at it that way, right? Extroverted means successful, extroverted means the life of the party, that kind of thing. So it's all the positives and then being introverted is negative. It's like, everybody tells the kind of reserved person, you need to get out of that shell, you need to do that and you need to be kind of encouraging that person to get out of that. Being introverted or being reserved to some extent is good because the person is actually, well, has deeper hearts, is able to analyze things at a deeper level, maybe creatively. The person is so much better processing things on their own and all those good things are there. So it's not necessarily a negative thing to be reserved or to be introverted. But along with that, if we have this skill, right, if me being reserved or on my own to do certain things or to analyze and solve, if it is hindering me from being part of a team or leading a team or involving a team, then that becomes a negative. So temperament and other things. So let's move on. So there are some interesting quotes about teams. Michael Jordan, the basketball player, what he says, talent wins games with teamwork and intelligence win championships. It really matters, the big one. So to win a championship, you need to be consistent and win the games and it takes so much more endurance to win the big games. So teamwork and intelligence win championships. Steve Jobs said to have quoted this, great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people. And John C. Maxwell's quote, teamwork makes the dream work. The vision becomes a nightmare and the leader has a big dream and a bad team. So it is teamwork that carries out the vision. The bigger the vision, the better the team and with a good team, then the vision is accomplished. So let's look at a checklist. If there is a checklist that we can go through for a team, for people in a team or to work at leading a team, if we are there as a leader. Here are some very basic simple things that one has to put in place or one has to make sure that these things are just much like a pilot who would fly the plane as a checklist. And this is something that he needs to make sure as a routine to make sure that he might be the most experienced of pilots. Here are some things that he needs to, here are the switches that need to be on, these things that need to be off. All the mechanics of it, he needs to go through that over and over and over again. Every time he sits in that cockpit, he needs to do that. So this is a checklist which is simple at the same time important for us as leaders and team. So the first one is this, it's about the big picture, it's about the vision. We talked about it earlier, the importance of that. So does everyone in the team know what is the vision of the team? Does everyone in the team know that? Or are we assuming that everybody knows it? Are we assuming that? Well, this is that everybody in the team goes to join newly. Are we somehow assuming that they will anyway know it? Why? Because they've been in the team for many years. Or they've joined recently, I'm sure the others would have told them, can they not know why we are doing this? Well, we cannot assume. People can have a version of the vision, which may not be accurate. People may have an incomplete picture or distorted picture. I'm not saying that they will not have a picture or the accurate picture of what we are about and what we are setting out to accomplish. They might. But the thing is, when we assume that, when we're making a mistake. So the question to ask is, does everyone in my team know what the big picture is? Why we are doing what we are doing? What is it that we are about? What is this church about? What is the functioning of this team about? It could be a simple function. Maybe if you take a local church, it could be a simple task of ushering. It's not a simple task. But then again, it's a demanding task. It depends on the size of the church and so on. So it could be a task like ushering. It could be something to do with audio. It could be something to do with prayer ministry. Does everyone know the vision? Overall vision and also the vision of this particular team. Because if everyone comes in with a different vision, then we are going to be pulling or going in different directions. Very important. The second question is, does everyone not only know, but have they bought into it? In the sense, is it theirs? That's again an important question. I know it mentally. I know it. But is it mine? Are you in agreement with it? Do you own it? In the sense, yes, this is something I believe in. This is something that I wholeheartedly want to go after. The question is, do they own the vision? Do they own the big picture? Does everyone in the team? One of the pastors of those big churches, he makes a statement in this leadership conference. It's about how vision leaks. It's like filling a bucket with tiny holes with water. It has tiny holes, but you fill that bucket and you see that. During the course of time, the bucket will become empty because it has tiny leaks in it. The thing is that when we are doing life, when we are going about our tasks and we focus on the small things, it is possible that we lose the big picture. Why we are doing these small things and why? Because all our energy, all our everything is just focused on getting that task done and all the intricacies of it. We just focused on getting some skill levels up and finishing it and doing it. It has to be done well and so on. Sometimes, you get so involved in that and you forget the big picture. The vision has to be reiterated. The bucket