New Year’s Eve. We’d had a great dinner with friends, and were doing the potty wait in the restaurant foyer, when out walked a small group from another dining room. I recognized her immediately, though we hadn’t spoken in more than three years.
She was (and is) a part of my team. My Dream Team.
If this was baseball, she’d be the heavy hitter off the bench. If it was football, she’d be the Hail Mary quarterback who came in the game in the fourth quarter. If it was business, she’d be the turnaround specialist.
As it is, she’s my frontline intercessor.
As I explained to my friend, she is one of the godliest women I know, and a powerful intercessor. And she has occupied a very unique place in my life. “When my back is to the wall and I’m desperate,” I told him, “and I need somebody who knows how to pray with heavy artillery, she’s the one I call.”
I’m thinking of a few times since we last spoke when it may have been a good idea to make that call. Anyway…
In the previous post, I introduced the need we all have for a team of people we can call on to add strength, wisdom, or value to our lives. As a model, I suggested that you build your Dream Team the way the Lord built His when He established the church. Romans 12 identifies seven key team roles: prophet, teacher, servant, encourager, giver, leader, and mercy source. In this post, I’d like to suggest some ways you can go about actually building and utilizing your Dream Team. Bur first, a little fun…
Let’s Take Your Dream Team to Lunch
Table for 8, please. You’re treating your Dream Team to lunch and the server enters, hauling a big tray with bowls of soup. Suddenly she trips and face plants, soup and breaking glass flying everywhere.
The leader gets up on a chair. “All right,” he says, “let’s get this mess cleaned up. You go get some towels, somebody get a broom and dustpan…”
The mercy source rushes to the server and helps her up. “Poor baby,” she says. “Are you ok?”
The giver reassures everybody: “Don’t worry about it. I’ll pay for everything.”
The prophet, looking intently at the humiliated server all this time, says, “I sense there are some major distractions in your life – and maybe some hurt. I want you to know the Lord knows right where you are.”
The teacher, walking to the threshold of the doorway, says, “Let me show you how and why this happened in the first place.”
The exhorter says, “You can do this! Let me show you four steps to avoid this ever happening again.”
And the servant? Already has a towel and the mess is nearly cleaned up.
The Dream Team in Your World
Pick a situation. Any situation. Meanwhile, I’ll make one up and show you how a dream team can help. Got yours? Okay, here’s the one I made up…
You’ve just been informed by your employer that your services are no longer needed. Joe, the security guard you occasionally brought donuts to, is here to escort you from the building when you’ve had a brief opportunity to gather your personal belongings. Inside this envelope is a month’s severance pay. Good-bye.
Where do you start? Where do you turn? It’s been quite a while since you looked for a job. Do they even list them in Sunday papers anymore? And what about the economy? And you were already living from paycheck to can-I-get-mine-early?! Oh, and wait a minute! They just fired you! What do they mean, your services are no longer needed? They sure as heck were needed yesterday. You’re hurt and angry.
Dream Team time.
Who do you call on who can make you feel that you are understood? That’s your mercy source.
And who would you want to be walking with you through this process, who will challenge you, pace with you, advise you, or get in your face when you just want to feel bitter or sorry for yourself? That’s your encourager.
Who could you turn to if, despite your pride, your financial situation became temporarily desperate? That’s your giver.
Who would be a great source of needed information about the job market, careers, or how to move through the transition season? That’s your teacher.
Who can help you sort out where God is in this moment, and why/how He allowed this to happen? That’s your prophet.
Who can you trust to pick up some slack, help you do the heavy lifting as you move out of that office, or just be available for whatever practical needs may come up? That’s your servant.
And when looking for new directions and solutions, who is the one who always seems to have a compelling vision, or who seems to always be going somewhere with his or her life? That’s your leader.
Building Your Dream Team
I’m about to say the most important thing in this whole two-part piece. I want to make sure you get it.
Ready? Okay, here it comes…
If you wait until the crisis to build your team, you’re in for a lonely, broken ride.
This is an airplane you don’t have the luxury of flying while you’re still building it.
“But I attend church regularly. Doesn’t that mean I have a dream team already?”
Not hardly. Especially in the commuter culture we live in today. Building a Dream Team requires that you be proactive. Here are some ways to go about it:
1. Take a sober look at yourself.
What are your strengths? Your limitations? What is your place in the Body of Christ? What have you finally figured out you’re just never going to be awesome at?
2. Put your own gifts to work.
Here’s the second-most important thing I need to tell you: Putting your own spiritual gifts to work has a tendency to attract other people to you who are doing the same.
Lazy, apathetic people attract other lazy, apathetic people. Visionary people attract visionary people. And people who are actively engaged in putting their strengths to work will attract others who are doing the same. But here’s the really fun part: Those other people will be gifted in different ways than you are! And you can actually build your team by attraction.
3. Identify the gifts of other people.
Look at every relationship as an opportunity to grow from the wisdom and strengths of others. Avoid the temptation to be insecure when you encounter somebody who can do stuff you can’t do. Learn from them. Receive from them. Offer to serve them in ways where they may not be gifted. And keep at least a mental note of the qualities and strengths others have that you admire and may need to call upon someday.
4. Honor others by utilizing their gifts in your life, formally and informally.
It does neither you nor them any good if you know who your encouragers are, but never give them the honor of encouraging you. It does nobody any good if you run and hide from your prophets, or assume that the leaders in your life are too busy or important to bother with you.
5. Don’t be surprised or offended by the ebb and flow of your Dream Team.
People come and go. Roles ebb and flow. That’s all part of the adventure. If you think this something you can do once and forget it, think again.
All right, Coach. Time for some team building.
As for me, I have a certain intercessor I need to catch up with. Heck, she may not even realize she’s still on the team.