New
coaches, managers or team leaders are always curious to know the secret
ingredients that create team unity. The
secret is there is no secret. After
working with teams for over 30 years, I have found that team unity is the
result of two very important ingredients coming together:
- Unity is created when people care about their team’s goal.
- Unity is created when people care about their teammates.
That’s
it—just two ingredients.[1]
In
the Gospel Jesus makes it clear, “The sheep that belong to me listen to my
voice; I know them and they follow me. I
give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them
from me.” (Jn 10:27-28 NJB) Jesus desires to be united to us, forever, just
as he is united with the Father, forever, which means we have to be united with
each other, while we are on this earthly journey, to complete the team so that the
team will function and achieve God’s goal for us, unity.
So
the Gospel team goal “and the only work of religion is to create unity wherever
we go. If you are not creating unity,
you are part of the problem! You can
come to Mass as much as you want and come to communion as often as you can, but
if you are perpetuating, in any way, racism, sexism, classism, homophobia,
rejecting or judging the broken, the lost, or the poor, you are making the
choice not to be in communion”[2] with
the team.
Paul
and Barnabus speaking out boldly to this goal say, ‘It was necessary that the
word of God be spoken to you [the Jews, the chosen people] first, but since you
reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life” (Acts 13:46). This was the invitation to be participants in
God’s team goal, but the Jews choose jealousy and violent abuse, to Jesus’
invitation and Paul’s invitation to be in communion. There is a choice to be made to be part of
God’s team.
God
made a choice, out of love for us and a desire for us to always be with him, he
sent his only son Jesus to invite us to be in communion with him. Jesus made a choice, to be obedient to the
Father, even accepting death on a cross, as the price to be paid for our
salvation and union with him and the Father.
If we hear his voice, we need to choose to accept the invitation to
unite with him, to be on the team and care about the team goal; to choose to accept
our share of His mission, to invite and care for each teammate as the Father
has first loved us; and when we choose well, His promise is to “lead [us] to
springs of life-giving water, and … wipe away every tear from [our] eyes.” (Rv 7:17)
This
can’t be done from the sidelines. We
have to choose to enter the game. Our
job is to live in radical communion and not just ritualize it on Sunday, but to
live it which allows us to overcome our desire to attempt to make other groups
inferior to ourselves. We are all
sinners and all deserve God’s divine mercy.
Project
5 is our parish’s intentional act to awaken us to God’s team goal of being in
communion with Him and each other and creating an intimate awareness of our
team mates who need our prayers and forgiveness. We did this by first asking you to pick 5
people you felt most needed prayer and to make the commitment to pray for them,
every day. In phase II of the project we
asked you to attempt to mend a broken relationship. Remember the second very important ingredient
to creating team unity, caring about your teammates. It is all about relationship, “who is my brother”
(Lk 10:29)
my teammate? All of God’s children,
especially those considered least among us, the rejected, the lost, the broken,
the poor.
Phase
III of Project 5 encourages us to come off the bench and reach out and engage
in the care of others. It is an
invitation to seek unity / communion with your fellow man and actively engage
in the one of many outreach ministries of our parish. One of my favorite scripture passages fits
well here; “What good is it … if someone says he has faith but does not have
works. Can that faith save him?” (Jas 2:14) “Indeed someone might say, ‘You have faith
and I have works.” Demonstrate your
faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my
works.” (Jas 2:18)
If
you truly believe, if you hear his voice, the choice is yours? Pray, Mend, ACT.
New
American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition. ©
1986. Scriptures: Acts 13:14, 43-52; Rev
7:9, 14-17; John 10:27-30.
[1]
Sean Glaze, Two Main
Ingredients that Create Team Unity Association for Talent Development
(formerly ASTD). www.td.org , July 30, 2013
[2] Hungry, and You Fed Me, Editied by Deacon Jim Knipper © 2012. “The Father and I are one.” by Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.
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