I saw something interesting Saturday morning, which of course makes me want to share it with the world … also known as my three regular blog readers (mom, mother-in-law, and occasionally my wife).

Micah’s soccer team was playing another team and pretty much destroying them.  Goal after goal after goal.  On the one hand, it felt good because Micah was one of the kids that managed to score, but I also kind of felt bad for this other team.  Finally, one of the (slightly) better players on the opposing team had enough.  Instead of passing to his teammates, it was clear he was trying to take matters into his own hands and save the day.  He monopolized the ball, trying to single-handedly kick-off, dribble down the field, score the goals, even to the point of taking the ball from his teammates.

The result?  A losing team got worse.  His frustration led him to try and fix it all on his own resulting in his team getting scored on even more.

I got thinking about it because that happens in ministry all the time.  The program starts to fall apart, people let us down, things don’t go the way we hope – whatever the case may be, and the first impulse is often times to rush in, take charge and try to fix it like the Lone Ranger riding in to the rescue.  And then we’re surprised when it actually gets worse.

Trying to fix it on one’s own is demoralizing to the team, trivializes their role, and ultimately puts too much work on one person that ultimately is impossible to achieve, yet it happens all the time.

Working with a team of people might be challenging in the short term, but sets ministry up for success in the long term.