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They Teamed Up
Brian Mashburn
March 30, 2008
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They Teamed Up
As I was reading the story of Acts and asking the text our question of "what did these first followers do in order to harness the power of the Holy Spirit and advance the Jesus movement so powerfully," I noticed something for the first time.
They were almost always "they."
And I mean the word "almost"...occasionally you find a
solo-missionary out doing his thing (as of this writing, I have found only 2 examples). But at least 95% of the book is saturated with these first Jesus folks participating in the movement of Christ, quite intentionally, in teams.
Maybe it goes back to what the apostles experienced while being trained by Jesus. When he sent his 12 out on missions, he teamed them up. When his movement grew to 72 committed followers and were sent out, you guessed it, Luke makes a point to tell us that there were 36 teams of two.
Maybe it goes back even farther than that. Again, in the Old Testament there were plenty of solo-missions that God called individuals to do, but even then, most of the time, God provided team mates. Moses had Aaron, Elijah had Elisha, David had his Mighty Men. God forged teams out of brothers, marriages, parents and children, kings and prophets, mentoring relationships and more.
Maybe it goes all the way back to the beginning, the very beginning. Maybe what God said of the first man right before he sent the first partner is just as true for us today, not just in marriage, but in our efforts to connect to the contagious, dangerous, and life-giving Jesus movement in the hearts of people in our city..."It is not good for man to be alone."
Are you alone? The hard fact is that suicides usually happen when a soul feels alone. I think Christ's mission in our hearts is the same. If we don't team up, we'll kill Christ's mission in our hearts. Who is your teammate? Who "goes with you" on your mission for Christ? If the answer is no one, chances are, you're not on the mission of Christ. They teamed up...we need to team up.