Speak to Your MountainSample

Speak Peace and Unity to Your Team

William Wilberforce has one of the great leadership stories of all time. He accomplished great things for God and his country because of a commitment to work with about eighteen other individuals who made up the Clapham Sect, named after a city in England where Wilberforce and his friends lived.

William was born into the English aristocracy in 1759. His family was wealthy. His uncle and aunt exposed him to the gospel as a young man. He gave his life to Christ at age 28. He began to grow into maturity and began to have thoughts of being a minister. However, one of his mentors at that time was a man named John Newton. He was a converted slave trader who wrote the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.” When William expressed his interest in pursuing the priesthood, Newton challenged him to stay in politics: “God has raised you up for the good of the church and the good of the nation, maintain your friendship with Pitt, continue in Parliament, who knows that but for such a time as this God has brought you into public life and has a purpose for you.”[i]William took his advice and stayed in politics. He is credited for abolishing slavery in England after more than thirty years of work.

The Clapham group fellowshiped together regularly, ate together, went to church together, and generally did life together. They would ultimately use their combined time, talent, and treasure to achieve sixty-nine world-changing initiatives that impacted the social ills of England.

Jesus spoke often of the power of working together as a unified force. He said the key to more people believing in him as the Messiah was his body working together in a unified way. Similarly, moving in a unified effort in the workplace will produce incredible results. The people at Babel were working together and could not be stopped, so God had to separate them because they had the wrong motive for their unified effort. “And the Lord said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them’” (Genesis 11:6 NKJV).

Building a unified team at work or in mission will yield incredible results when done with the right motive.

 

DECREES

I decree that:

1. I will make sure my team understands our vision and the purpose of our mission.

2. I will be a humble team player and share my time, talent, and treasure to allow God to use me for his purposes.

3. I will share my opinions and ideas with humility.

4. I acknowledge that as one person, I will chase a thousand, but with two people, I can put ten thousand to flight.

5. I will always offer a helping hand to ensure my team has the potential for the greatest success.

6. I will strive to be a servant leader my team can trust and respect.

7. I will be a godly relational leader that seeks the good of the team at all times.

8. I will make time for fellowship and fun along the way.

9. I will help others on my team to understand our unique strengths and weaknesses and leverage our strengths while reducing our weaknesses.

10. I will embrace diversity in thought and personality to insure I have a unique perspective to our endeavors.

Decrees based on the following Scriptures: Deuteronomy 32:30; John 17: 21–23; Titus 1:7–9; 1 Peter 5:5; Mark 10:42–45; Philippians 2:4; Proverbs 15:2; 1 Corinthians 12:7; Leviticus 26:8

Activation

God is all about working in teams. Consider Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit as well as Jesus and the twelve disciples. He spent three years building a unified team. He understood a powerful team could accomplish so much more than one person. However, great teams don’t just happen. It requires the leader to build godly attributes into the team and model servant leadership. Today ask yourself how you can be a better team player. How can you model the attributes listed above to make a powerful team, whether at work, home, or at church? List three things you need to do better to be God’s team player and pray a decree over those three areas that you will walk in those attributes beginning today.