Leadership Practicum at New Hope Church-Oahu
Wayne Cordiero

3^rd talk
It is less about us.  It is All about God's kingdom.  Each of us needs to remember this when we enter into the mission of Christ's body. 

I. Make teamwork a core values.  It is non-negotiable. 
A. It is based on what Jesus did.  In Mark Jesus chose 12 almost right away.  Jesus sent out people two by two, never one alone.  The Gospel works best with people in relationships.  Two in a relationship serving Jesus show the rest of the world what a true relationship can be like. 
B. Teamwork is foundational to everything.  God designed us to be with one another.  When you look at a carburetor, or a piston or a cylinder or other parts of an engine - is each part the engine?  No.  It takes all the parts working together for it to be an engine.  The same with the church, Christ's body.
II. Where and how do we start? 
A. Build a culture in which teams will thrive. 
1. Encouragement.  Make everything, INCLUDING correcting someone else, in the form of an encouragement.  (Encouragement literally means "restoring courage or a fresh spirit").  Acts 3:26 "When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."  Motivate out of love. 
Sidebar: The difference between punishment and discipline.  Punishment = out of anger, focuses on misdeeds from the past.  Discipline = out of love, focuses on future behavior and character.  We need to look at the potential n people.  Offer a gracious discipline for all of us.

2. Trust.  How do you build trust?  Ask God to forgive our personal sinfulness instead of telling other people they what sins they need forgiveness for.  1 John 1:9  "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Take conflict first to the Lord.  Healing comes first from the Lord, not the other person.  Don't depend on the other person to do their confession to God so that their life will be changed and you can reconcile.  Check out first with God if I am forgiven before I seek to reconcile because the other person may not want to reconcile - may not have gone to God for their forgiveness.  Thus, when I go to the other person, after my first going to God asking for forgiveness, I have already resolved it with God.  If I haven't worked it out with God first I may become resentful because the other person may not be willing to resolve it with me.  We need to take our heart first to the Healer to restore the culture of teamwork for God's Kingdom (not my personal grudge or resentment or feeling that "I deserve to have that person ask for my forgiveness.")
3. Sometime, you won't be able to reconcile and you will need to part from one another e.g. in Acts where Paul strongly disagrees with Barnabas his partner in the mission work because Barnabas support John Mark and Paul says he won't let John Mark go with him any more…because he keeps messing up assignments and being late.  Barnabas still sees promise in John Mark.  So Paul goes off with Silas and Barnabas with John Mark.  Later on in his life, Paul reconciles with John Mark and they work together.  But at this point for Paul and Barnabas, they part disagreeing but without bloodletting.  Don't separate out of anger, but out of the need for the mission to grow to be fulfilled.  Maybe we can reconcile later after you and/or I "grow up."
4. Develop a culture of learning.  Such as learn how to use new technology to reach the wider world with the Gospel.
5. Develop a culture of celebration.  Celebrate victories after the reconciliation's.
6. Develop a culture of vision.  Our greatest days are still ahead of us.  Look at ways to increase your potential/growth/learning.  BUT don't sit around polishing your "trophies."  Trophies are empty of potential.  Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14 "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Vision fuels the future.


Don't ever let a Pioneer spirit get lost.  A Settler spirit will always kill the church.  Pioneers will never die.  Paul in 2 Timothy 4:5-8 writes before his death "…endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."  Suicide and resentful aging (which is dying before we die) is the opposite of this.  Giving up.  "Dying".  Rather, Paul as the Pioneer says - I expended everything I was given by God.  When I die, I have nothing left because I used it as a steward.

Paul in Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excel

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