My father-in-law taught me a lot about bees before he died. He raised them and harvested their honey for years. And they never ceased to amaze him for all those years.
Bees are amazing, but they have four main objectives:
They will build a hive,
protect the hive with force,
sustain themselves with honey,
and reproduce.
The teams in our churches desperately need to keep these four qualities in the forefront of their minds.
1. Productive teams build.
We can never forget our mission: Build the Kingdom of God by bringing new believers in and helping them grow up and become like Jesus. Our mission is simple and clear. Build!
2. Productive teams protect.
We must guard one another and our local church. One of the best ways to do that is to let “no unwholesome word come from your mouth.” When we speak and undermine others in the church (yes, even the ones who disagree with us) it brings grave harm to the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ Bride, His church.
3. Productive teams provide.
Like bees, we must sustain ourselves for our labors. Not handling the church’s finances right is is a sure way to lose them. We must generate a culture of giving and generosity in our church so it has sufficient funding to fuel the mission/vision.
4. Productive teams reproduce.
“Be fruitful and multiply.” God’s first command to mankind. The attitude of multiplication has to be a mindset that is non-negotiable. Every person on your team has to know and learn the skill of replacing themselves, and that conviction has to run throughout the team to the church as a whole.
Each individual believer, group and, yes, the church itself, must multiply. If not, it dies with you.
So how is your team? Which one is your church having the most difficulty with?
