Teamwork Cross-Culturally by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

Author:Sherwood G. Lingenfelter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mission/Teamwork;Missions—Theory;Christian leadership;Christianity and culture;Multinational work teams;REL045000;REL108030
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Repentance and Recovering Your First Love in Christ

In his message to the church at Ephesus, Jesus admonishes the Ephesians, “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” (Rev. 2:5).

“Consider how far you have fallen!” If we look at the details in this text, Jesus has praised the Ephesians for their deeds, their labor, their endurance; for refusing to tolerate evil people; for not becoming weary. But these very good attributes have so consumed them that they have fallen—so much so that they must evaluate “how far.” The items of praise in this text should be familiar to us. Most Western mission organizations place a high value on hard work and the deeds of ministry; they measure the time spent, the quality of work done, and team progress toward the vision, and their annual objectives involve assessing the growth in churches, in converts, or in other mission outcomes. How many organizations annually assess team effectiveness in the work of faith, the labor of love, and perseverance in hope—“the things you did at first”? In the pages that follow, we reflect on how the McLean and Atanda case studies have focused on these “first things,” yet in culturally and spiritually unique and distinctive ways.

The Saturday before I drafted this chapter (in December 2020), I connected with Martins Atanda in Sokoto, Nigeria, via a video call. He made time for me at the end of the first of three weeks of fasting and prayer. Atanda’s team spent the first three days of the week fasting with a break for food in the evening, then two days continuously without food, the sixth day breaking fast with worship, and the seventh day traveling to the next regional site. Atanda, his “core team” members, and supporting cast spent this time praying for workers, churches, and believers in their harvest fields who were suffering from persecution by jihadists. These jihadists had prevented Christian families—many without food—from harvesting their fields, driving them from their homes and villages to places of safety. This work of prayer—focusing on Christ—continued during the following weeks, with core team members leading a second and third week of prayer in their respective regions of ministry. They recognized that without prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, they have no hope for unity, nor strength to endure the suffering to come.

For Atanda and his core team members, the labor of love is sacrificial giving and working alongside participants who come from towns characterized by poverty and lack; since very few have means of support, the mission and core teams charge nothing for training and provide food, clothing, and essential materials to supplement the farms and provide family support for participants. They also seek support from global partners for water-supply projects and other projects when needed. By their persistence in prayer and by training cycles each year, they emphasize an unflagging hope in Jesus Christ, encourage faith and endurance in times of suffering, and rejoice together when Satan’s work is thwarted and when seeds sown bud and show promise of becoming fruitful.

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