has to be refilled. We realize that this is what I am doing, but what is the goal? Why am I doing this? That is very, very important. Which means that for the team, as a person who is leading the team, I need to ensure this happens. It may not be done in a boring manner. It may not be done in a routine, mechanical manner, but it can be done creatively. We can do it as a quiz. We can do it as an activity. We can do it in whatever way possible to reiterate the big picture. That is very important. That is the first thing that is very important, the big picture. The second one is the placement. What are we saying when we say placement? Is everyone in the team the right person doing the right thing? It goes back to the selection of people. It goes back to assigning tasks to people. It goes back to all that. Of course, if you are handed a team which is already there, then you have so much more less control over those factors. Of selection and so on. But we can definitely readjust, realign things within. The thing is, is the right person in the right place doing the right thing within the team? Because, as John C. Maxwell puts it, if the wrong person is there in the wrong place, then there is regression, meaning the whole team is pulled back. Instead of moving forward, we are moving back. Just imagine if every person in the team is like that. It is a bad fit. I remember at one of the conferences, we had musicians, we were short of musicians and short of, for the worship team, short of others playing. We had to make do with whoever was there. There were three of us. Since one person was leading, all of us were doing things that were not our strength. I was playing an instrument which was not my instrument. Another person was playing an instrument which was comfortable with, but it was not our best. We were not completely, we were not good at it to that extent. We were doing that. If that is the case, let's say if the person is not good at it and the person is there stuck with that role and we don't even realize it, that's going to take the team in the opposite direction. Instead of moving towards the goal, everyone is moving backwards. We're wondering why is it, why are we not moving forward, why are we not even in that same, not even able to maintain status quo, but we are actually going back. It's because we have wrong people in the wrong place. Wrong people in the wrong place. Maybe that person is not skilled, maybe that person does not have the ability, the mindset, everything, but we have actually put that person there. For whatever reason, maybe we just thought that okay, they were enthusiastic and then we said okay, and then it's killing the whole thing. The wrong person in the right place, when we say right place, it's like okay, there's a place of need, there's a place of where there will be fruitfulness, there's a need, there's an area which is there, but we put the wrong person. Then there is a lot of frustration. There's a lot of frustration on part of that person individually. For that person, it is not the level of comfort, it is not the thing that they are called to do, they're calling it something else and there's frustration there. The third thing, it could be the right person in the sense, in terms of attitude, in terms of heart, in terms of ability, there's the right person but they are actually doing the wrong thing. The right person for the team, the right person, individually you look at the person and then they are the right person. They have everything that is required. But it is the wrong placement. That is not the area for which they are what they were meant to do. Then it could be the right person in the right place and then there is progression. If the right person is in the wrong place, then there is a bit of confusion happening. The right person in the right place, then there is progression. There's advancement, there's movement. Then if we have all the right people, we're talking about team, we have all the right people in the right places doing their thing. Then we have multiplication in the sense there is growth, there is expansion, there is momentum and things are happening. So something to keep in mind, the placement. I know that we know that we have a need but is this the right person? It's better that even if there is a need and even if somebody is there saying I can do, I am available, but if you know for sure that that is not the right person for that particular task, it's better not to put that person there. The third one is attitude. Now attitude again, mindset, a predisposition for the whole, maybe for the task, maybe for the activity, maybe for whatever the group has come together to have the right attitude. To have a good attitude, it really matters. So good attitude among the team members. It does not guarantee a team success but if it's a bad attitude, you can be sure that it will guarantee the failure of the team. If not today, then definitely tomorrow. So the attitude, the predisposition or the mindset of a person, the thing is the attitude is very contagious. It's very intangible but it's very contagious. And it's how you go about doing a particular task, how you face difficulties while doing the particular task. So here is this formula, a bunch of equations that you can look at. Again, John C. Maxwell mentions this, that great talent but rotten attitudes is a bad team. So it will be highly skilled, highly skilled team, but if we have a rotten attitude, rotten attitude is attitude that you cannot even stand, then you can guarantee that it's a bad team. This team needs change. They have skill but that