Good Friends.
Have you ever had to do something difficult, go to a new place?
When Paul came to the big busy city of Corinth, in Greece, it was a bit of a difficult job telling people there about Jesus, because it was a big, busy place where lots of people already had their own ideas about what they believed. Some people had loads of money, and many people loved going to wild parties, getting drunk, having lots of girlfriends and boyfriends... and I think Paul may have wondered if anyone would listen to the message about Jesus.
But when he arrived, he was really pleased because there were already people there who knew about Jesus. Two of them were a husband and wife called Aquila and Priscilla. And guess what? They did the same job that Paul did to earn money (he didn't always get paid for working for Jesus). They were tentmakers. Paul stayed in their house. They joined his team, even thought they were new Christians. They became good friends.
A Team is for friendship... You can't make a team out of people who are all pulling in different directions. You can - and should - make a team out of people who are different from each other. You can - and should - bring less experienced people into a team. But you can't make a team out of individuals who are not prepared to change, to grow, to develop, and to adopt a set of common goals.
Activity Making a tent because Paul and his friends made tents for a living.
Growing our gifts
Paul didn't have to make as many tents, as he would have had to make to survive if he was living all on his own. Sharing the bills saves money, so Paul was able to spend a lot of time telling people about Jesus. And Aquila and Priscilla joined in so they learned how to do what Paul was doing. Then when Silas and Timothy (another young person) came to Corinth, Paul was able to spend even more time telling people about Jesus. The more we do team work, the more we can set each other free to do what we are good at doing. A Team is Freedom ....
Getting along
The bigger Paul's team go the more different people were in it. Then one day the people in the Synagogue were so rude about Jesus that Paul got fed up and had his meetings in the house next door, which belongs to a man called Titius Justus, who wasn't Jewish at all, but he wanted God in his life. Now there was someone really different in Paul's team. A team is for variety; it's for diversity. The Church team here in Rosyth is meant to be multi-coloured, with lots of different people in it. That's the way Jesus wants it to be. We have to be prepared to get along with all sorts of different people in a team. If everyone were the same, the team would be no good, like if Dunfermline town had eleven goalkeepers.
Getting things done.
The amazing thing is that, the more Paul developed his Team, the more impact they all had on the city of Corinth. After they moved out of the Synagogue, to be a bigger team, things really started to happen: The leader of the Synagogue and all his family became Christians. (He wasn't put off by the fact that there were non-Jews on the Team. Quite the opposite in fact!) And then loads of other people became Christians too. A Team works!
© Gilmour Lilly September 2010
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