The NBA draft is tonight and teams are maneuvering and negotiating trades to position themselves for success. NBA free agency and trades have forever changed since Lebron James left Cleveland to go to Miami. It’s not just General Managers that are making decisions. Now superstars on teams are major players as they work to recruit other superstars to join them.
Like it or not, they know they can’t win alone. They want to be a part of a great team.
As believers we can learn something from this. It’s hard to win a title alone, and it’s even harder to labor for Christ alone.
Do you find yourself alone the majority of the time in your ministry?
Too many campus ministers and student leaders, with the best intentions, go out onto campus and try to make disciples by themselves. Sure, they’ll come back and report to the leadership how it went. But the bulk of the ministry and outreach happens in silos.
We had a leadership team of close to 20 students one time and most of them never went to do ministry together. Most of those leaders burned out. They got discouraged and quit laboring.
Jesus had other plans for how ministry was supposed to go. From the get go He sent out his disciples in pairs (Luke 10:1).
In Philippians 4:3, Paul uses three terms in one sentence that illustrate the importance of co-laboring:
“Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.“
Philippians 4:3
Paul uses the Greek terms Syzygos (companion = yoked together), Synatleo (labored side by side = struggle together), and Synergeos (fellow worker) to show that laboring is a team sport.
Over the years I’ve seen a major difference when I’m doing ministry by myself as opposed to with other people. Here are several of the benefits:
1. Credibility
Laboring together gives you instant credibility. You’re not some random guy or girl wandering around on campus.
I was on campus by myself as the only full-time staff person for 2.5 years. You don’t HAVE to have other staff with you. Take your students with you! It makes things more fun and conversation way easier. If you don’t have student leaders to go with you yet, invite some staff from other campuses to come over more. Or take pastors or lay leaders from your church to go with you.
2. Counsel
Practice doesn’t make perfect; evaluated practice does!
One of my pet peeves on the golf course is to watch guys that can’t break 100 take five or six practice swings before they hit every shot. Why? It’s not helping. All they are doing is reinforcing a BAD swing. And it takes forever! They need a coach to point them in the right direction.
In your ministry, you might be reinforcing bad habits and not even know it. A fellow laborer who is there can help give feedback and coaching for how to minister well to others.
3. Cooperation
When you labor by yourself your disciples are ONLY tied to you. If that relationship breaks off or gets disconnected they’re gone. But when you’re with someone else it naturally builds a community of friendships within the group. It’s a reminder that you are a part of something rather than only tied to one relationship. The more relational connections they have the easier it is to stay a part of your ministry.
4. Celebration
Laboring alone for a long period of time can be discouraging. When God does something great there is no one to celebrate with! I remember the first time I ever shared the Gospel and the guy discipling me got fired up for me! It was encouraging and motivating to keep going. You need to be doing ministry with others so you can celebrate how the Lord is using them.
5. Courage
On our own, it’s easy to chicken out. When we’re sowing relationships we’re quick to make excuses for why we can’t initiate. When I’m with another laborer there is positive accountability. We motivate each other and give each other courage to be bold. I’m also more prayerful beforehand!
Excuses:
There are a few main reasons people don’t labor together. One, it’s inconvenient. It’s harder to get 3 people together at the same time. Some will argue it’s inefficient. We can cover more ground if we split up. Others will say it’s awkward if the people don’t know each other or belong to different campus groups. All of these are excuses that don’t take seriously the Biblical pattern for laboring and the advantages it brings.
There are so many benefits to laboring side by side. I try to make it a goal in my ministry to go together with another believer every chance I get. Yes, it takes a little extra planning to get two people together instead of one, but it’s always worth it.
Put it into Practice:
Our ministry has a principle we call “DICE.” It stands for “Discipleship in the Context of Evangelism.” Like Paul, we want to always synatleo with our syzygos and synergeos! We want to labor together with our companions and fellow workers.
Leaders in our ministry are encouraged very early on in the discipleship process to take their new disciples with them to share the Gospel.
Not only do we see the benefits above, but it also challenges the younger disciple and sharpens the older one.
Reflect and Discuss:
- What percentage of your ministry appointments do you do by yourself?
- Which of the benefits are you failing to see now and need?
- What excuses do you tend to make for not inviting others to go with you?
- How can you build a culture of “DICE” more into your ministry?
- Take some time right now to look through your week and plan when you’ll try to take someone with you.
Go ahead and send out a few invites to some key leaders in your ministry to go with you this week and see the difference it makes! You’ll be doing ministry the way Jesus intended!
