Team Tactics

We have a document online that all of the staff can see where we plan our services. We enter what the theme is going to be, who’s involved, what extra things are planned etc.. Some time ago, I entered today’s theme as “Team Tactics”. We would be talking about being called onto God’s team, finding our position on God’s team and today would be “team tactics”. But when it came to it, I decided to change the title and do things a bit differently. But I forgot to change that documents. When Jo sent out the newsletter on Thursday, it said, “Team Tactics”. OK, let’s go with team tactics. Ultimately, it is Jo in the office who decided what we preach on around here!

But before we do that, I had quite a bit of interest last week from people who felt inspired to become All Blacks. No one remembered what the sermon was about, but they all wanted to be All Blacks. So, I thought it would be a public service if I explained the process.

You should start playing Small Blacks rugby at age 7. You won’t get hurt because there’s no tackling. You should then play age-grade rugby until you get into your school’s First XV. That’s where the scouts are looking for people to enter the Provincial Rugby or Super Rugby academies. You should aim to be selected for the New Zealand Schools Team or the Māori Under 18 team. Your next step is to be selected for the New Zealand Under 20 Team or the Bunnings National Provincial Championship.

Succeed at that and you are ready for professional rugby. You should look to play for a Super Rugby Pacific franchise, such as the Highlanders, and then for selection as an All Black. There are other development possibilities such as the All Blacks XV, effectively the B team. When you become an All Black, don’t forget to thank me for getting you started.

When we talk about tactics, we are just asking “How are we going to do this? What is the strategy?”. New Zealand Rugby has a strategy for recruiting and developing top players. They provide programmes and facilities, coaches, mentors, to invest in the next generation of All Blacks.

If you want to be an All Black, you also need a strategy. How are you going to achieve this?

In the church, what are the team tactics? How can the church accomplish its mission?

READ Acts 2:42-47

In Acts 1, the risen Jesus spent 40 days giving them instruction, proving beyond doubt that He was alive, talking about the Kingdom of God, promising the Holy Spirit. Then He was taken up into heaven. That was all tactical.

They stayed together. They could have scattered but they stayed together supporting one another. Acts 1:14 says that they joined together constantly in prayer. That was tactical. This is how they were going to do it. They selected Matthias to join them as an Apostle, replacing Judas. And they waited, just as Jesus had told them to. At this point, waiting for the Holy Spirit was key to their strategy.

Acts 2: the Holy Spirit came on them. What they did next was all tactical – not necessarily all pre-planned, but they imitated what they had seen Jesus do. They would copy Jesus’ strategy?

They preached the gospel. 3,000 people were converted and baptised. Acts 2:41 says, “about 3,000 were added to their number that day”. In other words, they were not just baptised and left to their own devices. They were added to their number, brought into the new, embryonic Christian community. It was in community that they would be nurtured. We read about what that community was like.

So, who have we got at this point? We have the Apostles – highly trained by Jesus, ready to make the next generation of believers. We almost certainly have a wider group who had also been with Jesus but had not received the intensive training. Jesus had sent out 72 on mission trips. Acts 1:15 tells us there were 120 believers at this point. 12 Apostles, over 100 less trained believers and 3,000 baby Christians.

In the verses we read, they are:

• Devoted to the Apostles’ teaching

• Devoted to fellowship

• Devoted to breaking bread

• Devoted to prayer

• Many signs and wonders were performed through the Apostles

  •  Leading to everyone being filled with awe

• All the believers were together

• All the believers had everything in common

• They sold property and possessions and gave to those in need

• They met together daily in the temple courts

• Broke bread in their homes

  • Praising God

  • Enjoying the favour of all the people

Every one of those things was tactical. Every one was part of “This is how we make disciples”. This was not the journey to becoming an All Black. This was the journey to becoming like Jesus. This was an intentional development programme.

There is a huge emphasis on togetherness, community. They were devoted to fellowship. All the believers were together. They had everything in common. This is about community. They met together daily. They broke bread in their homes and ate together.

Remember, they had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost from all over the empire. They had homes to go to, but for them to go back as Christians – as missionaries – into their own setting; for them to go back with at least some understanding of their faith and how to live as Christians, the priority was that they spend time in this Christian bubble, watching, listening, learning, growing, living this new lifestyle (praying, praying together, compassion, generosity, worship, hospitality, signs and wonder), using their spiritual gifts, with supportive people around them. The team tactics prioritise relationships and community.

We won’t go through that whole list. We could talk about how each aspect was intentionally part of their discipling, but we won’t. Think about the first one though. They were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching.

We could imagine the apostles holding classes and people taking notes.