attitude is bad. So if it's a great talent and bad attitude, then it's an average team but it's a rotten attitude but it's a bad attitude. We're going to look at some of these examples of attitudes. So if it's a great talent and average attitude, then it's a good team but if it's a great talent and good attitude, then it results in a great team. So some of these attitudes, attitude is not a bad word, attitude is you can have a good attitude but normally we say that person has attitude, we normally refer to a bad attitude. So, well, example, this team cannot function without me. If somebody walks in like that, I'm indispensable to this team. So that person, if that person has that attitude, what is the danger? That person is going to look down on others. That person is going to, well, bend the rules a bit. Maybe if everyone, it's not a level playing field. If everyone is required to be at a certain time, that person might show up late, why they can't do without me. If everyone is supposed to do things before they come and this person just skips over that and then shows up, why, well, obviously this team needs me, they can't do without me. So that person takes certain advantages. Well, another attitude could be I'm the only one who's actually contributing to this team. I'm the one who's doing it. Nobody's, none of the others, the others are not actually contributing. Again, a bad attitude. So I'm the top performer, so I'm above the rules, above the office rules, above the team rules. These rules don't apply for me because I am the top performer. The thing is that if we as team leaders, if we actually reward this attitude, if we overlook this attitude or even reward this attitude, reward this attitude meaning that you actually compliment the person while not calling that out, this kind of attitude in a person while not calling it out. If you actually compliment and reward, say nice things about what a great job they've done, we are actually further strengthening this attitude in that person. Unknowingly, we are actually doing that. We are rewarding that attitude. We are rewarding and strengthening so that person will again repeat it. When we reward that behavior or when we reward that attitude, you can be sure that that person will repeat the attitude and repeat the behavior. So these are bad attitudes while a person can be highly skilled. So as team leaders, this is the mistake sometimes we make. We look at the skill and we look at the need of the team. We know that this skill is required. This skill, a person with this skill can actually be the game changer. We can do so much more. We can get things done in ministry, all the things that we've been planning to do. Well, maybe this is the person got a scent and they know it's a God's sense. So we tend to overlook these things and maybe even reward that. And then we realize we have a bigger problem on our hands. So the thing is to ensure that there is a good attitude. For example, when it comes to the worship team, just pulling out that example, we decided that we will have this audition process. So people have to come and audition for the team. Well, first of all, of course, they need to be believers. They need to have the right. So we kind of screen that. So are you a believer? Are you a disciple of the Lord? Are you a follower? And what are those things that you, why are you doing it? So those are some questions that are there. Why do you want to serve? Why do you want to serve? I have these talents and I want to serve God with it. People have different responses. So we go through it and see why does this person actually want to serve? And has the person been already serving? Well, there could be a reason why they're not serving already. And then if there could be some genuine reasons, schedule doesn't permit and whatever. But if the person has been there for some time, and well, there's no reasons why and they're not serving in other areas. Then there's a flag. So you need to check why is the person not. Why are they wanting to serve in a very visible ministry and not in an invisible? In the sense that we have tasks and everything, they might go unrecognized. So you know the heart of why they want to serve. So that's the thing. So we find that out. Then the thing is that, okay, what about your abilities? It is your gifting that has positioned you to serve in a particular area. So do you have that? So to be able to check that. Yes, that out. Now what if we know for sure that this person as well, very skilled and has been serving in maybe another church, another ministry for a number of years, would we still take them through the audition process? So the thing is we decided yes, we will do that. So the audition process, the audition orientation and all that, orientation meaning that person comes for the practice, comes prepared for the practice for about six weeks or so. But still doesn't play with the team on a Sunday morning. That orientation period said, okay, let's do that. With respect to how old the person, how experienced the person, how skilled the person, we need to do that. So that actually helps set the right attitude. It's not a foolproof thing. Well, people can still go through that and then, but actually you get to see. If people say I'm too big for this, I'm too big for this. I don't think I can, then you know, I don't think I can do this. I don't think I want to do this. Do you know who I am? I'm capable of, I don't want to, then you know the attitude is not right. And it's going to pull the thing further down team. Okay, so let's, we'll stop here and then we'll come back. Thank you.