The Value of Team Work

At a Midwestern Fair, spectators gathered for an old fashioned horse pull. The
Grand-champion horse pulled a sled with 4,500 pounds on it. The runner up was
close, with a 4,400 pound pull. Some of the men wondered what the two horses
would pull if hitched together. Separately they totaled nearly 9,000 pounds, but
when hitched and working together as a team, they pulled a total weight of over
12,000 pounds.

Herein lies the value of team work. There is some kind of energy that is
exchanged when someone feels that there is someone working with them.

I read somewhere a while back of a ward in a particular hospital for premature
babies. In one case there was an infant who was several months premature. The
mother and father had abandoned the baby at the hospital and it looked as though
the child would die. The doctors and nurses did everything they could to care
for it, but in all that they did, it grew weaker. In a last ditch effort, one
nurse had the idea to place another healthier infant in the same bed as the weak
infant. She made sure that the two children were close and touching at all
times. Immediately upon feeling the touch of the stronger infant, the weaker
one's heart rate began to get stronger and stronger. After several days of
touching and being touched by the stronger infant, the preemie became stronger
and soon was able to eat on it's own and became healthy.

As leaders, I believe it is paramount that we understand the value of the
existent and potential leaders around us. Moses was a man who tried to do
everything by himself. He was someone who felt that if God called him to a task,
then God would give him the supernatural strength to complete the task. Moses
also found out that he was wrong in his assumption.

Moses' father in-law on the other hand, was someone who saw untapped leadership
resources everywhere he looked. So, he suggested that Moses find, recruit and
train other leaders to assist him in his leadership responsibilities. Once Moses
did this, he was not only able to sleep at night, but the needs of Israel were
met.

Jesus hardly started His ministry before he chose out 12 men to train in
leadership. He understood multiplication instead of addition. Rather than build
the church on one man's shoulders, he chose to build it on 13. His and 12
others. As a result of this, when His own life and ministry was ending, 11
others were just beginning. The beauty of the situation was that not one of them
detracted from his own ministry, but rather added to it.

A pastor told me once that he could leave his church for 3 months and the church
would hardly know he was missing. He wasn't telling me how little his church
cared for him. In fact his church loved him very much. However, he was telling
me how the leadership that he had around him would rally to accomplish the same
things in his absence, that he would accomplish if he was there. They would do
it with such grace, that hardly anyone would realize the Pastor's absence.

Andrew Carnegie said: "I wish to have as my epitaph: "Here lies a man who was
wise enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he." John Maxwell
said it like this: "A leader's success can be defined as the maximum utilization
of the abilities of those under him."

I will leave you with this thought. I believe Jesus understood it. If he had
not, there would be no church. Here it is...There is no success without a
successor.

Bring someone else up with you. You didn't get where you are at all by yourself.
Had it not been for someone who helped you along, you would not be where you are
at today. So grab hold of a few people and pull them up with you."