8. I WILL COLLABORATE
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are One, with each Person fulfilling unique roles, yet acting in perfect harmony. Their collaborative leadership operates in the context of mutual submission yet each with appropriate authority for their roles and functions. I want to follow collaborative leadership modeled by the Trinity as the standard for leaders. I ask for grace to grow in serving and collaborating harmoniously with my fellow leaders.
(Matt. 28:16-20; John 5:22-23; John 16:13-15; John 17:21; Acts 13:1-3; Rm. 8:14-17)
I find that collaborating with my fellow 'leaders' on the same level of purity of purpose as we see in the working of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is challenging. I find that my humanity often wants to get in the way, and that I want to feel that my role is more important than an other person's.
I am admonished, however:
Romans 12:3-8English Standard Version (ESV)
Gifts of Grace
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members,[a] and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
and I am reminded of the example set before me:
Philippians 2:5-11English Standard Version (ESV)
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
and as I consider this as well:
Ephesians 4:4-7English Standard Version (ESV)
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Ephesians 4:11-16English Standard Version (ESV)
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
I find that even though in one situation my role may be the most essential, there will be many other occasions in the building of the Body, that someone else's role is most important.
And in order for collaboration with my fellow 'leaders' to work the way it is supposed to, I need to not only accept this, but also affirm it.