Team Building - The Biblical Perspective

We all want to live a good life. Drive the best car(s), live in the best house(s), raise the best famil(ies) and the list is endless. Everyone in the world is in dire pursuit of excellence. Surprisingly, to one group, attaining the best has forever remained elusive while to others, excellence is their lifestyle. However, the main essence of living is to always be able to understand and appreciate that every day is a special gift from God. 

You should therefore practice to positively and fully utilize each and every moment. Seconds turn into minutes, minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and the life cycle of time continues over and over. 

Whenever team building is mentioned, most people tend to start playing pictures in their minds of the places they have visited as a group; perhaps working in the same office, department, company or institution. The fun they had and food they ate at such places. For quite some time, most people have misunderstood the whole concept of team building and the real impact it has on the lives of the individuals involved.

The bible has several accounts of individual persons and groups who embraced and exercised team building. The impact of the team building activities was superb. People got united in pursuit of common goals. There are two accounts on the impacts of great teams in the Bible. One exists in the Old Testament. After the floods, all the nations of the earth were descended from the sons of Noah. All people in the world had one common language and used similar words. They came together at a plain in Babylonia and settled there. They then set out to build a city with a tower that would reach the skies. However, their sole purpose of building the tower was to make a name for themselves and avoid being scattered all over the earth. The ending of this account was not successful.  The tower of Babylon never lived to see its full daylight. In fact this was a team activity geared towards a wrong course. The LORD mixed up their languages and they ended up not understanding each other. They stopped building the city and got scattered all over the earth.

The second account of the biblical team building exercise is in the New Testament; during the Last Passover. Jesus came together with his disciples; washed their feet and then they took the Lord’s Supper and later sung together. This was a perfect bonding session for Jesus Christ together with his team. Their activities on that fateful night were all geared towards strengthening each other. Jesus informed the disciples of the impeding forces of the dark. However, the disciples sung and prayed together with Jesus to encourage him. This was a win-win team exercise.  They then proceeded to Mount of Olives; for more prayers and later to Mount Gethsemane; where Jesus was finally crucified.

These two biblical accounts present two unique teams. The first team was big but with no clear leader to offer guidance. Therefore it is the crowd which set the objectives of the team. For sure, they definitely could not achieve their goal. They got disorganized and scattered all over the world. The second account was a small group but with an effective and efficient leader. They definitely achieved their goals even in the direst of circumstances; like during the persecution and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The disciples later took on the responsibility of spreading the gospel to all nations in the world.

From the Biblical perspective, team building exercise is supposed to prepare you to be able to function to your full potential. It is a forum for self assessment. The Christian community has continued to develop relevant programs and forums for their members to bond and function together towards creating a united community.