It would not have been anything like that. That is not how Jesus taught and the Apostles imitated Jesus. Jesus taught by His example as well as His words. He asked a lot of questions. He expected them to think about what He said. He expected them to do exactly what He was doing. Almost certainly, the Christians learned by doing – by being involved in practical Christian living and ministry, as well as hearing about Jesus and what He taught. Almost certainly, that middle layer of followers, who themselves were still growing, were also involved as mentors to these new baby Christians. We do not read about them, but just as Jesus got the disciples involved, I imagine the disciples got these newer disciples involved.

Acts 2:47

…And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The tactics worked. Even though we don’t read about explicit evangelism, people were converted daily. I guess they saw the transformation; they saw the quality of their love for one another; they saw their love for God. Maybe they had benefitted from the signs and wonders and experienced God. Undoubtedly there was also explicit evangelism; the Christians talked about Jesus; they urged people to follow Jesus.

Now we have the original Apostles, the others who had been with Jesus, the Day of Pentecost converts, and the more recent converts. My guess is that even the Pentecost converts were beginning to mentor the newer converts. This is a window into the team tactics.

By Acts 6 we see the church growing. It had a particular compassion ministry distributing food to widows. To do that well they had to delegate ministry to other people. The ministry team expanded. They looked for men who were full of the Holy Spirit and faith and wisdom. Where had those people come from? They were amongst those who had been in that development programme. They laid hands on them and prayed for them. They didn’t import them from elsewhere; they had grown them. The team tactics were all about growing people in community so that they might become involved in the ministry and leadership. It was very intentional. Those men did not just distribute food. Stephen, for example is described as a man full of God’s grace and power. He performed great signs and wonders among the people. They had been filled with the Holy Spirit and were using their spiritual gifts. In Chapter 2, we read about signs and wonders being performed by the Apostles but clearly they had trained others.

Acts 6:7

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priest became obedient to the faith.

The tactics were working.

We started this short series in Ephesians and I want to finish in Ephesians – very briefly.

READ Ephesians 4:1-8, 11-16

Live a life worthy of your calling. There are many aspects of our calling, but we have been talking about being called onto God’s team. What does it mean for you to be a worthy member of God’s team?

The emphasis is on community and relationships. Be humble, gentle, patient; keep the unity of the Spirit.

Notice the giving of gifts by God’s grace. These grace gifts are “given as Christ apportioned it”.

Paul then talks about five particular gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teacher. We might think that their jobs are to be apostles, to prophecy, evangelise, shepherd God’s people and teach, but no! Their jobs are to “equip God’s people for the works of service (literally, ministry)”. Their job is to grow and equip that next generation of fruit-bearing members of God’s team.

These are the team tactics. They are the same as what we saw in Acts. This is how we do it. What is the purpose? What is the desired outcome?

As we be community and grow and equip people, the body of Christ is built up. The church becomes stronger and deeper. There is unity in the faith (people of one mind) and unity in the knowledge of the Son of God. Everybody is united in their relationship with Jesus. The goal is maturity. Paul describes maturity as “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” – being like Jesus.

All of this happens as we minister to one another – “speaking the truth in love”. Engaging with each other in love – compassion, community but encouraging and urging and teaching one another.

It is Jesus who grows the church, but it is “as each part does its work”.

Last weekend the elders and staff had a retreat. We had a team huddle. The focus was, “How do we be intentional about making disciples of Jesus Christ? How do we do this? How do we support and resource people? What can we learn from Jesus? What can we learn from the scriptures about the strategy?” I am very grateful that our elders and staff are of one mind and want to listen to God and obey.

As part of that we want to help every person discover their place on God’s team, and we want to establish the Core Ministry Teams that we have been talking about. We need leadership at various levels. We need leadership at the level of those core ministries, those fundamental things we do as a church. We want to delegate leadership. That is the right thing to do, but it is also part of growing people – equipping God’s people for works of ministry.

We are not assuming that everybody will have a role within the church. We need Christians who serve in their workplace, or neighbourhood, or club, or whatever. We really want to recognise the very real ministries people have outside the church.

We also recognise that people are at different places. Some people here today might not have yet chosen to trust and follow Jesus. We want to help you come to that point. We do not expect you to be performing signs and wonders - yet. We re all at different places.

We are going to hand out a form. It asks about your spiritual gifts, but there is room there to say, ‘I don’t know”. That is fine. Can we help you discover your spiritual gifts?

Normally, we would say, “Please fill this form in now. Do not take it home because we know that we will never see it again if you do that”. But, actually, we are saying, ‘Please take it home. Please take time to pray. And please bring it back next week.” We want you to try to hear what God is saying to you. There is also a form online if you prefer to fill it in that way. It is on the church website; there was a link in the email with the notices on Thursday and you will get an email tomorrow as well.

If you do fill it in today, there are two baskets to put them in – one in the foyer and one in the passage to the Fellowship Centre.

This is about us being called onto God’s team, knowing our position on God’s team, and being part of the team strategy. As we get closer and closer to God’s plan may God add daily those who are being saved, and may God give you the joy of being an All Black… sorry, the joy of bearing fruit on God’s team.

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